The Rangers look to rebound from a poor performance against the Boston Bruins yesterday afternoon. In Henrik’s first game back the Rangers lost 4-2. Henrik looked rusty for most of the game and the defense looked very lackluster. The Rangers get back at it with another afternoon game, this time at Madison Square Garden against the Washington Capitals.
The Rangers come into this game with a magic number to clinch the division of 5. The Washington Capitals lost 4-3 to the Nashville Predators in their last game yesterday afternoon. Washington is currently in 4th in the Metropolitan Division, with 90 points. They are in 7th in the conference where if the season ended today they would play the Rangers, so this might be a playoff preview.
The Rangers are most likely going to go with Cam Talbot in net, after Henrik Lundqvist played in an afternoon game, yesterday. The Capitals are another team like the Bruins and the Kings that the Rangers have played recently that will come out guns a blazin’, fighting for a playoff spot. As a result of that, this writer thinks the Rangers will come out playing well but be down 1-0 at the end of the first. In the locker room, Alain Vigneault, the head coach of the Rangers will get the group together and remind them that they have the division to fight for and getting back to first in the conference, which would eventually get them home ice in the playoffs. They will come out on fire in the 2nd and put 2 goals on the board, from Rick Nash and Kevin Hayes. The Rangers will withstand a barrage of shots in the 3rd, eventually scoring an empty netter from Carl Hagelin. After the win, the Rangers will be one step closer to clinching the Metropolitan Division, with 8 games left to play.