Caps (18-10-3, 39 points) at New York Rangers (17-13-1, 35 points)
What » Game #32
Where » Madison Square Garden
When » 7 p.m. tonight
TV » CSN HD
Radio » WFED-1500 AM
The lineups could be jumbled again in New York tonight. AHL Hershey forward Andrew Gordon has been recalled and will play – Bruce Boudreau just wouldn’t say whom among Washington’s contingent of sick forwards he is replacing. Defenseman Tyler Sloan is eligible to come off injured reserve, but will not play. Mike Green sat out last night’s 3-2 loss to Colorado with what we thought was an illness. But Green didn’t make the trip to New York. Is he really just sick – or is something more bothering him?
“He’s not on the trip,” Boudreau said. That was all the elaboration we got.
As for the goalie: Semyon Varlamov is in net and there’s a chance we’ve seen the end of the rotating goalie situation. I didn’t think Michal Neuvirth played all that bad on Saturday against Colorado other than his one shaky goal early.
“I think Varly might start a few in a row, whether he wins or not,” Boudreau said. “We’ll see. But you’re talking to me right now and that’s my attitude.”
The media contingent here at Madison Square Garden asked a follow-up question on Alex Semin’s awful penalty/ejection in the second period of yesterday’s loss. His teammates – and even Boudreau – weren’t as harsh as I thought after the game. But what gets said to us and what gets said in the room are two vastly different things. Boudreau was a little more blunt today.
“Don’t ever do it again. It was a selfish penalty,” Boudreau said. “[Colorado defenseman John-Michael] Liles hit him a couple times, but this is hockey, this isn’t tiddlywinks. You got to suck that up. Can’t do what [Semin] did. I think at that point in time we had 8-0 on shots on goal and had everything going our way and then had to kill a penalty for five minutes.”
How about some thought on Alex Ovechkin, who had an assist yesterday, but looked far more dangerous all over the ice than he has in recent weeks. There a handful of old-school No. 8 hits and he seemed to drive the net harder than he has in a while.
“I thought it was a real positive sign. Then again it was one game,” Boudreau said. “I always say when we see a guy and its ‘Oh, he was really good’ that it’s one game. Let’s see the consistency. Let’s do it game in and game out. Alex has got that capability and he’s done it before. I hope yesterday was an enlightenment for him that he knows he played well and hopefully he’ll continue to do that.”
Could be some other lineup tweaks against the Rangers. Does rookie Marcus Johansson return after sitting against the Avalanche? Given the back-to-back games does D.J. King get a game after being a healthy scratch on Saturday?
Washington went 0-3-1 on its recent homestand and is 0-4-1 in its last five games so things aren’t exactly going well. That is the first five-game losing streak under Bruce Boudreau in over three seasons (256 games) as head coach. Then again – they are still just five points behind Pittsburgh (21-8-2, 44 points) for the best record in the Eastern Conference and lead the Southeast Division by three points.
Mike Knuble recorded goal No. 250 on Saturday night. Only 30 active NHL players have that many. Plus – talk about your late bloomer – 200 of those goals came after the age of 30. After a slow start to the year and suffering through a broken jaw last month, Knuble, 38, has three goals in his last five games and five points in his last six games.
Washington has won three in a row at Madison Square Garden and with another win tonight would tie the franchise record for most consecutive wins at MSG set in 1987 and 1988. Include the playoff games against the Rangers at the Garden two years and Washington is 6-1-1 in the Big Apple in its last eight games.
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