Captain Alex Ovechkin is still in Russia attending to his family following the death of his uncle. As of this writing, Ovechkin is expected to be back in the United States and ready for Saturday night's opener.

With Ovechkin absent, Mathieu Perreault took his spot on the top line alongside Mike Knuble and Nicklas Backstrom. The other lines were Brouwer-Johansson-Semin, Chimera-Laich-Ward, and Hendricks-Halpern-Beagle. DJ King, Keith Aucoin, and Kyle Greentree, none of which are expected to crack the lineup Saturday, also skated.

Dennis Wideman was not present for practice, having left practice early Wednesday before the bag skate, presumably to rest his leg. It is not known if Wideman has had a recurrence of symptoms from his compartment syndrome, but Bruce Boudreau has insisted that he has six healthy defensemen, of which John Erskine is not one. That would lead one to believe that Wideman is 100%, but it's a bit worrisome that he is not able to do any high energy exercises with opening night around the corner.

Jeff Schultz, who is Wideman's supposed partner on the blue line, skated with the still injured John Erskine, while John Carlson and Karl Alzner and Roman Hamrlik and Mike Green were the other defensive parings.