ARLINGTON, Va. – Alex Ovechkin will have a different perspective when the Washington Capitals host the Vegas Golden Knights at Capital One Arena on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; Scripps, MNMT).

After failing to get a shot on goal and having just one shot attempt in the Capitals’ 5-3 season-opening loss to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday, Ovechkin moved from his longtime spot on the left wing to the front row with center Dylan Strome moving on Monday at right wing training. Aliaksei Protas moved up from the third row and occupied Ovechkin’s left wing position.

“I don’t know,” Ovechkin said when asked about the move. “We just mix it up.”

Ovechkin played most of his 20 seasons in the NHL on the left wing and had great success there. The 39-year-old is second in NHL history with 853 goals and still needs to score 42 goals to break Wayne Gretzky’s league record of 894.

But Ovechkin played right wing during the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons when then-Capitals coach Adam Oates moved him there to utilize him as a right-handed hitter playing on his natural side. Ovechkin led the NHL in goals each season, scoring 32 in 48 games during the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season, in which he won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. In the 2013–14 season, he scored 51 goals in 78 games.

This was the fifth time Ovechkin scored at least 50 goals in a season and the first of his three consecutive seasons with at least 50 goals. He is tied with Gretzky and Mike Bossy for the most seasons with at least 50 goals in league history (9).

“Well, I have the experience of playing there, but that was a long time ago,” Ovechkin said. “But (whether) you start on the left or the right doesn’t matter because in the game you come from the offensive zone to the D-zone and stay on the right side. So you basically play there most of the time.”

Coach Spencer Carbery said early in training camp that he might try Ovechkin on the right side at some point this season while he looks for the right line combinations after the Capitals added forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh have low season. But Carbery played down the move after training on Monday.

“I think it’s a bit of a change,” Carbery said. “I find him on both sides of the ice a lot, and left, right, it’s not a big deal for me.”

Ovechkin also downplayed the switch, but it could potentially help him by moving him to other areas of the ice where defenders aren’t used to seeing him. Ovechkin, who had an assist on Saturday, went scoreless in the first four games of last season and scored eight goals in his first 43 games before scoring 23 in his final 36 games, leading the Capitals with 31.

Maybe playing in a different position will help him get off to a better start.

“To be honest, I don’t know if I’ll play right, left or center,” Ovechkin said. “Maybe I’ll play goalkeeper tomorrow. We never know. But I think we still have ways to figure out combinations. It’s the beginning of the year, new faces in the team, so we need to find the right combinations and the right chemistry, so that’s what we’re trying to do right now.”

Protas, who played all three forward positions during his four seasons with Washington, said he will look to complement Ovechkin and Strome on both ends of the ice.

“I think I should just help them as much as I can,” he said. “Just play hard, win battles and just try to help them everywhere. Just try to do the best I can.”

Carbery said the change in combinations on the first and third lines was more about having Protas, a left-hander, play on the left side after playing right wing on the third line.

“We have an influx of left wingers so we are trying to avoid any of those players having to play on the offside,” Carbery said.

The changes also aimed to upgrade Washington’s third line. The combination of Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre and Protas were on the ice for New Jersey’s first three goals on Saturday. Carbery believes Mangiapane, who played with Ovechkin and Strome from the start of training camp, can add “reliability” to a seasoned veteran on the right wing.

Additionally, Jakub Vrana, who was a healthy substitute on Saturday, will take Milano’s place on the left wing.

“It helps ‘Lappy,'” Carbery said of the combination of Mangiapane and Lapierre. “We had concerns about that line in the offseason and that was always on my radar when I came into camp and unfortunately it played out the way we feared it would be tough on opening night. You wish that didn’t happen, or you hope that it doesn’t happen to these guys.

“There is a bit of bad luck. You’re in the wrong place at the wrong time and couldn’t catch a break. … But at the same time, we have to find a way — Lappy has to help himself — but we also have to isolate him and as a team we have to find some guys that can help him be productive and play a solid game.”