Alex Ovechkin could return to lineup as Capitals visit Leafs

Washington's Alex Ovechkin might play, but Toronto's Auston Matthews is expected to be out again on Saturday night when the Capitals visit the Maple Leafs.

Ovechkin, who last played on Nov. 18 due to a fractured left fibula, put in a full practice with the Capitals on Friday.

"We will see," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said of Ovechkin's potential involvement on Saturday. "Things are trending in the right direction for people. Another step for O. I cannot say that he's in the lineup. We'll have to wait and see how he responds to practice, and then we'll know (Saturday) morning."

Meanwhile, Matthews (upper body injury) did not play for Toronto on Friday night in a 5-2 road win over the Detroit Red Wings.

"He's doing better, but I would say no to (Saturday), too," Toronto coach Craig Berube said on Friday. "Again, he's doing better, which is good, but I can't give you much more than that, to be honest. We'll update you again (on Saturday).

Matthews has missed three straight games. He also sat out nine games last month with an upper-body injury and returned on Nov. 30.

Toronto and Washington have split two games this season, with the road team skating away with the win. Ovechkin had an assist against Toronto at Washington on Nov. 13 in the Capitals' 4-3 overtime loss and did not play in their 3-1 win at Toronto on Dec. 6. Matthews missed the first game and was held off the scoresheet in the other.

Carbery said he doesn't think there will be restrictions on Ovechkin's usage.

"I think he will be full go," Carbery said. "We'll have to see how he responds after a game, but I don't anticipate him being on a pitch count.

"It would just depend on if he comes out of one of those games and is a little bit fatigued. The injury itself will be 100 percent healed. It'll be more about managing his fatigue level coming out of that. It's a short amount of time, right? We've got to hit the ground running."

Washington is 10-5-1 without Ovechkin in the lineup. He has 15 goals and 10 assists in 18 games this season. His 868 career goals are 27 short of passing Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky's NHL record of 894.

Matthews, who led the league with 69 goals last season, has 11 goals and 12 assists in 24 games on the season. Toronto is 8-4-0 without him.

The victory at Detroit snapped a two-game skid for Toronto.

"Definitely needed it," said Max Pacioretty, who had one assist. "That schedule got hectic for our group, and it definitely showed in our game. It was nice to relax and spend time with the family. It was obvious that every team needed a little bit of a rest there. We'd been playing a lot of hockey."

Toronto's David Kampf played in 500th career NHL game on Friday and scored his first goal of the season. Mitch Marner's hat trick was the third of his career and his second natural hat trick.

John Tavares had a natural hat trick on Dec. 15 against Buffalo. It is the first time Toronto has had multiple natural hat tricks in one season since 1975-76.

--Field Level Media