Former Caps player Semyon Varlomov will be minding the goal for the Colorado Avalanche tonight. Coach Trtotz has decided to give Philipp Grubauer a workout for the Caps in place of Braden Holtby.
Brett Connolly (10) will also get his starting debut with the Caps tonight. That means the young Zach Sanford will be taking a seat in the viewing area.
Your Caps lines tonight, according to Daily Faceoff are:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Alex Ovechkin |
 Evgeny Kuznetsov |
 T.J. Oshie |
 Marcus Johansson |
 Nicklas Backstrom |
 Andre Burakovsky |
 Brett Connolly |
 Lars Eller |
 Justin Williams |
 Daniel Winnik |
 Jay Beagle |
 Tom Wilson |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Karl Alzner |
 Matt Niskanen |
 Dmitri Orlov |
 John Carlson |
 Brooks Orpik |
 Nate Schmidt |
| 1st Powerplay Unit | ||
|---|---|---|
Marcus Johansson |
Nicklas Backstrom |
T.J. Oshie |
| 2nd Powerplay Unit | ||
|---|---|---|
Andre Burakovsky |
Evgeny Kuznetsov |
|
The Avs are coming off a sweet win against the Pittsburgh Penguins–something the Caps failed to do in their first game of the season. They also have a new coach, Jared Bednar, having beat out Caps assistant coach Lane Lambert for the job. With that comes a bit of unpredictability but he is a guy who likes to win so expect a tough battle for the win tonight. Here is their line up:
| LW | C | RW |
|---|---|---|
 Gabriel Landeskog |
 Nathan Mackinnon |
 Jarome Iginla |
 Mikhail Grigorenko |
 Carl Soderberg |
 Matt Duchene |
 Gabriel Bourque |
 Joe Colborne |
 Rene Bourque |
 Andreas Martinsen |
 Ben Smith |
 Blake Comeau |
| Defensive Pairings | |
|---|---|
 Nikita Zadorov |
 Erik Johnson |
 Francois Beauchemin |
 Tyson Barrie |
 Fedor Tyutin |
 Patrick Wiercioch |
Coach told the media today, ““Probably the No. 1 thing is they sort of stay with it.” We hope we see a bit more energy both from the players and the fans tonight.
