Another big game tonight, important to both teams as the New York Rangers take on the Washington Capitals at Madison Square Garden.
For the New York Rangers, they must halt a three game slide and get back on the winning track. For the Washington Capitals, they have to win to avoid slipping into second place on the heels of a loss the the Philadelphia Flyers.
After practice today, Coach David Quinn spoke about the loss to St. Louis. “We had some unbelievable chances against a very heavy, hard team. We didn’t give up much. We’ve got to be mentally tough enough to not let that loss get in our way tonight.”
You can be sure the Capitals will be firing on all cylinders as they are only one point ahead of Philadelphia and were thoroughly dismantled at home by the Flyers by a 5-2 score.
It will be one young Russian goaltender versus another as the Capitals will start Ilya Samsonov and he will face Alexandar Georgiev (yes, he was born in Bulgaria). Samsonov is quietly taking over the top goalie slot in Washington as he has been playing better than Braden Holtby. This will be the first time has faced the Rangers.
Georgiev has not had a lot of success against Washington. He is 0-2 and has allowed nine goals in two starts and a relief appearance.
He also said that he didn’t think Georgiev would let the Blues’ game winning goal affect his play. He also said that Igor Shesterkin is now day to day and took a full practice with no retrictions today.
Kaapo Kakko has had some golden opportunities, but seems to be snakebit. He is in a horrible scoring slump, something that Quinn addressed. “The thing I like about him is he’s getting more chances and eventually they’ll start going in.”
This will be the third meeting between the two teams. The Capitals won the first game in Washington in October 5-2 and the Rangers defeated them 4-1 at the Garden. Henrik Lundqvist was in goal for both games this season.
Projected starting lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 17 Fast
33 Di Giuseppe – 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
21 Howden – 72 Chytil– 24 Kakko
48 Lemieux -14 McKegg – 12 Gauthier
42 Smith – 8 Trouba
18 Staal – 77 DeAngelo
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
40 Georgiev
30 Lundqvist
Washington Capitals
8 Alex Ovchekin – 92 Evgeny Kuznetzov – 43 Tom Wilson
13 Jakub Vrana – 19 Nicklas Backstrom – 77 T.J. Oshie
62 Carl Hagelin – 20 Lars Eller – 17 Ilya Kovalchuk
14 Richard Panik – 26 Nic Dowd – 21 Garnet Hathaway
4 Brenden DIllon – 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitri Orlov – 3 Nick Jensen
34 Jonas Siegenthaler – 33 Radko Gudas
30 Ilya Samsonov
70 Braden Holtby
About the game
Gametime is scheduled for 7pm. Television will be the MSG Network and radio will be on ESPN Radio 98.7 FM.
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