Alex Ovechkin return near as Capitals face Blues

Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin has been working his way back from a minor lower-leg injury that caused him to miss three games.

He could return Thursday night when the Capitals host the St. Louis Blues during the opening game of a home-and-home series. The teams will play again Saturday in St. Louis.

Ovechkin was a game-time decision Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks, and Capitals coach Spencer Carbery held him out. Washington played a tight defensive game in his absence and blanked the Ducks 2-0.

The Capitals had gone 3-6-2 in their previous 11 games.

"Every time you miss the big piece like Alex, a lot of guys have to step up," Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov said. "Maybe not the most exciting game tonight, but we got the job done. That's what's most important for us."

With the Capitals fighting to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race, they aren't worried about style points.

"A well-executed win in a situation where we needed two points tonight," Carbery said. "We needed to find a way, by whatever means possible, to accomplish that."

Washington killed off both of Anaheim's power plays to extend its penalty kill streak to 13. Once the Capitals got their lead on the Ducks, they played it safe.

"Definitely in this game, we were kind of getting a little bored offensively," Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen said. "You could tell we were trying to stick with what we were doing, but nothing was going in past that first goal. We mentally tried to stay with it when they put a push on there in the third. It was good defense."

Blues interim coach Drew Bannister has been stressing defense with his team, which is 1-2-1 in its last four games. St. Louis lost 4-2 at home to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

"We didn't have enough effort in our game in the hard areas," Bannister said. "We continued to mismanage the puck. That is making it difficult on our team to have to defend, which makes it easy for them to get more offensive zone time, more shots on the net."

The Blues attributed their troubles in the defensive zone to mistakes made with the puck in the offensive zone.

"We didn't play below the top of the circles enough and work them down there," Blues captain Brayden Schenn said. "I just felt like that forced us to play a lot of time, whether it was in the neutral zone or in our end, and not enough in their end. Our goalie gave us a chance tonight, but we know we've got to be better than that."

After starting Joel Hofer in goal against the Flyers, the Blues could come back with Jordan Binnington in net. Binnington is 3-0-1 with a 1.95 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage in four January starts.

Darcy Kuemper earned the shutout for the Capitals in the victory over the Ducks, while Charlie Lindgren stopped 54 of 58 shots in back-to-back games against the New York Rangers over the weekend. The Blues could see both netminders in this home-and-home series.

—Field Level Media