Aliaksei Protas and Pierre-Luc Dubois had a goal and an assist each and Logan Thompson made 18 saves in the Washington Capitals' 4-1 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.

Jakob Chychrun will face the Senators for the first time since being dealt to the Washington Capitals on July 1 in exchange for veteran defenceman Nick Jensen. Chychrun, who suited up for 94 games with Ottawa after being dealt here in March 2023 from the Arizona Coyotes, has been having a standout year with the Caps.

The Pittsburgh Penguins locker room was a mixture of sullen and encouraged. From coach Mike Sullivan to Sidney Crosby and Rickard Rakell, the internal reaction to their 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals was an expansive mixture of emotions.

The Ottawa Senators return home with a tall order as they take on the best team in the East and League — the Washington Capitals. Washington leads the league with a 0.716 save percentage at 63 points in 44 games.

Andrew Mangiapane, Jakob Chychrun, Nic Dowd and Tom Wilson also scored for the Capitals. John Tavares and Bobby McMann scored for the Leafs. Washington’s captain Ovechkin played his first game ...

The Capitals will look to keep trending in the right direction against Ottawa, as Jakob Chychrun makes his return for the first time since being traded.

It started with a trade between the Bruins and Capitals (and Wild as a third-party broker). The Capitals moved out two pending free agents, Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov, in exchange for a 2023 first-rounder, 2024 third, 2025 second and Craig Smith.

The Capitals are shaking things up on the top-6, with Pierre-Luc Dubois replacing Dylan Strome as Alex Ovechkin's center. Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson will play between Strome, while Aliaksei Protas moves to that top line.

Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome, whose chemistry has dropped off of late following Ovechkin's injury, were separated. Ovechkin went to work with Pierre-Luc Dubois and Aliaksei Prot

In goal, Logan Thompson and Hunter Shepard worked in both nets, with Charlie Lindgren not skating as he recovers from an upper-body injury he suffered in Friday's loss to the Montreal Canadiens. Lindgren remains on the IR, but Carbery said he’s progressing well and they will see if he can be activated Saturday.

Here are the lines: Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Aliaksei Protas Connor McMichael-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Tom Wilson Taylor Raddysh-Lars Eller-Ethen Frank Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Andrew Mangiapane Jakob Chychrun-John Carlson

But the Capitals were expecting the game to be “a little bit nasty,” as Coach Spencer Carbery put it after his team won, 2-1, in overtime behind two goals from center Pierre-Luc Dubois, who was at the center of the high-emotion proceedings throughout.