Caps Host Rangers in Sunday Matinee
Caps open six-game April slate with Metro Division match-up vs. New York
The Caps move into the April portion of their 2022-23 schedule when they host the New York Rangers on Sunday afternoon at Capital One Arena. Sunday's game closes out the season's series between the two longtime rivals, and it is also Washington's final matinee match of the season.
Washington will be seeking to shake off a three-game losing streak (0-2-1) on Sunday, and it will attempt to do so without both right wing T.J. Oshie (upper body) and defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk (upper body). Goaltender Charlie Lindgren (illness) missed Saturday's practice session, but the hope is that he will be feeling good enough to suit up by Sunday morning.
The Caps dropped a set of midweek back-to-back games, losing a 2-1 shootout decision to the New York Islanders in D.C. on Wednesday before falling 5-1 at the hands of the Lightning in Tampa Bay a night later. Oshie departed the game in Tampa after the first period while van Riemsdyk was on the ice into the latter stages of the third period of Thursday's game against the Lightning.
Thursday's game against Tampa was the first contest in over a month in which Washington was able to put the same 20 players in sweaters for consecutive games, but that won't be the case on Sunday against the Rangers. Matt Irwin will step back into the lineup in van Riemsdyk's absence, and Sonny Milano seems likely to return in place of Oshie.
Milano missed the last three games with an upper body injury. He was on the ice in a non-contact sweater earlier in the week, but he was able to take contact at Saturday morning's practice session at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
"He's good," says Caps' coach Peter Laviolette of Milano. "He wouldn't be out there in a jersey taking contact if he wasn't ready for that."
For the first time in nine seasons, the Caps will be playing out the string of their final few regular season games. They've been unable to gain traction in the standings in the second half of the season and will miss out on the postseason for the first time since 2013-14, ending the second-longest active streak among the League's 32 teams.
With six games remaining on the slate, nothing changes for the Capitals. They'll suit up 20 reasonably healthy bodies and go on the ice and try to get two points, and in some cases - such as Sunday's game against the Rangers - they'll try to play spoiler.
"There's been a few games recently that we put a lot of emphasis on to win," says Laviolette. "And it didn't happen for us; we didn't get the points we were looking for. The message is pretty simple today: invest in the day [Sunday], win the day [Sunday], win the game [Sunday], and that's where we're at.
"Our situation is our situation. We needed to win more games; we didn't do that. But we have a game [Sunday], and we are in control of that, in control of how we attack the day. Wake up, attack the day and invest in it, win, and move on from there."
In each of the last eight seasons, the Caps have either finished with 100 or more points or - in the case of the seasons shortened by the pandemic - they were on pace to do so. This season, they will not be able to reach the 90-point plateau, the first time they've fallen shy of that modest mark since Alex Ovechkin's sophomore season in the League in 2006-07.
"I'm sure it's difficult for them as well," says Laviolette, referring to the players. "There are a lot of guys in the room that are used to postseason play, and so they're working through that as well. But like I said this is the situation we're in, and we've got to wake up [Sunday] and compete."
As they head into their own last half-dozen games of the season, the Rangers still have a bit of upward mobility available to them in the standings. With a 9-2-2 mark in their last 13 games - a span that includes a 5-3 victory over the Capitals in New York on March 14 - the Rangers have pulled to within four points of Carolina for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division standings, and they are also three points back of second place New Jersey. However, Carolina holds two games in hand on the Blueshirts and New Jersey has a single game in hand on them.
The Rangers do not have any games remaining against either the Hurricanes or the Devils, but only two of New York's final six games are against clubs that are currently in the Stanley Cup playoff picture.
