Capitals at Rangers
The Washington Capitals have seen a comfortable lead in the Metropolitan Division slip away over the last month and hope remain on top of the heap when they visit the New York Rangers on Thursday night. The Capitals are 4-7-1 over their last 12 contests after falling 5-2 at home against Philadelphia on Wednesday and lead the Flyers by one point in the Metropolitan with Pittsburgh four back.
Washington, which visits Pittsburgh on Sunday, has lost four of its last five games on the road and is averaging 2.5 goals over the past 12 contests - almost one below its season average (3.39) that is good for fourth in the league. The Rangers snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Capitals with a 4-1 victory Nov. 20 and had won nine of 10 overall before losing their last three contests - the last two on home ice. New York sits four points out of the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference after a 3-1 loss to defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis on Tuesday to continue a tough stretch that also includes games at Dallas and Colorado next week. “We’re disappointed in our result, and we just have to keep focusing on ourselves,” Rangers coach David Quinn told the New York Post. “We can’t do anything about how the Islanders play, how Carolina plays, how Columbus plays. That’s completely out of our control. We have to stay focused on what we’re doing.”
TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: NBCS Washington, MSG
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (40-20-6): The top scorers were held off the scoresheet for Washington Wednesday as center Lars Eller (16 goals) and power forward Garnet Hathaway (eight) scored. John Carlson leads the team and all league defensemen with 73 points while captain Alex Ovechkin recorded three goals in the last four games to push his total to 45 - third in the league behind Boston’s David Pastrnak (47) and Auston Matthews of Toronto (46). Rookie Ilya Samsonov (16-6-1, .917 save percentage) may get a chance to snap a four-game slide after Braden Holtby made 24 saves Wednesday.
ABOUT THE RANGERS (35-27-4): Left wing Artemi Panarin saw his 13-game point streak come to an end with one shot on net in Tuesday’s loss, but the 28-year-old Russian leads the club with 90 points. Center Mika Zibanejad scored the only goal against St. Louis and registered nine of his team-high 33 goals in the last nine games while sitting second on the club with 66 points in 53 contests. Alexandar Georgiev (16-14-1, .912 save percentage) has started four of the last five games since rookie Igor Shesterkin was injured and veteran Henrik Lundqvist (10-12-3, .904) started the other.
OVERTIME
1. New York F Ryan Strome has two goals and two assists in his last four games and owns a career-high 59 points.
2. Washington LW Ilya Kovalchuk has registered one assist and eight shots on goal in four games since being acquired from Montreal.
3. The Rangers are 4-for-9 on the power play the last two games, but 4-for-9 on the penalty kill in the past three.