After two losses the task doesn’t get any easier for the New York Rangers tonight who will take on the red hot Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night hockey.
The New York Rangers restored some pride against the Florida Panthers following their embarrassing blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but they are going to need to be a lot better in order to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself tonight.
Because, and both the eye test and the stats back this up, the Washington Capitals are the best team in the National Hockey League right now and they can crush teams at will.
And the Blueshirts have first hand experience of how good this Capitals team is given that they dropped a 5-2 decision in Washington on October 18, so they need to study that particular game tape hard in order to prepare themselves for tonight’s contest.
Washington is rolling right now and they are an immovable object in the NHL in the sense that they seem to be a legit contender year in and year out.
The Rangers, on the other hand, have experienced plenty of growing pains already this season and their young roster will be severely put to the test against a Stanley Cup contender.
And they will have to bring their A game to the table just to compete because, anything less, and we could witness a similar horror show to the one that unfolded in Tampa last week.
About The Washington Capitals
Washington are rolling right now and they sit atop of the National Hockey League with 36 points, five points above the New York Islanders who are on an absolute tear right now.
The Capitals are 16-3-4 on the year and they have won their last two games after dropping a 5-2 decision against the Montreal Canadiens on Friday.
They beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in a shootout on Saturday before cruising to a 5-2 success over the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, and they will like their chances of racking up a third straight victory tonight.
And the Capitals will be leaning on their offense to help propel them to glory given that they are averaging 3.74 Goals For Per Game right now, which is ranked first in the NHL.
They can be scored upon, however, as they average 2.96 Goals Against Per Game, which is ranked 17th in the league, and they could go with Russian rookie Ilya Samsonov tonight who has a 5-2-1 record with a 2.65 GAA and a .912 Sv%.
Special teams will also be key tonight and the Rangers know exactly what the Capitals will do on the power play; get the puck to Alex Ovechkin in his office and he will unleash one of his trademark one-timers as he has done on seven occasions so far this year.
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Their power play is ranked fifth in the NHL right now (24.3), and they are also killing off power plays at a 85.2 click, which is good enough to be ranked seventh in the league.
Open up a discussion about the Washington Capitals this year and John Carlson will grab the headlines, and rightly so because the defenseman is on a Norris Trophy pace with 35 points (eight goals, 27 assists) and a plus/minus rating of +15.
Carlson drives and dictates the play for the Capitals, while Ovechkin is showing no signs of slowing down with 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points.
Washington is also getting contributions from up and down the lineup and they currently have nine players with 10 or more points.
Overall, the Washington Capitals are an elite team who are setting the pace for everybody else in the NHL right now, and they will be looking to put on a show on Wednesday Night Hockey.
But, before we move on, it is important to note that the Capitals could be without forward Garnet Hathaway, who spat on Erik Gudbranson after being on the wrong end of a sucker punch from the Anaheim Ducks blueliner on Monday. If you haven’t seen it, here it is.
Erik Gudbranson wasn’t a fan of being spit on 😶
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 19, 2019
Do you think Garnet Hathaway deserves to be suspended for spitting on Gudbranson? If so, how long? pic.twitter.com/HDMkximxsV
As a result, Hathaway will have a hearing on Wednesday morning and it is very possible that he could be suspended for tonight’s game, meaning that the Capitals will have to make a late call-up.
They are already without former Ranger Carl Hagelin (upper body) and bottom six forward Nic Dowd (upper body) for tonight. With no cap space available and only 20 healthy bodies on the active roster, they will have to place Hagelin on IR to make room for a call-up if Hathaway is suspended.
About The New York Rangers
Let’s go through some housekeeping first in terms of lineup news. Henrik Lundqvist will get the start in goal against the Washington Capitals, his second straight start.
Filip Chytil missed practice on Tuesday for a maintenance day but will play tonight, as will Kaapo Kakko who has been dealing with the flu.
However, Mika Zibanejad will not play tonight and the forward isn’t expected to be available for the rest of the week, including for the road trip in Canada at the weekend.
Zibanejad was at practice on Tuesday, albeit in a red non-contact jersey, but his prolonged absence is starting to freak out a large chunk of Rangers fans.
The Rangers have been idle since their loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday, and they only have this one game on home ice before hitting the road again with games in Ottawa and Montreal this weekend.
They have dropped three of their last four (1-2-1), although they have earned a point in six of their last nine games (5-3-1).
The Blueshirts are 5-4-2 at Madison Square Garden this year and it is clear that a lot of their issues boil down to the defense, which is allowing an average of 3.61 Goals Against Per Game, ranked 30th in the NHL.
After all, they are ranked ninth in the league when it comes to Goals For Per Game (3.33), and they are currently converting at a 20.6% click on the power play.
And it goes without saying that the Rangers will need a big night from their own star in Artemi Panarin in order to stand any chance of coming out on top against the Caps, with the Russian stud currently riding an 11-game point streak which is a career-high for the forward.