Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers

The Washington Capitals are pulling away from the rest of the conference, but their opponents on Thursday can not say the same thing, they can not, in fact, even rely on playing additional hockey into the middle to last portion of April. The fledging New York Rangers will host the hottest team in the league on Thursday.

To say that the Capitals (38-12-6) are rolling would be an insult. Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals are on fire, winning 11 straight games, the last 10 of which have all come in regulation.

They have opened up a ten-point lead in the Eastern Conference’s top seed, ahead of the New Jersey Devils. The 11 straight victories is a record for Washington and with another win, the Capitals can tie for the most consecutive victories for any team since the lockout.

The team that has that mark is the 2007-08 San Jose Sharks, the team the Capitals are battling with for the best record in the league. On basis of Washington’s win on Tuesday, over the Boston Bruins and San Jose’s home loss to the Detroit Red Wings on the same day, Washington took the points lead 82-81.

Washington scored four unanswered goals and streamrolled last year’s top ranked team in the East, the Bruins in their building 4-1 with Ovechkin netting the empty netter to end all suspense in the game.

That was Ovechkin’s 36th goal of the season and he is one of nine players to have double-digit goals this season which is in quite stark contrast to the sputtering Rangers (25-25-7) team, who has scored just 2.49 goals per game.

The New York Rangers, which blew a 2-0 and 3-1 lead in their opening round matchup a season ago, have not looked much like a playoff team recently, going 0-5-1 with nine goals in that span.

New York was able to get back on the winning track, a 2-1 win in Los Angeles on Tuesday, but still find themselves in a three-way tie for the final playoff spot. Their 57 points have them locked with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.

Washington has dominated in the last eight regular season meetings against New York, going 6-1-1 in the last eight games with Ovechkin scoring 10 points, including six goals.

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