Rangers Host Capitals as Ovechkin Chases History – Pregame Checklist

               After a crucial win against the New York Islanders before the holiday break, the Rangers have another crucial game against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals (7:00 P.M. ET, MSG).

Previous Game

               The Blueshirts are coming off a 5-3 victory over the New York Islanders. The Rangers trailed the Islanders 3-2 entering the third period but were able to turn it around after dominating most of the play. The biggest takeaway from the game was the bounce back of Kaapo Kakko. Kakko turned the puck over which directly led to Mathew Barzal’s breakaway goal. But he wasn’t down on himself and head coach Gerard Gallant trusted the former number two overall pick and was rewarded. Kakko went to the front of the net and scored the game winner with less than three minutes to go in the third period to send Madison Square Garden into a frenzy. Igor Shesterkin didn’t have much to do has he faced just 18 shots in the entire game.

Rangers vs Capitals

• The Blueshirts will now face the Washington Capitals for the first time this season
• Expect the Rangers to stick with the same lineup including Vitaly Kravtsov on the top line with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad
• Kakko and the rest of the ‘Kid Line’ has heated up during the Blueshirts uptick in momentum. Kakko has seven points in the last eight games including five goals
• Shesterkin will be back in goal as he goes for his 18^th win of the season
• Vincent Trocheck is currently on a six-game point streak (3G-7A)
• Alex Ovechkin is coming off a two-goal game against Winnipeg. Ovechkin is currently sitting at 802 goals – second most in league history behind just Wayne Gretzky. ‘The Great Eight’ is chasing down Gretzky who has the most goals in history with 894. Ovechkin currently has 16 points (9G-7A) in his last ten games.
• Darcy Kuemper is expected to start in goal for Washington. Kuemper won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche last season, but signed in Washington as a free agent. The Capitals parted ways with both Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov at the end of last season. Kuemper is 9-9-2 with a .916 save percentage.
• Washington enters the game 9-1-0 in their last ten and are on a four-game win streak. They have a division record of 3-2-1.
• New York enters the game 8-2-0 in their last ten games and have a division record of 4-5-0.
• The Capitals are currently very injured leaving them having to rely on their depth. The Capitals will be playing this game without the following
  • Nicklas Backstrom
  • T.J. Oshie
  • John Carlson
  • Tom Wilson
  • Connor Brown
  • Martin Fehervary
• The Rangers have a fully healthy lineup entering the game
• Fun Fact: Ryan Lindgren’s brother Charlie is the backup netminder for the Capitals

Projected Lineup

Panarin-Zibanejad-Kravtsov

Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko

Kreider-Trocheck-Vesey

Gauthier-Brodzinski-Goodrow

Lindgren-Fox

Miller-Trouba

Harpur-Schneider

Shesterkin