Capitals without Dubois and Roy vs. Canadiens

Carbery gave the news before the game, and none of it was good for a Caps team trying to bounce back on the 2nd night of a back-to-back.

Sammi Silber 🏒

@sammisilber

Pierre-Luc Dubois will not play tonight. Matt Roy remains day-to-day and will miss his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury. Charlie Lindgren in net.

Dubois has now missed 3 straight games with the illness. He'd put up a goal and 4 points in his 4 games before getting sick, and Ilya Protas has been filling his spot on the top line. He didn't skate Wednesday and is still listed as day-to-day. Roy has been out since a lower-body injury in a 3-1 loss at Tampa Bay on October 3. Washington put him on injured reserve Monday, but he's been skating on his own, so he's getting closer.

Sammi Silber 🏒

@sammisilber

PLD remains ill. Didn’t skate today, still considered day-to-day. There are a “bunch” of potential lineup decisions that need to be sorted out still.

Sammi Silber 🏒@sammisilber

Pierre-Luc Dubois will not play tonight. Matt Roy remains day-to-day and will miss his fifth straight game with a lower-body injury. Charlie Lindgren in net.

A "bunch" of lineup decisions turned into a real reshuffle. Washington lost 4-2 to Carolina on Tuesday and fell to 3-3-0, and Carbery clearly wasn't going to run the same lines out again with his No. 1 center still in bed.

Sammi Silber 🏒

@sammisilber

Capitals lines vs. Canadiens: Ovechkin-I. Protas-Miroshnichenko Tuch-Strome-Kyrou A. Protas-Sourdif-Wilson Leonard-Jenner-Beauvillier Chychrun-Liljegren Fehervary-Desharnais Hutson-Holl Lindgren

Here's the thinking. With Dubois out, there wasn't enough depth to keep Tuch and Wilson together on one line, so they got split up. The Protas brothers did too. Ilya stays up top with Ovechkin and Miroshnichenko, while Aliaksei centers Sourdif and Wilson. Tuch moves to the right side of Strome and Kyrou. It's an attempt to give Carbery 4 lines that can actually score instead of 1 stacked line and some filler.

Miroshnichenko is the guy to watch. He's been a healthy scratch all season, and he sat in Carolina alongside Dylan McIlrath. Now he gets his first game of the year on Ovechkin's line, which is about as good an audition as a young forward can ask for. A good night there could keep him in the lineup even after Dubois is back. In net, Charlie Lindgren makes just his 2nd appearance of the season against a Canadiens team that's 3-2-1 and coming off a 4-3 shootout win in Buffalo.

What's next: Dubois and Roy are both day-to-day, and the rest of the blue line is thin too, with Rasmus Sandin also listed day-to-day with a knee injury. Until those guys come back, Carbery is going to keep moving pieces around, and how Miroshnichenko plays tonight decides whether he sticks.