“It was tough because I did feel like I was starting to get used to everything,” Shattenkirk said. “Luckily, it wasn’t too long of a break where I don’t feel like I lost too much … I think it’s good to watch the games and maybe go through some plays in your mind and kind of figure out how you would do them yourself.”

The suspension now over, Shattenkirk will be back in the lineup on Thursday night against the Nashville Predators, playing on a third pairing with Brooks Orpik. Shattenkirk is also expected to resume his duties on the top power-play unit. Before the suspension, he’d tallied an assist in four straight games.

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“I think I’ve just been trying to tell myself to make sure I’m playing the same way and not playing timid at all,” Shattenkirk said. “I think, more importantly, just trying to jump back in with these guys and give them any sort of boost that I can.”

There was some question whether there would be some tweaks to the defense pairings after Nate Schmidt played well stepping in for Shattenkirk, scoring the opening goal on Tuesday night. When Trotz was asked after that game if he was considering keeping Schmidt in the lineup, he said “yeah,” and added that Shattenkirk would definitely be in the lineup. With Shattenkirk’s suspension over, Schmidt will go back to being a healthy scratch on Thursday night.

“Our top six are what they are and you’re going to see tonight,” Trotz said. “That’s our top six. Nate is 7, and what I said was he played very well and makes the decisions tougher. And that’s his job as a player. He’s in that seven-hole, and that’s perfect … He played really well, which makes the decisions tougher. It doesn’t mean I change from the six.”

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• Though the Capitals snapped their four-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild Tuesday, they again took too many penalties in the game. Washington leads the league in minor penalties since Jan. 1 (138), and the Capitals have taken at least six minor penalties in the past three games.

“We’ve had a little uptick in penalties,” Trotz said. “A while back, I thought we settled that down, and in the last little while for whatever reason, we have taken more than are necessary. I think probably a little bit of frustration on that trip for some guys. We’ve just got to stay away from that. We’re a high puck-possession team, and we shouldn’t have as many penalties as we do.

“That’s on the individual. That’s on me as a coach to try to rein that in when I can. When guys make decisions 200 feet from our goal, I’m not really happy about stuff like that. There’s certain penalties and certain things that are acceptable in terms of protecting teammates and having to take a penalty to prevent a scoring chance or an opportunity — those happen. But the stuff away from the puck, unnecessary trips, the slashes, the stuff that you could control, we’ve got to stay away from that a little bit.”

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• Jay Beagle got accidentally head-butted in Tuesday night’s game with a helmet slamming into his nose. He confirmed on Thursday morning that his nose is indeed broken, and he estimated that he’s broken it five or six times now. In line with hockey culture, a broken nose won’t keep Beagle out of the lineup.

In other injury news, Andre Burakovsky practiced with the team again on Thursday. He’s been out of the lineup since Feb. 9 because of a broken hand, and Trotz said Burakovsky is expected to have a full-contact practice on Friday afternoon. How he handles that could determine if he travels with the Capitals to Tampa Bay for Saturday’s game.

“If he survives that, then maybe he goes,” Trotz said.

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Here’s what the Capitals’ lineup is expected to look like against Nashville:

Forwards

Alex Ovechkin-Nicklas Backstrom-T.J. Oshie

Marcus Johansson-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Justin Williams

Brett Connolly-Lars Eller-Jakub Vrana

Daniel Winnik-Jay Beagle-Tom Wilson

Defensemen

Karl Alzner-John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov-Matt Niskanen

Brooks Orpik-Kevin Shattenkirk

Goaltenders

Braden Holtby (starter)

Philipp Grubauer

Scratches

Nate Schmidt

Taylor Chorney