Rangers at Capitals preview

RANGERS (2-2-0) at CAPITALS (4-2-2)
7 p.m. ET; NHLN, TVAS, NBCSWA, MSG, NHL.TV

Carlson is third in the NHL with 14 points (three goals, 11 assists). He is the seventh defenseman in NHL history with at least 14 points through his team's first eight games.
Washington defenseman Michal Kempny is scheduled to make his season debut. He missed the first eight games because of a hamstring injury.
The Rangers have lost their past two after a 2-0-0 start and are playing the second of back-to-back games. Henrik Lundqvist will start in goal after Alexandar Georgiev made 33 saves in a 5-2 loss at the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

Players to watch

Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad has eight points (four goals, four assists) in New York's first four games.
Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a five-game point streak.

They said it

"The only thing I like is when we did play the Winnipeg game (Oct. 3) and then the Ottawa game (Oct. 5), there was a big level of improvement from one night to the next. Hopefully we can make that next step since we're playing back to back." -- Rangers coach David Quinn
"Chances happen, chances get created; sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't. They seem to be going in right now, which is nice. Just keep working the same way. It's about the process more than about what happens on the other side." -- Capitals defenseman John Carlson

Rangers projected lineup

Artemi Panarin -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Chris Kreider -- Brett Howden -- Kaapo Kakko
Brendan Smith -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Greg McKegg -- Lias Andersson -- Micheal Haley
Brady Skjei -- Tony DeAngelo
Libor Hajek -- Jacob Trouba
Marc Staal -- Adam Fox
Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched:Brendan Lemieux
Injured:None

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Lars Eller -- Garnet Hathaway
Brendan Leipsic -- Nic Dowd -- Chandler Stephenson
Jonas Siegenthaler -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Nick Jensen
Michal Kempny -- Radko Gudas
Braden Holtby
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched:Tyler Lewington, Travis Boyd, Martin Fehervary
Injured:Richard Panik (upper body)

Status report

The Rangers did not hold a morning skate. … Panik, injured in a collision with Siegenthaler late in the second period of a 4-3 win against the Maple Leafs on Wednesday, was placed on long-term injured reserve … Boyd and Fehervary were recalled from Hershey of the American Hockey League.

Stat pack

Lundqvist would tie
Gump Worsley
(860) for 11th place on the NHL all-time games-played list for goalies. … Panarin has two goals and two assists in his first four games with the Rangers after signing as a free agent on July 1. … Kuznetsov has six points (three goals, three assists) during a five-game point streak. … Backstrom is two assists shy of passing
Daniel Sedin
(648) for fifth in NHL history among Sweden-born players.