Rangers look to put the Great Chase on hold in massive game against Capitals
The New York Rangers enter Wednesday night sitting in the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference after bottoming out in the Metropolitan Division not too long ago. They’ll look to win three straight games for the first time since November, but they’ll have to do it against Alex Ovechkin and the first-place Washington Capitals when the two rivals clash at Madison Square Garden.
One of the biggest keys will be shutting down Ovechkin, who is blazing his way to surpassing The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, for the all-time NHL goals lead. The Great Eight has 31 goals on the season, bringing his career total to 884, just 10 goals shy of tying Gretzky at 894 and 11 away from breaking the record that has stood for over three decades.
Ovechkin has done this at 39 years old, and in a season when he missed 16 games with a fractured fibula. Somehow, he just keeps finding the net. He’s got five goals in his past five games, and all eyes will be on him tonight against the Rangers.
“That’s not a distraction for us,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said Wednesday. “I don’t know what it is over there, but for us it’s about the game tonight. It’d be great to not have (Ovechkin) push forward in that race. That’s about the only way that we’ll talk about it when it comes up in a power-play meeting or how we defend and things we do.”
Ovechkin has made a living scoring goals on the power play from the left circle, so playing a disciplined game and staying out of the penalty box is one way that the Rangers will be able to limit his scoring chances
Other than that, it will be continuing to play team defense, being physical, and blocking shots. A recipe that has led to success for the Rangers over the past several games.
“Obviously he’s a tremendous goal scorer,” said Laviolette, who coached Ovechkin with the Capitals from 2020-23. “From a hockey standpoint we talk about it, but not necessarily a race standpoint.”
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The Capitals have gotten the better of the Rangers in both meetings this season. They first faced off back on Oct. 29, and the Capitals came away with a 5-3 win thanks to two goals from Ovechkin. It was another high-scoring affair on Jan. 7 when the Capitals won 7-4. Ovechkin cashed in another goal in that game.
Those games were against a different Rangers team. There’s been quite a few moves since then, and now the Rangers are on a run of four wins in five games. Some real confidence is being built inside the room, especially now that the Rangers sit in a playoff spot for the time being.
“I just think (consistency and confidence) go hand in hand,” J.T. MIller explained. “If you play the right way and play the team game, typically you get the results, you get confidence, and away you go. We’re going to need everything today, obviously we know who we’re playing against. It’s going to be a fun game.”
The Rangers will need to come up with one of their better performances to date if they want to come away with another huge two points and their first three-game win streak in over three months (No. 14-19). They may be coming off back-to-back shutout wins, but the Nashville Predators and the New York Islanders are a far cry from the Capitals, who are second overall in the NHL standings.
“They’re a great team,” defenseman Braden Schneider said. “They’re obviously at the top of the League, so we have to make sure that we’re ready to go. They’re a hard, physical team. They’re deep all around, so we have to make sure that we’re bringing our best and we’re ready to go for it.”
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