The New York Rangers take on the best team in the league, the Washington Capitals. It will be a stern test for the Blueshirts who are hoping to end a two game slide.
After dropping two games in Florida the New York Rangers will need their best effort if they expect to beat the Washington Capitals. Their last outing against the Panthers was better than their disastrous outing in Tampa. Team defense and the penalty kill will be sorely tested by the top offense in the NHL.
Coach David Quinn pulled no punches when he looked ahead tho this game. “Everyone knows who we’re facing…we’ve got to continue to be dialed in…what we need to do to continue to get better, regardless of our opponent we need to play a particular way and we need to keep building on it. It just so happens we’re playing Washington…they’re obviously feeling good about themselves, playing really good hockey, playing at a really high level. We’re going to have to continue to build on the things we’ve done well.”
Mika Zibanejad will miss his tenth straight game with a neck injury and is not due to return until next week at the earliest. The Blueshirts wil be buoyed by the return of Kaapo Kakko, who missed two games with the flu. They will also welcome a new face to the lineup in Tim Gettinger who was called up from Hartford to replace Lias Andersson. The big forward will see time on the fourth line with Greg McKegg and Brendan Smith and should also see some time on the power play.
As for the Capitals, they will have a much different look at forward with four new faces in the lineup. Nicklas Backstrom will be out with an upper body injury and Nic Dowd and Carl Hagelin are also out with injuries. The Caps had to put Hagelin on Long Term Injured Reserve after they learned that forward Garnet Hathaway was suspended for three games for spitting on Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Erik Gudbranson.
As a result, forwards Beck Malenstyn and Mike Sgarbossa were recalled from Hershey and will be making their debuts tonight. It’s the NHL debut for Malenstyn, 21, a big (6’2″, 198 pound) left wing and the Washington debut for Sgarbossa, 27, a left shooting center who has seen action in 48 games for the Panthers, Ducks and Avalanche.
Braden Holtby will oppose Henrik Lundqvist in net, another in a long history of games between the two netminders. Holtby is still the number one goalie, but rookie Ilya Samsonov has better stats in half the games played. Lundqvist gets his second straight start after a tough loss to Florida on Saturday.
The Capitals won the first match between the two teams, 5-2 on October 18.
Projected lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 17 Fast
20 Kreider – 72 Chytil – 89 Buchnevich
48 Lemieux – 21 Howden – 24 Kakko
26 Gettinger – 14 McKegg – 42 Smith
25 Hajek – 8 Trouba
76 Skjei – 77 DeAngelo
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
30 Lundqvist
40 Georgiev
Washington Capitals
8 Ovechkin – 92 Kuznetsov – 43 Wilson
13 Vrana – 20 Eller – 77 Oshie
14 Panik – 23 Sgarbossa – 72 Boyd
47 Malenstyn – 18 Stephenson – 28 Leipsic
6 Kempny – 74 Carlson
9 Orlov – 33 Gudas
34 Siegenthaler – 3 Jensen
70 Holtby
30 Samsonov
Betting odds and lines
If you are a gambler, the Rangers are +145 on the Moneyline courtesy of The Action Network. Washington is riding a two game winning streak and are 16-1-2 in their last 19 games.
Join the live conversation
Feel free to post comments as the game goes along. We’ll be monitoring the conversation and will chime in as the game goes on. It’s always fun to share opinions and comment on a game as it is played and this one promises to provide lots of fodder for commentary.
Gametime is 8pm and it will be televised on the NBCSN. It’s guaranteed to be more exciting than the Democratic Debate.