The Washington Capitals will wrap up their season series against the New York Rangers on Wednesday night. Washington has won both prior meetings with their Metropolitan Division rivals by a combined 12-7 score.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery shared pregame that, outside of Charlie Lindgren getting the nod in net, he expects to go with the same personnel that beat the Ottawa Senators on Monday. However, Carbery does anticipate moving around his line combinations.
“Chuckie will start. Everything else will be the same,” Carbery said. “There will be some lines moved around but everybody else will be the same.”
Lines from March 3 against Senators
The Capitals prevailed 5-4 over the Senators in a shootout, snapping a season-long three-game losing streak. Despite the win, Carbery wasn’t thrilled with his team’s performance, likely leading to the changes he anticipates for Wednesday night.
“We’ll take the win because we’ve been reeling a little bit here at home,” Carbery said postgame. “Didn’t look good out there. Didn’t feel good at any point of the game, so we’ll look at a few things. We’ll take the two points.”
Washington was led by a combined seven points (3g, 4a) from their second line of Connor McMichael, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Tom Wilson. Logan Thompson made 33 stops during regulation and overtime and three more in the shootout.
Lindgren will take the reins from Thompson against New York. He lost his last start against the St. Louis Blues, making just 14 stops on 18 shots faced. He’ll make his first appearance against the Rangers this season and he is 2-1 with a 1.35 goals-against average, a .955 save percentage, and one shutout against them in his career.
The Capitals will see JT Miller for the first time as a member of the Rangers this season. Miller has 14 points (7g, 7a) in 11 games with New York since coming over from the Vancouver Canucks in a late January trade.
New York has won seven of their last 10 and moved back into a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. If the season were to end before puck drop, the two teams would be first-round opponents, repeating their series from last year.
