The Ottawa Senators return home with a tall order as they take on the best team in the East and League — the Washington Capitals. Washington leads the league with a 0.716 save percentage at 63 points in 44 games.

Washington went bold this summer following the purchase of CapFriendly and added Jakob Chychrun; Matt Roy; Logan Thompson; Brandon Duhaime; Taylor Raddysh; Andrew Mangipanie; Jakub Vrana; and Pierre-Luc Dubois.

The great chase for Alexander Ovechkin continues as he is 21 goals away from Gretzky’s record.

Ottawa will have to fight to earn the two points tonight against the best. This will be a battle as every point earned will keep the Senators in the playoff race.

Logan Thompson and Leevi Merilainen will be goaltenders in the starting crease.

Projected Lineups

Washington Capitals

Alex Ovechkin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael -- Dylan Strome -- Tom Wilson
Taylor Raddysh -- Lars Eller -- Ethen Frank
Brandon Duhaime -- Nic Dowd -- Andrew Mangiapane

Rasmus Sandin -- John Carlson
Martin Fehervary -- Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun -- Trevor van Riemsdyk

Logan Thompson
Hunter Shepard

Scratched: Dylan McIlrath, Alexander Alexeyev, Jakub Vrana

Injured: Sonny Milano (upper body), Charlie Lindgren (upper body)

Ottawa Senators

Brady Tkachuk -- Josh Norris -- Drake Batherson
Claude Giroux -- Tim Stutzle -- Adam Gaudette
Nick Cousins -- Shane Pinto -- Ridly Greig
Matthew Highmore -- Zack Ostapchuk -- Michael Amadio

Jake Sanderson -- Artem Zub
Donovan Sebrango -- Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven -- Nikolas Matinpalo

Leevi Merilainen
Anton Forsberg

Scratched: None

Injured: Linus Ullmark (back), Travis Hamonic (lower body), Jacob Bernard-Docker (high ankle sprain), David Perron (upper body), Noah Gregor (lower body), Thomas Chabot (face)

Players to Watch

Washington — Jakob Chychrun — the former Senators’ defenseman is back in Ottawa for the first time since the trade.

Sens — Nick Jensen — the former Capitals’ defenseman faces his former club for the first time since the postseason swap.

Predicted Final Score

WSH - 4

OTT - 2

Gambling Corner

Draft Kings have the Capitals at a -112.

How to Watch

Time - 7 p.m. ET; Channels - RDS2, TSN5, MNMT

More to come…

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