Preview: Rangers Head to the Capital to Take on Washington

Rangers (33-35-8, 74 pts) at Capitals (45-24-7, 97 pts)

8 pm; Capital One Arena; Washington, D.C.

NBCSN; ESPN 1050 AM

Those points came in a 4-2 loss to these same Capitals, who enter play five points ahead of Pittsburgh with a game in hand.
Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-best 45th goal of the season Monday night at Madison Square Garden. He leads the Capitals with 83 points, followed by Evgeny Kuznetsov's 75 and defenseman John Carlson's 64 in 76 games.
Philipp Grubauer injured himself in Monday's win over the Rangers and will be unavailable tonight. Braden Holtby will get the start.
With New Jersey's victory last night, the Rangers were eliminated from playoff contention. Tonight's game will mark the first time since the start of the 2005-06 season that New York plays a game in which they are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

Players to Watch

In his last 20 appearances against the Capitals (dating back to Dec. 12, 2010), Lundqvist has posted a 12-6-2 record, along with a 2.28 GAA, a .921 SV%, and 3 SO.
After his goal and assist performance against the Rangers on Monday, Kuznetsov enters tonight's game with five consecutive multi-point games. He's got four goals and seven assists during that stretch.

Say What?

"We're facing some good teams here down the stretch. I thought last game against Washington, they came out really hard. Watching from the side, you can see their skill and what they can do if you're not ready." - Henrik Lundqvist on Washington

Rangers Projected Lineup

Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Jesper Fast
Kevin Hayes - Filip Chytil - Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey - Lias Andersson - Ryan Spooner
Cody McLeod - Vladislav Namestnikov - Pavel Buchnevich
Marc Staal - Neal Pionk
Rob O'Gara - Brady Skjei
John Gilmour - Ryan Sproul

Inside the Numbers

The Rangers have earned at least one point in 19 of their last 30 games against Washington, dating back to Dec. 12, 2010 (17-11-2 record). In addition, the Blueshirts have registered at least one point in 10 of their last 17 contests against the Capitals, dating back to Jan. 19, 2014 (9-7-1 record).