Anthony Mantha will return to the lineup for the Capitals against the Philadelphia Flyers (7 p.m. ET; NBCSWA, NBCSP, ESPN+, SN NOW) after the forward was a healthy scratch the previous two games.
"I can't wait," Mantha said after Washington's optional morning skate. "I need to play how I can play, at my best, and that's exactly what I'll try to do tonight."
Mantha has 23 points (nine goals, 14 assists) in 42 games this season.
"It's obviously always hard when you're getting scratched," Mantha said. "It's not something that's fun or anything like. So I need to build off of it and play my best game tonight and show him that it maybe was a mistake on his part and try to stay in the lineup until the end of the year now."
Laviolette said Saturday that Washington is working on some lineup decisions following its 5-3 loss at Philadelphia on Wednesday, but he would not reveal those decisions. Forwards Dylan Strome and Nicolas Aube-Kubel remained on the ice for extra work following an optional skate along with defenseman Alexander Alexeyev and backup goalie Charlie Lindgren.
Strome has not been a healthy scratch this season. He is third on the Capitals with 31 points (eight goals, 23 assists) in 44 games but has not had a point in four of his past five games. -- Tom Gulitti