Morning Skate: Stars sticking with similar lineup, Oshie returns for Capitals

DALLAS — Two of the NHL’s top scoring defensemen will go head-to-head on Tuesday when the Dallas Stars host the Washington Capitals.

John Klingberg is tied for the scoring lead amongst defensemen with 27 points (four goals, 23 assists) in 34 games, while Capitals defenseman John Carlson is tied for third with 25 (three goals, 22 assists) in 34 games.

The Capitals have been very good lately and are 7-1 in December. They’ve won three in a row and have outscored opponents 30-18 this month.

The Capitals are also getting a boost with T.J. Oshie returning to the lineup after missing six games with a concussion. Oshie had 23 points (10 goals, 13 assists) before sustaining the concussion, and will be back on the Capitals second line.

This is the fourth concussion of Oshie’s career, and he said he was ready for Tuesday’s game.

“Sometimes it takes a little bit, it really all depends. Every concussion is felt a little bit different,” Oshie said. “I’ve gone through some different parts, sometimes I’ve come back and felt great, sometimes I felt like everything was moving really fast and it was hard for me to mentally keep up. We’ll see how it goes out there tonight.”

The Stars will use a similar lineup to their last game in Philadelphia, Brett Ritchie and Jamie Oleksiak are the scratches while Ben Bishop will start in goal.

Methot getting closer

Marc Methot took part in the Stars optional morning skate for about 10 minutes. Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said the hopes is that Methot, who had knee surgery last month, will be able to play on Saturday against the Nashville Predators.

“It’s based on how he feels after the skate,” Hitchcock said. “He’s getting closer, but he’s not there yet.”

Capitals projected lineup
Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — T.J. Oshie
Brett Connolly — Lars Eller — Andre Burakovsky
Chandler Stephenson — Jay Beagle — Alex Chiasson

Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik — John Carlson
Christian Djoos — Madison Bowey

Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer

Scratched: Taylor Chorney, Devante Smith-Pelly
Injured: None

Stars projected lineup

Remi Elie — Jamie Benn — Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark — Tyler Seguin — Devin Shore
Gemel Smith — Martin Hanzal — Jason Spezza
Antoine Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick

Esa Lindell — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns — Julius Honka

Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen

Scratched: Jamie Oleksiak, Brett Ritchie
Injured: Marc Methot (knee)