Capitals Notebook: Lines Change As Mantha Moves Down, Injury Updates

ARLINGTON, V.A. — After having over a week off, the Washington Capitals got back to work on Thursday with a long, high-energy practice as they broke in their Stadium Series gear.

Washington got right into it, running lines immediately as the skate kicked off. Head coach Peter Laviolette shook things up, moving Nicolas Aube-Kubel up to the first line and putting Anthony Mantha back on the fourth line with Lars Eller and Garnet Hathaway. The defensive pairings remained the same as Alex Alexeyev cycled into the mix.

These were the full combinations:

Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Conor Sheary-Evgeny Kuznetsov-T.J. Oshie

Sonny Milano-Nicklas Backstrom-Marcus Johansson

Anthony Mantha-Lars Eller-Garnet Hathaway

Erik Gustafsson-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Dmitry Orlov-Nick Jensen

Martin Fehervary-Matt Irwin

The Capitals worked on a little bit of everything, including mini scrimmages and quite a bit of skating to get their legs back under them and shake off the rust following the time off. Washington also got a couple of injury updates.

Tom Wilson was on the ice prior to practice, taking things slow and being cautious with his skating. He stayed on just before things started, and then skated for a couple of minutes on his own before heading off. He remains day-to-day as he recovers from a lower-body injury suffered on Jan. 24.

Nic Dowd also took a twirl in the morning, but did not practice and remains on the injured reserve. He is still progressing and working his way back after suffering a lower-body injury on Jan. 16.

There is no further update on John Carlson, who remains "off in the distance."