October 29 vs. New York Rangers at Capital One Arena
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
New York Rangers (6-1-1)
Washington Capitals (5-1-0)
The Caps open up a three-game homestand on Tuesday night when they host the New York Rangers in the first of three meetings between the two Metro Division rivals this season. Tuesday’s game marks the first meeting between the Caps and the Rangers since New York ousted Washington from the Stanley Cup playoffs this past April.
Following Saturday night’s 3-0 loss to the Lightning in Tampa, the Caps enjoyed a scheduled day off at home on Sunday. They returned to the rigors of the rink on Monday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex with a slightly different look. Just ahead of Monday’s practice session, the Caps announced the recall of center Mike Sgarbossa from AHL Hershey.
Sgarbossa, who just finished a rugged road stretch of three games in as many nights over the weekend with Hershey, arrived in DC in the wee hours of Monday morning after traveling back from Providence, where the Bears eked out a 2-1 win on Sunday to improve to 6-1-1 on the young season. Sgarbossa did not suit up for Sunday’s game against the P-Bruins, the first game he sat out this season. In seven games with Hershey, he has recorded a goal and nine points. He leads the Bears with eight assists.
At Monday’s practice, Sgarbossa slotted into the middle of a line with Andrew Mangiapane and Jakub Vrana, a line that has been centered by Hendrix Lapierre for most of the season’s first seven games. But after a strong conclusion to last season in the NHL and after earning playoff MVP honors with AHL Hershey and winning a second straight Calder Cup title, Lapierre has gotten off to a slow start with the Caps this season.
Lapierre stayed out late after Monday’s practice, putting in some extra time with skills coach Kenny McCudden.
Like Lapierre, Sgarbossa was a consistently strong player for the Capitals down the homestretch of last season as Washington put on a successful late season push for a playoff berth. He played 25 games for the Caps last season, the most he has logged since 2016-17 with Florida. While averaging just under 11 minutes per night in ice time, Sgarbossa chipped in four goals and seven points over the final third of the campaign.
“If Sgarbs gets in the lineup, just the same things that he has shown throughout his career, playing on teams that I’ve coached,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery, when asked what he is looking for from the veteran pivot. “[And] what he did last year, being real reliable, smart, compete. And then giving us a little bit offensively when the time presents itself or when the opportunity presents itself.”
Carbery also noted that the recall of Sgarbossa gives the team another middleman without moving Connor McMichael off the left wing, where he has forged a strong start on a line with P-L Dubois and Tom Wilson. That line has consistently provided offense to this point of the season, and there’s no reason to bust up that unit.
Defenseman Matt Roy, missing from the Washington lineup since suffering a lower body injury in the Caps’ season opener against New Jersey on Oct. 12, was placed on injured reserve to make room for Sgarbossa on the Caps’ active roster. Roy skated early Monday on his own, and he remained on ice – albeit in a powder blue non-contact sweater – for the early portion of Washington’s full practice.
The Caps dropped their opening night game against the Devils, but it was two weeks before they tasted defeat again; that happened on Saturday night when they weren’t able to solve Tampa Bay netminder Andrej Vasilevskiy, who shut them out on 32 shots for his first career whitewash of the Caps, ending Washington’s five-game winning streak.
Washington will attempt to get back into the win column on Tuesday against the team that bounced it from the playoffs last spring.
“Anytime you lose to someone in the playoffs, it’s always going to be more of a rivalry the next season for sure,” says Wilson. “The past few years, they’ve been a good benchmark team for the League, for the East and for our division. And we know that it’s going to be a tough game; no matter if it’s at home or at [Madison Square Garden], the Rangers are always going to be a tough game.
“So we’ve got to be sharp, and we’ve got to be good with our game plan. We want to show that we match up well with some of the best teams around the League.”
Although they’re coming off a loss and their winning streak has ended, the Caps didn’t play poorly at all in Saturday’s setback at the hands of the Bolts. And even if they hadn’t played to expectations, it wouldn’t have an effect on Monday’s practice plan.
“What we try to do – and it’s very process-related – is that what we do the following day isn’t determined by the outcome of the [previous] game,” says Carbery. “What I mean by that is, if we do a lot of good things against Tampa – and let’s just say it was our forecheck, our neutral zone counters and our transition game – we’re going to highlight that stuff [on video] and show what we did well. And then we’re going to talk about some things that we could do a better job of, and then we’re going to shift our focus to specifically, what do we need to do against the New York Rangers? And if we win a game but play poorly, we’re going to point out the areas where we need to do a better job.
“We try not to ride the outcomes of games to determine what we do the following day and how we approach our group. And I feel like that just keeps us in a very process-related mindset of just being able to say, ‘Okay, here’s what we need to do, and here’s how we’re going to give ourselves the best chance to win a hockey game.’”
Last season, the Caps won a couple of regular season hockey games against the Rangers, both of them in Washington. Charlie Lindgren blanked the Rangers 4-0 here last Dec. 9, and the Caps prevailed by a 3-2 count on Jan. 13 of this year in the Blueshirts’ second trip into the District last season.
The Rangers roared out to an 18-4-1 start before finally losing consecutive games last season, and they’re on their way to a similar spree out of the starting blocks this season. New York rolls into town with a 6-1-1 mark; it dropped a 6-5 overtime decision to Utah on Oct. 12 and fell 3-1 to Florida this past Thursday. Both of those losses came on home ice; the Rangers are a perfect 4-0-0 on the road this season. Dating back to the tail end of last season, New York has won nine of its last 10 regular season road games.
