Recap of CBJ v CAR is coming tomorrow in first “Mood Monday” of 2023; same with WJC 2023 recap. Onto the main story:

The Columbus Blue Jackets conclude they're back to back with travel in the nation's Captial of Washington, DC at Capital One Arena against the Washington Capitals.

Washington announced before the Columbus home game against Carolina that forwards Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson will return for their regular season debuts against the Jackets.

Sure, why not just let every hurt player return against the worst team in the conference. Just throw the head coach on the ice too, may get a winning result.

This continues to be a record chasing season for Alexander Ovechkin; as he is approaching his 30th goal of the season. Every season except the COVID reduced 2020-2021 bubble season did Ovi have a 30 goal season.

With both of what is normally Ovechkin's top line back, I expect them to slide in and help their push to the postseason.

Projected Lineups

Washington Capitals

Alex Ovechkin--Nicklas Backstrom--Tom Wilson
Connor Sheary--Evgney Kuznetsov--Dylan Strome
Marcus Johansson--Lars Eller--TJ Oshie
Anthony Mantha--Nick Dowd--Garnet Hathaway

Erik Gustafsson--Trevor van Riemsdyk
Dmitry Orlov--Nick Jensen
Martin Fehervary--Matt Irwin

Charlie Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper

Scratched -- Nicolas Aube-Kuebel, Sonny Milano, Alex Alexeyev

Injured -- Carl Hagelin, Connor Brown, John Carlson

Columbus Blue Jackets

Johnny Gaudreau--Kent Johnson--Emil Bemstrom
Gustav Nyquist--Jack Roslovic--Patrik Laine
Liam Foudy--Cole Sillinger--Kirill Marchenko
Carson Meyer--Sean Kuraly--Mathieu Olivier

Vladislav Gavrikov--Andrew Peeke
Tim Breni--Erik Gudbranson
Gavin Bayreuther--Marcus Bjork

Elvis Merzlikins
Joonas Korpisalo

Scratched -- Eric Robinson, Adam Boqvist

Injured -- Zach Werenski, Jakub Voracek, Jake Bean, Nick Blankenburg, Justin Danforth, Daniil Tarasov, Yegor Chinakov


Players to Watch

Washington -- Nicklas Backstrom -- first game back after massive offseason surgery

Columbus -- Liam Foudy -- no points since November 4, in the Global Series. He must get going.


Final Score

WSH -- 5
CBJ -- 1

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