Rangers at Capitals
THE STORY: The season is still young, but the Friday afternoon game between the New York Rangers and the Washington Capitals still holds plenty of importance. New York comes in looking to keep pace with Pittsburgh and Philadelphia atop the Atlantic Division, just as it did last season. consecutive losses in Montreal and Florida have knocked the Rangers off the pace as the club continues to struggle on the offensive end. New York wraps up a four-game road trip against the Capitals, who have responded to their worst stretch of hockey this season with back-to-back home wins over Phoenix and Winnipeg. The Capitals remain one of the toughest tenants in the National Hockey League, boasting an 8-1-1 home mark so far. Just imagine how much better they'd be if star sniper Alex Ovechkin ever figured out how to score in his own building - he has zero goals in 10 home games so far this season.
TV: 4 p.m. ET, NHL Network, MSG, Comcast SportsNet Maryland
ABOUT THE RANGERS (10-5-3): Drawing some of the attention away from a 2-1 loss to the Panthers on Wednesday was the conference call held between the NHL and Andre Deveaux. The Rangers tough guy is facing a suspension for a solid elbow he delivered to the head of Florida center Tomas Fleischmann. Deveaux was given a match penalty for the incident and will likely learn his fate sometime Friday.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (12-7-1): Leave it to Jason Chimera to overshadow Nicklas Backstrom's big day. Chimera scored twice, including the overtime winner, in Wednesday's pivotal victory over the division-rival Jets. Chimera now has eight goals on the season - just two behind his entire total from a season ago. Backstrom added his seventh of the campaign on his 24th birthday. Alex Semin also hit the scoresheet after being a healthy scratch in the previous game.
OVERTIME:
1. The former division rivals met in the first round of last year's Eastern Conference playoffs, a series the Capitals cruised through in five games.
2. Rangers head coach John Tortorella believes his team is struggling to maintain its cohesion. "I thought we were winning hockey games when we were staying within our team concept," he said. "I think it’s getting away from us a bit in some of the details of the game."
3. Ovechkin has managed just seven assists in 10 games in D.C., compared to seven goals and two helpers in 10 road contests.