Capitals Game Day: AJF In, Sprong Out As Team Sees Lineup Tweaks Vs. B’s

The Washington Capitals are at TD Garden on Thursday with the hopes to avenge a tough 7-3 loss on home ice with a standout game against the Bruins on Thursday. However, their lineup looks like it will be a bit different.

At the team’s morning skate, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, who came up from Hershey on Wednesday, appears to be drawing in. In turn, Daniel Sprong seems to be the odd man out as a healthy scratch.

It’s been a tough stretch of late for Sprong, who has gone five games without a point after scoring his sixth goal of the season back on Jan. 7 against St. Louis. He has 11 points through 34 games this season and skated just 7:53 minutes against the Jets on Tuesday.

Aside from that change, it appears the Capitals are sticking with the forward lines they went with against Winnipeg, which resulted in a major 4-3 overtime victory. T.J. Oshie (upper-body) and Conor Sheary (COVID-19 protocol) remain out.

READ MORE ON WHN: Protas Reflects On Rise With Capitals

As for the defense, things changed once more with Dmitry Orlov receiving a two-game suspension on Wednesday for kneeing Nikolaj Ehlers. John Carlson also remains out and on COVID-19 protocol. This will be the first time since 2010 that Washington will be without both Carlson and Orlov in the lineup, leading to a number of tweaks.

Matt Irwin and Michal Kempny both slot back in, with Dennis Cholowski out after playing on Tuesday. Nick Jensen will move to the top pairing with Martin Fehervary, while Irwin will play with Justin Schultz and Kempny will work with Trevor van Riemsdyk.

Here were the full lines, per The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell:

Alex Ovechkin-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Garnet Hathaway

Aliaksei Protas-Nicklas Backstrom-Tom Wilson

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby-Lars Eller-Connor McMichael

Carl Hagelin-Nic Dowd-Brett Leason

Martin Fehervary-Nick Jensen

Matt Irwin-Justin Schultz

Michal Kempny-Trevor van Riemsdyk

All three Capitals goalies were on the ice for the morning skate in Vitek Vanecek, Ilya Samsonov and Hunter Shepard. Vanecek will get the start.