With both Johnson and Theodore not at 100%, Coach Boudreau has decided to give Simeon Varlamov his second career NHL start. He stopped 32 of 33 shots against Montreal, and Boudreau wants to "see if it was a fluke." Johnson will be the backup.
Eric Fehr is back after missing five games, and Sean Collins will man the blueline in place of Tyler Sloan, who is still out with a leg injury. For the Blues you can add Jay McKee to their long listed of injured as he suffered a fractured finger against Calgary the other night.
With the Flyers and Rangers coming up next, the Caps need to take advantage of a weak team tonight and put up two more points. If Varlamov can put in another strong performance, and the grinders can keep putting up numbers to supplement the scoring lines, the Caps will have the game in the bag before the start of the third period. But unlike their game against the Islanders, they'll need to kill any chance for St. Louis to get back into the game. McPhee called out the team for being too cute the other night, so tonight we should see the Caps get back to basics and dig out a win.
