There has been no doubt, however, about how Lundqvist has started the season. Lundqvist has started five of the Rangers' six games and has kept opponents to two goals in each of them - the first time in his NHL career that he has allowed two goals or fewer in each of his first five games. Given the overtimes the Rangers have played over the past week, his goals-against average has dipped to a sterling 1.99 with a .939 save percentage - only twice before has Lundqvist posted a better save percentage through his first five games (.946 in 2011-12, .944 as a rookie in 2005-06).
When he starts both games in a back-to-back, Lundqvist is 53-23-7 with a 2.66 GAA, .909 save percentage and nine shutouts.
At the other end of the rink, Quinn has been asking his Rangers to simplify and shoot more, and they did on Tuesday night, to the tune of 43 shots on Colorado's Semyon Varlamov - 14 of them on six power plays. Kreider got the Rangers' first goal when he parked himself on top of Varlamov's crease on a first-period man-advantage and tipped home a long wrist shot from Kevin Shattenkirk (two assists, shootout winner).
"That's where you score goals," said Kreider, who leads the Rangers with three of them. "We continue to do that, we're going to get rewarded. We're playing well in the defensive end but it's about playing heavy and with snarl in the offensive end, too."
"We took a step forward in that area (Tuesday night)," Quinn said. "I thought we got pucks to the net and we went at it a little harder. So that was a step in the right direction for us."
Kevin Hayes picked up his first goal of the season, showing no hesitation to let a one-timer fly from above the right circle, which he buried in the top corner of the net. Last season, Hayes led all Rangers with 15 goals on the road. Mats Zuccarello, the Rangers' leading scorer a year ago, picked up a pair of helpers on Tuesday and has a team-leading five assists.
Those Rangers will face a rested Washington team that has started the year 2-2-1 under first-year coach Todd Reirden and has been about as up-and-down as a team could be in its first five games, opening their season with a 7-0 rout of Boston and following it up the next night with a 7-6 OT loss in Pittsburgh. In their two win, the Caps have outscored opponents 12-2; in their three losses, they have been outscored 17-8.
The Caps have three players with four goals apiece in their first five games: Evgeny Kuznetsov (all four on power plays), T.J. Oshie and Alex Ovechkin, who recently passed Bobby Hull into 17th place on the all-time goals list with his 611th.
Washington has dropped its last two games in regulation and has had three full days at home - one off-day, two days of practice - since their 4-2 home-ice loss to Toronto on Saturday.
