Washington Capitals (12-7-3 27pts) v. New York Rangers (12-9-2 26pts)
Date: Saturday November 24th, 2018
Time: 2p EST
Station: NBC Sports Washington, MSG, and NHL Network
Preview:
The Washington Capitals roll into Madison Square Garden to face the New York Rangers in a Saturday matinee that sees the Capitals aiming for their fifth straight victory. Meanwhile, the Rangers are going to be looking to get back to their winning ways after being blanked by the Philadelphia Flyers 4-0 on Black Friday.
The Capitals could possibly be starting Pheonix Copley while the Rangers could be starting Alexandar Georgiev in goal. It is still unknown at this time if Evgeny Kuznetsov or TJ Oshie will be on the trip at this time.
Washington Capitals:
Projected Lineup:
Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana — Lars Eller — Brett Connolly
Andre Burakovsky — Travis Boyd — Devante Smith-Pelly
Dmitrij Jaskin — Nic Dowd — Chandler Stephenson
Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen
Michal Kempny — John Carlson
Christian Djoos — Madison Bowey
Pheonix Copley
Braden Holtby
Scratched: Jonas Siegenthaler
Injured: Evgeny Kuznetsov (upper body), T.J. Oshie (Concussion), Brooks Orpik (Knee Surgery)
Capitals Notes:
Reirden said Holtby is starting today and said the plan for now is for Copley to start tomorrow. He was noncommittal on if Oshie and Kuznetsov are traveling to NY. Said both guys are getting looked at by team docs at arena today and determination will be made on that.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) November 23, 2018
Keys to the Game:
1. Control the Tempo
The Capitals need to go into New York and control the tempo against the Rangers who have been red hot at MSG this month. The Capitals also need force the play in the Rangers zone and clog things up and have better puck possession to maintain control of the tempo.
2. Generate better scoring chances
The Capitals need to do a much better job of generating scoring chances. Against Detroit they were sloppy on their powerplay and passed too much, and need to do a better job of getting bodies to the net and getting the puck to the net to generate those opportunities.
New York Rangers:
Projected Lineup:
Vladislav Namestnikov — Mika Zibanejad — Jesper Fast
Chris Kreider — Kevin Hayes — Filip Chytil
Jimmy Vesey — Brett Howden — Ryan Strome
Mats Zuccarello — Lias Andersson — Steven Fogarty
Marc Staal — Neal Pionk
Fredrik Claesson — Kevin Shattenkirk
Brady Skjei — Tony DeAngelo
Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched: Brendan Smith
Injured: Adam McQuaid (lower body), Pavel Buchnevich (broken thumb), Cody McLeod (fractured left hand)
Keys to the Game:
1. Forget Philadelphia happened
On Black Friday the Rangers played a very focused and intense Philadelphia Flyers team, and in the last 5 minutes of the game fell completely apart allowing 3 goals in the final 3 minutes. The Rangers will need to have a short memory and focus on the Capitals as they hopping right into it with another matinee as well.
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