The Rangers, meanwhile, have not lost back-to-back games since Oct. 25 and 28 in Chicago and Los Angeles. Since an 0-3 start to the season, the Rangers are 6-2-0 in games following a loss. Quinn acknowledged that "over 82 games, you're going to have stinkers," and that Friday's 4-0 loss in Philadelphia was one of them, but the coach will be looking to see how his troops bounce back not just physically but mentally.
"We were a little bit slow in everything we did, we were slow skating, we were slow thinking, we were slow shooting," Quinn said of the Flyers game. "I wonder, you get five and you win the way we did against the Islanders (in a 5-0 win on Wednesday), all of a sudden you lose your identity and lose who you think you are. We were just doing things that we normally haven't done with the puck, and it really caused us problems."
Certainly one bright spot in the loss was the play of Henrik Lundqvist, who stopped 42 Flyer shots and is a good bet to start for the second straight day on Saturday. Lundqvist has started each end of a back-to-back once this season, on Oct. 16-17, with the Rangers taking three out of four points, beating Colorado in a shootout before an overtime loss in Washington the following night, getting 34 saves from Lundqvist.
Phoenix Copley is expected to start opposite Lundqvist after Braden Holtby made 31 saves in the win over Detroit.
And another bright spot out of Friday's game is that Mats Zuccarello was able to return from his second three-game absence from a groin strain, and while Zuccarello felt his initial return last week had been premature, this one appeared to be right on time. Quinn had him on the fourth line to start, but once Zuccarello felt comfortable in the game the coach bumped him up to play on Mika Zibanejad's right side. He took 21 shifts in the game for 15:29 of ice.
The lineup maneuver "was more to see how he was feeling - there was a lot of uncertainty," Quinn said. "He was very confident that he was going to be able to play and be a full go, but I wanted to put him in a situation where I ease him into it a little bit, because it's a tricky injury. Obviously he had enough and felt good enough where we could put him where he belonged."
Immediately following the game, the Rangers called up Tim Gettinger from Hartford. The 6-6, 220-pound winger, who averaged 32 goals over his final two seasons in junior for Sault Ste. Marie, has carried his scoring touch the American League: He has seven goals, with four assists, in 20 games for the Wolf Pack this season. This is the 20-year-old's first NHL call-up.
The Rangers have 13 healthy forwards on their NHL roster, with the addition of Gettinger and the loss of Cody McLeod to a broken hand in Wednesday's win over the Islanders.
The Capitals have been bit by injuries, too, to top-six forwards. Both T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov have missed four games since taking hits to the head against Winnipeg last week; Oshie did not travel to New York with his teammates, and while Kuznetsov is on the trip, he is not expected to play.
The Capitals are on their annual dads' trip, which will include the game at Madison Square Garden followed by a Monday match in Brooklyn.
On Friday, Wilson played in his sixth game this season after sitting out the first 16 while under suspension for a preseason hit on Oskar Sundqvist of St. Louis. His goal and assist against the Red Wings were his seventh and eighth points.
