Pregame Notes: Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers

 The Caps are home tonight as they welcome their rival the New York Rangers to town to try to win their 3rd in a row. Here is the lineup based on the morning skate.

Forwards:

Ovechkin-Backstorm-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Winnik-Richards-Beagle


Defense and Goalies:

Alzner-Niskanen
Orpik-Orlov
Weber-Chorney


Holtby
Grubauer


Other Notes:

*Braden Holtby will be back in tonight as they Rangers will go with Annti Raanta who is in because Henrik Lundqvist is dealing with a neck injury.

*Daniel Winnik looked pretty good in his debut, especially on the penalty kill. However, he had more speed then I originally thought which was good to see.

*The Caps need to make a statement tonight, the Rangers are a good team and have taken the Caps down in the playoffs many times. However, the last two games the Caps have been able to beat them.

*The Caps again need to try to get off to a good start. They had a better start against the Maple Leafs but I feel like they could still do a little better. They will need to try to string together 3 good periods to beat the Rangers.

*Jay Beagle's return to the lineup has been great for this team, he brings speed back to the 4th line. Also he has been good on the PK and face-offs.

*I feel like the other night the Caps did a good job on the forecheck, they need to do that tonight against the Rangers defense corp who may be without Marc Stall because of the flu. The are a solid group so they have to try to wear them down.

*One of the most important things tonight is the outlet passes have to be clean, the Rangers are very god with their sticks and can cause turnovers. Have to make smart passes so that the Rangers don't have a chance at odd man rushes.

*Overall this can be a statement game for the boys. With a win the Caps could go up 20 points on the Rangers with 18 games left in the season. So, this can give the Caps a chance to basically warp up the division. Should be a great game and atmosphere tonight.


Gametime 7:00 p.m on CSN