Pregame Notes: Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers Game 4

 The Caps look to take a 3-1 series lead over the Rangers tonight as Game 4 from the Verizon Center is about an hour and a half away. Braden Holtby stole Game 3 and looks to keep it going. Here is the lineup.


Forwards:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Ward
Johansson-Kuznetsov-Chimera
Burakovsky-Beagle-Brouwer
Glencross-Laich-Wilson

Defense and Goalies:

Orpik-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Gleason-Green

Holtby
Peters


Other Notes:

*The Burakovsky-Beagle-Brouwer line was able to strike in Game 3. If the Caps can get some production from the bottom six they can take their game to a different level.

*Braden Holtby has again been great but what has also helped is that the Caps have done well blocking shots. They had 27 in Game 3, and that can frustrated a team. If it is hard just to get the puck to Holtby then it helps tremendously.

*The Caps have to have a better start to tonight's game. The Rangers have been the better team in the first period in this series. It hurt them in Game 2 but hasn't in Game's 1 and 3. They just need to establish some sustained pressure and get physical with the Rangers defense.

*Henrik Lundqvist has been very good as well, I think the Caps need to deflect puck and get maybe a little more traffic infront of him tonight. I expect Hank to be on his A game so the Caps will have to fire away tonight.

*Another thing is tonight they Caps have to make sure they get pucks out of their zone and dump it deep into the Rangers zone. The Rangers have been good at blocking some of those and they can lead to odd man rushes the other way. So, just take care of the puck.

*The Hershey Bears open up their 2nd Round series tonight at the Giant Center against the Rangers affiliate the Hartford Wolf Pack. Now the series in the AHL are regular best of seven.

*Overall this is a huge chance for the Caps to put the Rangers in a 3-1 hole. Not that is a automatic series win in the NHL but it would give the Caps a good chance to knock down the defending Eastern Conference Champions. A loss means the series turns into a best of three with two games at MSG. So, tonight is a big game in this series.


Gametime 7:30 p.m on NBCSN