Preview: Rangers Ready for Capitals Rematch

CAPITALS at RANGERS, 12:30 p.m.NBC, 1050 AM
And now for the rematch.
The last time the Rangers and the Washington Capitals left one another, they were sharpening their teeth in a thrilling afternoon affair exactly one week ago in the nation's capital. The return match moves to Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon, closing out the four-game season series with a nationally televised game between two rivals that have offered up hard-nosed, back-and-forth hockey over the first three.
"Every time we play this team there's a little nastiness to it just because of the teams' history," Brady Skjei said following the teams' most recent matchup. "That's hockey."
The Rangers showed plenty of fight in their overtime loss last Sunday in Washington, in which they earned a point after trailing by two goals at two separate stages of the game. And they've showed plenty of the same when playing on Garden ice this season: The Rangers have played 34 home games this season and have earned points in 23 of them, including three of the last five.

One of the regulation losses they suffered came at the hands of the Caps, a 5-3 Washington win back on Nov. 24, in which the final margin included an empty-netter. Each of the teams' meetings in Washington were tied after 60 minutes, with the Rangers falling in each 3-on-3 overtime on goals by Matt Niskanen on Oct. 17 and by Evgeny Kuznetsov last Sunday.
The Rangers could face the Caps this time with Brett Howden back in their lineup: Howden has missed 15 games with an MCL sprain but has been a full participant in practice this past week, and David Quinn said he was "hoping" that Sunday would be the day.
They are certain to have Brendan Lemieux in the mix, the rookie who was acquired from Winnipeg less than 24 hours after the Rangers and Caps last got acquainted. The pesky winger scored his first goal as a Ranger in the third period of Friday's match with Montreal; in his two games in a Blueshirt, Lemieux has seen ice time of 15:24 and 12:28 after averaging a little more than seven minutes over 44 games this season with the Jets.
"Obviously he's a presence out there," Quinn said. "He's going to get acclimated to playing these types of minutes - he's not in great game shape, through no fault of his, he just hasn't played a lot of hockey in this year. So going from six, seven minutes a night to 15, 16, is a big jump.
"He works hard, he's got good stick skills - there's a lot there. I'm certainly glad we traded for him."
Lemieux's goal brought the Rangers within a goal with 2:32 left, but they couldn't conjure the equalizer before an empty-net goal sealed a 4-2 loss to the Canadiens behind 28 saves from Carey Price. It was a game in which Libor Hajek played 17:35 in his NHL debut and earned rave reviews from his teammates and his head coach, but none more effusive than from Henrik Lundqvist: "Love his game. Love it."
For his part, Lemieux described his goal in back-to-back words as "great" and "meaningless," because he was speaking in the aftermath of a defeat. Quinn lamented afterward that the Rangers couldn't get that goal just a little sooner and leave a little more time to tie the game, but "we kept battling," the head coach said, and even in his short time with the Rangers so far Lemieux can see that that is a trademark of his new club.
"That's all you can ask for in a hockey team," Lemieux said, adding of the game against the Canadiens: "Bad bounces, nothing you can do about it. Obviously there was a little lull in our play after those bounces, and that's one thing we can tighten up. But it's a pretty good 60-minute effort from us.
"It's really good to see there's a lot of resilience in this group. That's going to pay off in the next few years for this group."
In addition to Hajek's debut, Lundqvist had more he liked in both the early and late stages against Montreal, save for a stretch of the second period when a couple of puck bounces and Price himself got in the Rangers' way. Price made highlight stops on Jesper Fast and Pavel Buchnevich in the game but saved his best for Vlad Namestnikov, who scored the Rangers' first goal on a deflection but was turned out six other times, most of them from prime scoring areas.
"I love the speed and the focus - a lot of good things here the last few games," Lundqvist said of the Rangers' game overall. "You've got to look at the good things, and the improvements we're making. I love the speed to our game. For the most part in this one, we played a really strong one."
The Capitals began their three-game road trip on Friday night at Nassau Coliseum, rallying with three goals in the third period for a 3-1 win over the Islanders that created a tie, at 81 points, atop the Metropolitan Division. Alex Ovechkin's power-play goal was the tiebreaker in the third before the Caps iced it courtesy of a Josh Bailey backpass into his own empty net.
The goal was Ovechkin's league-leading 45th of the season, making him the first player in NHL history to put together 10 seasons of at least 45 goals. The Washington captain has had seven career 50-goal seasons, his most recent coming in 2015-16.
With Braden Holtby in goal, the Caps have won their last two games, over Ottawa and the Islanders, by a combined score of 10-3.

LINEUP LAST TIME OUT

20 Kreider - 93 Zibanejad - 26 Vesey
90 Namestnikov - 16 Strome - 17 Fast
48 Lemieux - 50 Andersson - 89 Buchnevich
42 Smith - 24 Nieves - 23 Brickley
18 Staal - 77 DeAngelo
76 Skjei - 22 Shattenkirk
43 Hajek - 44 Pionk
30 Lundqvist
40 Georgiev

NUMBERS GAME

Brendan Smith is expected to play in his 400th NHL game on Sunday.
There have been 11 lead changes in the three games this season between the Rangers and Capitals.
Alex Ovechkin has seven goals and 11 points during his current eight-game point streak. Ovechkin is three points shy of 1,200 for his career.
Washington's opponents have scored first in each of its last four games, including the Rangers one week ago. The Caps have come back to win three of them.
The Caps are 23-10-4 against the Eastern Conference this season. Of their 17 remaining games, 15 are in the East.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Vlad Namestnikov has a four-game point streak, including his ninth goal of the season on one of his career-high seven shots against Montreal on Friday. The goal was his fifth in eight games.
Tom Wilson has three goals and five points over his last five games, including a power-play tally to go along with four penalty minutes (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct) from a third-period scrum against the Rangers last Sunday. Wilson has just three goals in 21 career games against the Rangers, but two of them have come in two games this season.