Caps Take to Road vs. Rangers
Caps hit the road for final time in the 2020-21 regular season, heading to Manhattan for a pair of weeknight contests with the Rangers
The Capitals head out on their final road trip of the 2020-21 season, a two-game stay in Manhattan where they'll face the New York Rangers on Monday and Wednesday nights. Madison Square Garden is the only road building in which Washington has yet to record a victory this season.
Upon returning from their trip to New York, the Caps have a three-game homestand to close out the regular season. Philadelphia visits for a set of back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday this weekend, and Boston closes out the campaign here on May 11 in a makeup of a game that was originally scheduled to be played last month.
Washington just concluded a three-game homestand, going 1-1-1. The Caps nipped the Islanders 1-0 on Tuesday, but they fell 5-4 in overtime to the Penguins on Thursday and were blanked by a 3-0 count at the hands of Tristan Jarry and the Pens on Saturday night in the District, a loss that toppled them from a share of the top spot in the East Division standings.
Last Saturday night on Long Island, the Caps scored six even-strength goals in a 6-3 win over the Isles, but they've scored half that total in three games since. Washington leads the NHL with 122 goals at 5-on-5 this season, but the Caps managed only three such tallies over their just concluded three-game homestand.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin has missed each of Washington's last four games, and defenseman John Carlson missed both of the Pittsburgh games. Both players are dealing with lower body injuries, but both did travel with the team to New York. Without two of their top offensive weapons in the lineup, the Caps have found the going a little tougher offensively.
For Saturday night's game against the Pens, Caps coach Peter Laviolette made a couple of tweaks, sliding Anthony Mantha from the left to the right side of Nicklas Backstrom's line, and placing Conor Sheary on the left side of that unit. The resulting move was for Michael Raffl move to the left side of Lars Eller's line, with T.J. Oshie playing on the right side of that trio.
Laviolette discussed the changes briefly in the aftermath of Saturday's game.
"We just wanted to take a look at Mantha on the right side," says the Caps bench boss. "I think too, that's it's just thinking about the lines further down the road and possibilities. I wanted to just see what T.J. looked like with Lars and Raffl. I thought that was probably our most consistent, most dangerous line again tonight, making the switch with Osh."
Mantha is capable of playing both wings, but he had been deployed exclusively on the right side since coming to Washington in an April 12 deal with Detroit.
"I thought that Mantha was really noticeable in the game for me, with his speed," adds Laviolette. "I thought he generated some opportunities and pucks at the net, some scoring chances. It was just to get a different look at it."
With five games in nine nights to close out the season, and with their playoff berth already clinched, the Caps' focus is now on getting and staying as healthy as possible and getting their overall game as healthy as possible prior to the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs in mid-May.
Washington has had some difficulty against the Rangers this season, winning just two of the first six meetings between the two teams this season, all of which were decided in regulation. The Caps have dropped each of their last four visits to Madison Square Garden and last won in Manhattan with a 3-2 shootout win on March 3, 2019.
No team in the NHL has more road victories than the Capitals' total of 17. Washington is 17-7-2 away from the friendly confines of Capital One Arena, and only Toronto (17-6-2) has managed to record as many wins on the road this season. Coming into Monday night's game against the Blueshirts, the Caps have won five of their last six road games.
New York's playoff hopes are hanging by the thinnest of threads. The Rangers must win each of their four remaining games and they'll also need Boston to lose each of its final six games of the season. After facing the Caps twice at home early this week, the Rangers conclude the campaign with a pair of games against the Bruins in Boston, on Thursday and Saturday.
If they were in any of the League's other three divisions, the Rangers would be comfortably in the playoffs. Their total of 58 points is at least two more than every other fourth-place team in the NHL, and it's one more than Winnipeg currently has; the Jets are the third-place club in the North Division.
