Caps Aim for Eighth Straight Win in Rematch vs. Rangers
Caps get Wilson back in their lineup in second of back-to-back set vs. Rangers on Saturday
Washington concludes a set of home ice back-to-back games against the New York Rangers on Saturday night. The Caps eked out a 2-1 win over the Rangers in Friday night's opener, their first victory in three tries against the Blueshirts this season and the Caps' seventh straight win overall.
Alex Ovechkin scored a pair of rebound goals just over three minutes apart in the back half of the third period of Friday's game, enabling Washington to come back from a 1-0 deficit that stood since Artemi Panarin's power-play goal late in the first period. The Caps picked up the two points despite being limited to a single-game low of 18 shots on net for the night.
The Caps' winning streak is the team's longest in just over two years, and in Saturday's rematch with the Rangers Washington will be seeking its first eight-game winning streak since it won nine straight games from Dec. 31, 2016 to Jan. 15, 2017.
Friday's game was a tight-checking affair in which Washington relied on goaltender Vitek Vanecek to help it overcome a sluggish start. Vanecek made two excellent saves midway through the first and another one in the middle of the second stanza to keep the Rangers within a single goal.
In his last two starts, Vanecek has stopped 55 of the 56 shots he has faced. In his last 11 starts, he has rolled up an 8-2-1 record.
Until Ovechkin scored his second goal of Friday's game with 3:33 left in the third period, the Caps had not owned a lead in nearly three full games worth of hockey against the Rangers this season.
Washington has allowed just two goals - both on the power play - in its last three games. In their last 17 games, the Caps have yielded an average of 2.24 goals per game, second best in the League over that span.
"I thought we were a little bit sleepy in the first period," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "They're a fast team, they're a young team. If you don't match that, you're not going to like the results. We talked about it; it was a great response in the last 40 minutes to play better defense, which I thought we did. And we got the goaltending that we needed as well."
Friday's game also marked the seventh and final game the Capitals had to play without right wing Tom Wilson, who was suspended for seven games for a hit on Boston blueliner Brandon Carlo, an incident that occurred two weeks ago Friday night. Washington went 7-0-0 in Wilson's absence, but it will welcome him back with open arms for Saturday's rematch with the Rangers.
"Well, we missed him, I can tell you that," says Laviolette. "It'll be nice to get him back. He brings so much to our team - just his energy. Just to have him in the room, on the bench, his size, his game, his physicality - so I'm certainly going to be happy to see him back.
"And as far as the depth goes, I think we did a really good job. I'm going to give it to the centermen for double shifting and doubling up, and I thought Daniel Sprong has come in and played well for us, and T.J. Oshie going to the middle of the ice for us and just covering for us, and so the depth has been really good, and covering that depth for Tom Wilson as well."
Washington has also played and won each of its last four games largely without center Lars Eller, who played three shifts in one of those games and missed each of the other three. Eller has been practicing with the team and participated in Friday's morning skate, but was deemed not quite ready to go for the first of two games against the Rangers. The Caps have played with seven defenseman and 11 forwards in three of their last four games.
Two nights after they thrashed the Philadelphia Flyers 9-0 in acting coach Kris Knoblauch's first game behind the New York bench, the Rangers played a strong and tight defensive game against the Capitals, only to lose it on a couple of rebound goals late.
"I think guys were just feeling very confident after the Philadelphia game," says Knoblauch of the Rangers' Friday night effort against Washington. "They're enjoying hockey, they scored some goals, everyone feels better, and they just wanted to carry that one. They knew that they were going to have to have a solid effort because they knew Washington is a good hockey team that has been playing extremely well, and I think they were really committed to winning [Friday's] game."
Washington's win on Friday halted a four-game New York winning streak over the Capitals, dating back to last season. It had matched the longest winning streak for the Rangers over Washington in nearly a decade.
