Capitals vs. Ducks: Lines, Sandin Update, Game Notes

After a wild past 24 hours, the Washington Capitals will be back in action on Wednesday as they kick off their California swing against the Anaheim Ducks.

Washington (29-27-6) sits five points out of the second Wild Card spot and has dropped seven of the last eight games. One of those losses came against Anaheim (20-34-7), which has now won three straight since escaping D.C. with a 4-2 victory just three days ago.

The Capitals will be without quite a few familiar names from their last tilt with the Ducks as they unload and retool ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline on Friday. Since Thursday's game against the Ducks, when Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway were shipped to Boston minutes before warmups, Washington has traded away Marcus Johansson, Erik Gustafsson and Lars Eller. In return, the team has acquired a plethora of draft picks, along with forward Craig Smtih and defenseman Rasmus Sandin.

2023 NHL TRADE DEADLINE: Washington Capitals Trade Tracker, Full Breakdown Of Moves

When it comes to what the lineup will look like on Wednesday, the Capitals currently have 22 skaters on the roster, including 13 forwards and seven defensemen. Sandin is one of those blueliners and is with the team in Anaheim, though he is not warming up and doesn't appear to be in as he continues to work out his visa situation.

Meanwhile, Anthony Mantha is back in the lineup after missing the last three games with th an upper-body injury. He came off the injured reserve earlier on Wednesday.

Conor Sheary and Evgeny Kuznetsov are also in after missing Tuesday's practic. Sheary had returned to D.C. for the birth of his second child, a boy named Callum, and Kuznetsov was dealing with a non-COVID illness.

Here are the lines. Darcy Kuemper will start:

Alex Ovechkin-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Tom Wilson

Anthony Mantha-Nicklas Backstrom-Craig Smith

Sonny Milano-Dylan Strome-T.J. Oshie

Conor Sheary-Nic Dowd-Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Alex Alexeyev-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Martin Fehervary-Nick Jensen

Matt Irwin-Dylan McIlrath

Puck drop is at 10 p.m. ET at Honda Center.

Additional Ice Chips

– Alex Ovechkin has 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points in 23 career games against the Ducks. He scored his 813th career goal back on Sunday against Buffalo.

– T.J. Oshie is on a three-game goal streak.

– Tom Wilson has scored in three of his last five outings.

– Kuznetsov has five points in his last two games.