Capitals at Rangers
It seems a week off is the only way to stop the Washington Capitals as the NHL's best team tries to bounce back from a rare loss when it visits the New York Rangers on Sunday afternoon. Washington, though, managed to earn a point in Saturday's 3-2 shootout loss in Detroit as its six-game win streak came to end, but the Capitals are 19-2-2 in their last 23 games while becoming only the fifth team among the first 16 who took their mandatory bye week to earn a point (3-11-2).
The extended break didn't prevent Washington's Nicklas Backstrom (team-high 61 points) from running his point streak to eight games (four goals, 10 assists) as he recorded his 44th assist of the season Saturday. The Rangers are 10 points behind the first-place Capitals and four back of third-place Columbus in the Metropolitan Division while holding a double-digit lead for one of the two wild-card spots after Thursday's 4-2 loss to the New York Islanders snapped a season-high six-game win streak. Jimmy Vesey scored in each of the last two games - giving him 14 in his rookie season - while Henrik Lundqvist lost for the first time in six February starts Thursday, lowering his save percentage to .937 for the month. The Rangers won the first of four meetings this season with the Capitals - 4-2 on Oct. 22 in Washington after rallying from a 2-0 deficit behind two Vesey goals and 26 saves from Lundqvist.
TV: 12:30 p.m. ET, NBC
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (39-11-7): The break also did not affect Daniel Winnik (eight goals), who scored in the Capitals' 6-4 victory over Anaheim on Feb. 11 and tied Saturday's game with 4:48 left in regulation. Forward Zach Stanford scored his second career goal Saturday and was a plus-1, bringing his rating to even and leaving Paul Carey (minus-2 in three games) as the only player with a minus rating to appear for Washington this season. Justin Williams (18 goals, 32 points) has 399 career assists.
ABOUT THE RANGERS (37-19-1): J.T. Miller (18 goals, team-high 46 points) had his seven-game point streak (two goals, nine assists) snapped Thursday while Kevin Hayes (15 goals, 42 points) saw his four-game run (two goals, five assists) come to an end. Michael Grabner leads New York with 26 goals but hasn't scored in the last three games after tallying four times in the previous three contests. Defenseman Kevin Klein (three goals, 14 points, plus-7 rating) missed Thursday's game because of illness but practiced Saturday and is expected to play Sunday.
OVERTIME
1. The Capitals' power play was 6-for-16 in its first six February games before going 0-for-5 on Saturday.
2. Rangers F Chris Kreider (39 points), whose 22 goals are second on the team, plays his 300th NHL game Sunday.
3. Washington won its last four Sunday games while the road team was victorious in four of the last five meetings.