Caps Face Rangers in Homestand Finale
Washington closes six-game homestand with Sunday matinee match vs. New York
The Capitals conclude a season-long six-game homestand on Sunday afternoon against the New York Rangers, the Blueshirts' third game in the District on the current homestand and New York's fourth and final regular season game at Capital One Arena in 2020-21.
Washington and New York split a pair of games here last weekend, the Caps taking a 2-1 victory over the Rangers on Friday, March 19 and New York skating off with a 3-1 victory a night later. The loss to the Rangers last Saturday is the lone blemish of the homestand; the Caps enter the finale with a 4-1-0 mark on the homestand and with 13 wins in their last 15 games overall.
Sunday's matinee match against the Rangers is Washington's third game in less than 72 hours; the Caps hosted the New Jersey Devils in a set of back-to-back home games on Thursday and Friday. The Capitals swept those two games, winning 4-3 and 4-0, respectively.
In winning Friday's game, the Caps were able to use their bench wisely and efficiently, avoiding overtaxing any players as they head into Sunday afternoon's game with the Rangers.
"We didn't really have to tax anything," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "There wasn't really that much specialty team time and we were just able to keep the bench at a nice roll. The score worked in our favor and lots of things worked in our favor. Hopefully it will help us out when it comes to the Sunday afternoon game."
In addition to managing the minutes of their 18 skaters, the Caps were able to avoid spending too much time in their own end of the ice as well.
"In the games, we can make it less taxing on ourselves the less time we play in the defensive zone," says Caps blueliner Nick Jensen. "The more time we play in the [offensive] zone the less taxing it is on our forwards and our defense, and just on our team as a whole. It's nothing that we always talk about, but it's pretty important when you have all these games crammed into each other. The more you can conserve your energy while playing at a high pace and a high level, that's pretty important with what our season is like right now."
Washington has faced the Rangers four times this season, going 1-3-0 in that quartet of contests. After concluding the homestand against the Blueshirts on Sunday afternoon, the Caps will open up a five-game road trip against the Rangers in Manhattan on Tuesday, so the homestand finale also serves as the front end of a home-and-home set between Washington and New York.
Although the Caps dropped the second half of a set of back-to-back games against the Rangers here in D.C. last weekend, they were pleased with the way they played in that game, a 3-1 loss.
"We know as a team that the Rangers have been pretty pesky against us," says Jensen. "They're fast and they're skilled, and a couple of times they've given us a couple of tough games. At the same time, I think we've known going into each game that it's going to be like that.
"I think we don't necessarily have to focus on each team we're playing as much how we can play, because when we play our best game, I don't think it matters which team it is. But with the Rangers, we know we can play physical, we can play really tight to them and get in their way, slow them down because they like to play a fast game and they like to play a skill game. Physicality and being right on top of them takes a lot of that away and gets them frustrated, so that's going to be one of the big focuses we have for them."
New York has also had a busy schedule of late; the Rangers will also be playing for the third time in less than 72 hours on Sunday afternoon. The Blueshirts bombed the Flyers 8-3 on Thursday in Philly before falling to the Flyers in a Saturday matinee contest, 2-1. The Rangers are 5-2-1 in their last eight games, and they've moved to within five points of Boston for the final playoff position in the East Division, though the Bruins do hold three games in hand.
The Rangers have scored four or more goals in five of their last eight games, but Washington limited them to four goals in two games last weekend, one of them an empty-netter.
New York's recent offensive surge has been fueled largely by its power play, which is 8-for-22 (36.4%) in the team's last six games. Blueshirts pivot Mika Zibanejad has scored five of those eight power-play goals in the last half dozen games, and he has eight goals and 16 points overall in his last six games. On the season, the Rangers' power play ranks 24th in the league at 18.2%.
