Caps Visit Rangers
Coming out of the holiday break, the Caps take a day trip to New York for the first of four meetings with Rangers this season
Following the NHL's annual three-day holiday break, the Caps take a Tuesday day trip up to Manhattan to face the New York Rangers in the first of four meetings between the two teams this season. The Capitals and Rangers are separated by a single point in the Metropolitan Division standings, and both are coming in hot out of the break; Washington has won nine of its last 10 and New York has prevailed in eight of its last nine games.
Most recently, the Caps took down the Winnipeg Jets by a 4-1 count on Dec. 23, with Alex Ovechkin supplying Washington's first and last goals in that game, Nos. 801 and 802 of his NHL career. With those two tallies, Ovechkin tied and passed Gordie Howe (801) for second place on the League's all-time goals ledger, behind only Wayne Gretzky (894).
The Caps carry a four-game winning streak with them to New York, where they will be seeking a sixth straight road victory. If they get it, they'll match a franchise record established in 1983-84 and matched once since, in 2010-11. The Capitals' current five-game road winning streak is their seventh such streak in the last six seasons; they won five straight on the road twice last season and in 2019-20.
With Ovechkin's grand achievement and another Washington win, the Caps entered the holiday break on a high note.
"Winning is what it's all about," says Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren, who made 25 saves to earn his 10th victory of the season in the win over the Jets. "And when you do that, it makes everything a heck of a lot better.
"We're all playing really well I think, and we've certainly all bought in to the game plan. I think our coaching staff has done a great job with us. Just seeing our compete level night in and night out, I feel like we're out-competing teams and outworking them and finding ways to win hockey games. I think we're all having a blast; I can speak for everyone. We're all having a blast."
Washington won't have defenseman John Carlson for Tuesday's tilt with the Rangers. In the third period of the Caps' last game before the break, Carlson caught a rising slapshot to the head, a shot from Winnipeg's Brenden Dillon, a former Caps teammate. Carlson was subsequently taken to a local hospital for treatment and observation, and he was discharged the following morning and remains under the care of team medical personnel. He will be out of the lineup for an indefinite period of time.
With 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his last 19 games, Carlson has been one of several primary drivers of Washington's second-quarter surge (12-3-1). Although he missed six games earlier in the season with a lower body injury, Carlson is tied for fourth on the team in scoring (8-13-21) and he leads all NHL defensemen with an average of 4:21 in power play ice time per game. Along with Colorado's Cale Makar, Carlson is one of only two defensemen in the NHL to average more than four minutes per game in power-play ice time and more than 1:50 per game in shorthanded ice time.
A run of consistently stellar goaltending and defense has fueled Washington's recent rise up the Eastern Conference standings ladder. Since Nov. 23, the Caps have yielded two or fewer goals against in the first 60 minutes of 12 of their 16 games. Their average of 2.19 goals against per game over that span is second in the League.
Recently, the Caps' offensive attack has also come to life. Washington has scored four or more goals in 14 of its 36 games this season, but it has done so in seven of its last nine games. On the season, the Caps rank 19th in the NHL with an average of 3.08 goals per game.
Washington went into the holiday break with a total of 36 games played, the most of any Eastern Conference team. The Caps also entered the break with just six games played (3-2-1) against teams from its own division, fewest among all Eastern Conference clubs. Among all NHL teams, only Arizona (four) has played fewer games against divisional foes than the Caps. Beginning with Tuesday's game against the Blueshirts, Washington will double its total of divisional games between now and the middle of next month, facing Metro foes in six of its next 10 games.
New York's seven-game winning streak was snapped in a 3-2 loss at Pittsburgh on Dec. 20, but it rebounded to defeat the Islanders at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 22 in its final game ahead of the holiday break, rallying from three separate deficits to win.
The loss to the Penguins snapped the Rangers' own five-game road winning streak. The Blueshirts have been better on the road (11-5-1) than at home (8-6-4) thus far this season, but they've won each of their last four games at MSG.
