Any excuse to post a photo of Perreault (Photo courtesy of the Caps)

This California road trip comprises the most important week of Washington Capitals’ season. Tonight at 10 PM, the Caps will face Bruce Boudreau, Mathieu Perreault, and the Anaheim Ducks. When that happens, Jay Beagle will be on the first line and Dustin Penner will be on the fourth.

Here are the lines, per the inestimable Katie Carrera of the Washington Post:

Johansson – Beagle – Ovechkin

Kuznetsov – Backstrom – Brouwer

Chimera – Fehr – Ward

Penner – Wellman – Wilson

This is a bit odd, though maybe it’s not so dire.

First, from Katie:

#Caps lines same as yesterday: Johansson-Beagle-Ovechkin; Kuznetsov-Backstrom-Brouwer; Chimera-Fehr-Ward; Penner-Wellman-Wilson. — Katie Carrera (@kcarrera) March 18, 2014

#Caps D-pairs in the morning skate look to be Alzner-Carlson; Hillen-Green; Orlov-Wey. — Katie Carrera (@kcarrera) March 18, 2014

Dustin Penner played over 100 games for the Ducks in his career, 49 of them this season under Bench Boss Bruce Boudreau. He’s primed to play 7-9 minutes tonight.

Evgeny Kuznetsov has basically taken Penner’s spot and will occupy the left flank on the second line.

And Jay Beagle is centering the Caps top line. Beagle has been scratched 19 times this season and has cracked 15 minutes twice.

After a quick scan of my notes, the last time Alex Ovechkin and Jay Beagle started together on the top line was against the Maple Leafs on January 31, 2013. Ovi shared about 10 of his 16 5v5 minutes with Beagle that night and got out-attempted 22 to 8. It wasn’t pretty.

If the Capitals could sweep this week, they’ve reinvigorate their playoff chances. Yet, it appears Adam Oates has paired the best scorer in the league with the team’s weakest available possession forward.

Katie Carrera explores Oates’ strategy in the Post today, and it seems that Oates will be experimenting a fair bit.

So this should be interesting.