Kings at Capitals preview

KINGS (19-29-5) at CAPITALS (35-13-5)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSWA, FS-W, NHL.TV

Ovechkin was scoreless in a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday, two days after he passed
Mark Messier
for eighth on the NHL's all-time list by scoring the 694th and 695th goals of his career in a 5-3 win against the Ottawa Senators.
Washington is 5-2-0 in past its past seven games and 8-4-0 in its past 12.
Drew Doughty is expected to return after missing three games with an undisclosed injury for the Kings, who are 1-5-1 in their past seven games and play the opener of a four-game road trip. The defenseman missed the last two games before the Kings' League-mandated five-day break and the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend, and he did not dress for a 3-1 home loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday. Doughty needs one point to pass
Rob Blake
(494) for most points by a defenseman in Kings history.

Players to watch

Kings center Anze Kopitar has seven points (one goal, six points) in his past five games.
Capitals forward Jakub Vrana has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in his past 12 games.

They said it

"When you lose a Norris Trophy winner from your lineup it's a big hole. … We're fortunate to have him back tonight. Hopefully he's not too, too rusty. It's been awhile since he played, and we'll have to watch his minutes, but we've got to get him up and running again." -- Kings coach Todd McLellan on Doughty
"I don't think so because I don't think our team was really pleased about the result against Pittsburgh. So they now realize that there's some work to be done. Some of those areas can be pointed to and we can be better. Despite where we are in the standings, we are not done getting better and need to get better if we want to be where we want to be at the end of the year." - Capitals coach Todd Reirden on the possibility of a letdown after playing the Penguins

Kings projected lineup

Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Adrian Kempe -- Blake Lizotte -- Austin Wagner
Carl Grundstrom
-- Jeff Carter -- Tyler Toffoli
Kyle Clifford -- Michael Amadio -- Trevor Lewis
Alec Martinez -- Drew Doughty
Ben Hutton -- Matt Roy
Kurtis MacDermid -- Sean Walker
Jonathan Quick
Jack Campbell
Scratched:Joakim Ryan, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Derek Forbort
Injured:None

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin -- Lars Eller -- Richard Panik
Brendan Leipsic -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Nick Jensen
Martin Fehervary -- Radko Gudas
Braden Holtby
Vitek Vanecek
Scratched:Travis Boyd, Jonas Siegenthaler
Injured:Ilya Samsonov (upper body)

Status report

Grundstrom was recalled from Ontario of the American Hockey League on Monday. … Samsonov left the morning skate as a precaution after being struck in the mask by a shot from Ovechkin. Vanecek was recalled from Hershey of the AHL and will back up Holtby, who was already scheduled to start. … Fehervary was recalled from Hershey.

Stat pack

The Kings are 11-for-25 on the power play (44.0 percent), since Dec. 31. That's first in the NHL. … Ovechkin has 11 goals in his past six games.