The Washington Capitals aren’t making any lineup changes for Friday’s meeting with the New Jersey Devils, though things will look different from a line combination standpoint.
Per coach Spencer Carbery, the same personnel from Wednesday’s win over the Ottawa Senators will be in the mix, but players will be in different spots.
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“We’ll change the lines around. There’s a few different changes,” Carbery said.
One of those changes will see Hendrix Lapierre move off the top-6 after having started there with Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson back on Wednesday. The 24-year-old got 11:19 minutes of ice time last game and shifted around, and could return to the fourth line with Ethen Frank and Brandon Duhaime, though that remains to be seen.
Logan Thompson will get the start in goal, and the defense pairings are expected to remain the same, with Cole Hutson playing in his second NHL game.
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Hutson led the Capitals in several puck possession categories and scored his first career goal in the team’s 4-1 win on Wednesday.
Carbery’s advice to him after an impressive debut?
“Keep going,” Carbery quipped. “It’s not a lot… settling into his routine and going through the things that he needs to of getting used to playing in the National Hockey League and all the areas of the game that are important for a young defenseman to do at a high level. So, we just work with them on little things inside of our system and structure.”
Puck drop is at 7 p.m. at Capital One Arena.