Back-To-Back – The Caps and the Rangers tangle tonight at Madison Square Garden in the lone NHL game on this Sunday. Both teams are finishing up a set of back-to-back games, and both are seeking a sweep of the weekend set. While the Caps were taking a 4-2 victory from the Islanders in Elmont last night, New York was pummeling the Penguins in Pittsburgh, 6-1.
In Spencer Carbery’s first two seasons behind the Washington bench, the Caps have won 15 games on the second nights of back-to-backs, ranking fourth in the League. Thirteen of the 15 victories have come on the road, tying Toronto for the most road wins in the second of back-to-back games across that span.
Being able to manage the game and to manage minutes on the first night of back-to-back games is helpful, and Carbery and his staff were able to do that last night against the Islanders, building a 4-0 lead and carrying it into the penultimate minute of the middle frame before the Isles scored the first of two power-play goals to cut that cushion in half.
But Carbery believes it’s more of a mental thing with the players, in being able to fight through the fatigue, particularly when both teams are on equal footing in having played the previous night, as is the case with Sunday’s game at MSG.
“I think it's a small part,” says Carbery of managing minutes. “I don't put too much into it. That's a luxury if you built a lead, or even sometimes when you're trailing on that first [night], you sort of think about it in the back of your mind when you're deploying certain lines and certain [defense] pairs late in the game, if you’re playing the next night. So you can manage some minutes and that.
“But these games – both teams being in the same spot, I think, in my opinion, it's just here [tapping his head] – it's the mental part of being able to play the second half of a back to back and do all the things, the little things inside of your structure that need to be done. For both teams, the physical part of it is what it is; it's who can make or limit the amount of mental mistakes they make as fatigue sets in inevitably in the in the second half of back-to-backs”
Sweet Memory – Four years ago Monday – on Oct. 13, 2021 – Caps center Hendrix Lapierre made his NHL debut against the Rangers in Washington on opening night of the 2021-22 season. Lapierre made the night a memorable one when he scored his first NHL goal at 13:02 of the second period.
After taking a long, lofted feed from Conor Sheary near center ice, T. J. Oshie broke into the New York zone on the left side, with Lapierre galloping up behind him in the rear view. Oshie cut toward the slot, dishing a nifty backhand feed to the then 19-year-old Lapierre, who quickly fired a wrist shot past Alexandar Georgiev before losing an edge and careening into the backboards.
Oshie grabbed the prone Lapierre, picked him up and bear-hugged him, as Sheary – who is now a member of the Rangers – and the rest of the Caps on the ice raced in to do the same.
Just ahead of the four-year anniversary of that magical moment, we asked Lapierre for his recollections of that event.
“Obviously, one of the best moments of my life; I kind of blacked out when it happened,” he says. “Just the celebration from Oshie and the guys when it happened was awesome, a really good memory. It was just a really, really special moment.”
What made it even cooler was the fact that Sheary picked up one of the assists. Years earlier, when he scored his own first NHL goal with the Penguins, Sidney Crosby had the single assist.
“I still have Oshie and Sheary’s sticks at my house,” Lapierre explains. “When it happened, Shears came to see me and said that when he scored his first goal, Crosby had an assist and offered his stick. So it’s a really special memory, and obviously Osh has done so much for the game of hockey and so much here in Washington, and you look up to a guy like that for sure. So to have him be on my line and assist and help me throughout that process was really special, and it’s something I’ll obviously remember forever.”
As an added bonus, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin potted a couple of goals that night as well, in a 5-1 Washington win, the Caps’ most recent opening night victory. Those two Ovechkin goals that night gave him 732 for his NHL career, moving him past Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne (731), who finished his 18-year NHL career with the Rangers in 1989. Dionne also played for Detroit and Los Angeles.
In The Nets – A night after Logan Thompson made 34 saves against the Islanders to earn his first victory of the season, Charlie Lindgren gets the net for Washington against the Rangers in New York.
Coming off consecutive 20-win seasons, Lindgren makes his 2025-26 season debut against the Blueshirts. With 20 wins last season, Lindgren cracked the Capitals’ all-time top 10 in victories with 58; he is now one win shy of matching Michal Neuvirth (59) for ninth place on Washington’s all-time wins ledger, and he is 10 wins shy of surpassing Pat Riggin (67) as the winningest right-catching goaltender in franchise history.
In four career appearances against the Rangers, Lindgren is 3-1-0 with a shutout, a 1.48 GAA and a .943 save pct.
For the Rangers, we are expecting to see veteran Jonathan Quick between the pipes tonight. Quick celebrates his 40th birthday in January, and last season he surpassed the 800-game and 400-win thresholds for his NHL career.
Entering this season, Quick ranks 13th in career victories (404) and 16th in career games played (804) by a goaltender in NHL history. Lifetime against the Capitals, Quick is 9-9-0 in 18 appearances with a 2.78 GAA and a .901 save pct.
All Lined Up – Neither team conducted a morning skate on Sunday, and the Rangers lost the services of defenseman Carson Soucy, who suffered an upper body injury in the win at Pittsburgh on Saturday night. As a result, rookie defenseman Matthew Robertson is likely to draw into the New York lineup tonight. New York has also recalled blueliner Connor Mackey, a 29-year-old journeyman with 42 games worth of NHL experience with Calgary, Arizona and the Rangers.
On Saturday morning – ahead of the game with the Islanders – Carbery hinted at the possibility of lineup alterations for tonight’s game. Prior to tonight’s game, he was asked about lineup changes and he replied, “Yeah, we’re working through a few things, so we won’t know yet. But yeah, you’ll see.”
A reading of the tea leaves indicates a couple of potential changes for Washington, but we won’t speculate here, so this is how the Caps lined up last night and how the Rangers are likely to look without Soucy available:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 8-Ovechkin
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 43-Wilson
72-Beauvillier, 29-Lapierre, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 34-Sourdif
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
2-Iorio
15-Milano
47-Chisholm
Injured/Out
52-McIlrath (lower body)
NEW YORK
Forwards
50-Cuylle, 8-Miller, 43-Sheary
10-Panarin, 93-Zibanejad, 13-Lafreniere
71-Parssinen, 42-Laba, 14-Raddysh
84-Edstrom, 39-Carrick, 73-Rempe
Defensemen
44-Gavrikov, 23-Fox
4-Schneider, 17-Borgen
29-Robertson, 18-Vaakanainen
Goalies
32-Quick
31-Shesterkin
Healthy Extras
12-Mackey
22-Brodzinski
Injured/Out
16-Trocheck (upper body)
24-Soucy (upper body)
