Islanders at Capitals
Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom has picked a fine time to rediscover his scoring touch. After failing to find the back of the net in the final seven weeks of the regular season, Backstrom has scored in three straight contests heading into Thursday's Game 5 of the Capitals' Eastern Conference first-round series against the visiting New York Islanders.
Backstrom, who also has notched three assists in the series, scored 11:09 into overtime as Washington evened the matchup at two victories apiece with a 2-1 triumph on Tuesday. "Nicky is our horse, our dude," linemate Joel Ward said. "It's just good to see we won. It was a good team effort." While Backstrom has been on a high, John Tavares hasn't been too shabby in his own right. The Islanders' captain recorded a pair of assists in the first two contests before scoring 15 seconds into overtime in New York's 2-1 win in Game 3 on Sunday afternoon.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CNBC, RSN, TVA2, MSG Plus (New York), CSN-DC (Washington)
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS: Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky is considered doubtful to play on Thursday after absorbing a thunderous hit from Capitals forward Tom Wilson in Game 3. "The puck wasn't even close to where he was," Tavares said of Visnovsky, who is a team-leading plus-5 in the series. "It's just a complete target of a defenseless player." Matt Donovan and Griffin Reinhart are candidates to step in for Visnovsky, in light of Travis Hamonic being sidelined with an undisclosed injury.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS: While Backstrom is receiving plenty of attention, captain Alex Ovechkin also scored in Game 4 and has two goals and an assist in the series. Braden Holtby has returned from a one-game absence due to illness and stopped 76-of-79 shots in the last two contests. "The first two games, we didn't have the real Holtby, and he didn't even play in Game 2," coach Barry Trotz said. "I think he looks really strong right now, and hopefully it will continue."
OVERTIME
1. New York coach Jack Capuano said "there's a real good chance" C Mikhail Grabovski could return to the lineup on Thursday. Grabovski has been sidelined since Feb. 19 with a concussion.
2. Washington RW Eric Fehr will miss his second straight contest with an upper-body injury.
3. The Islanders failed on all four of their power-play opportunities on Tuesday and are 0-for-10 in the series, while Washington is 1-for-7.