WASHINGTON -- Officially, Evgeni Malkin is still considered a "game-time decision."
"Tonight's lineup, they'll all be game-time decisions," Mike Sullivan said after Saturday's optional skate when I asked if Malkin would be available, a common response from Sullivan whenever he's asked of anyone's availability before a game.
From watching what happened on the ice during the optional morning skate, though, it appears that Malkin might be out of the lineup again tonight.
Malkin took part in the optional skate again and was wearing a regular full-contact jersey, but just as he did on Thursday, stayed out on the ice much later than the rest of the main group for some extra work with the taxi squad and other extra players, likely an indication that he won't play tonight.
Whenever Malkin is ready to return, Sullivan said on Saturday that he expects an "adjustment process."
"He's been out for quite awhile now," Sullivan said. "So what we're going to look for is for Geno to play his game. It's hard to simulate game intensity, timing, all of those things in a practice environment. The only way you really get that is by playing in an NHL game with NHL intensity. There will definitely be an adjustment process from Geno's standpoint. But our expectation is that he plays his game, he keeps the game simple. Our hope is that with each game that he plays that he's going to get back to his true form that we all love watching."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Brandon Tanev skated again, including with the extra group after the skate. He is not yet full-contact.
• Evan Rodrigues did not skate and remains day-to-day.
• One option for replacing Rodrigues tonight is shifting Freddy Gaudreau over to right wing, a position he's played before, and putting Mark Jankowski back in at wing. But it looks like that might not be the case. Jankowski stayed out late with the extra group and Sam Lafferty left the ice around the time the main group did, which may be an indication that Lafferty slots in at right wing tonight and Jankowski remains a healthy scratch.
• Tristan Jarry didn't take the optional skate, but he'll start. Ilya Samsonov will start for the Capitals.
• Jake Guentzel spent some time early in the skate working on his air guitar celebration.
