The Washington Capitals have stalled after a sizzling 10-1-1 stretch by dropping five of their last six games.
The Capitals will look to dust themselves off after their latest setback when they host the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
Washington fell to 1-3-2 in its last six games following a home-and-home series sweep by the Detroit Red Wings. The Capitals answered a 5-2 setback to the Red Wings on Saturday and gained one point with a 3-2 overtime loss Sunday.
Ethen Frank recorded his second multi-goal performance of the season in the rematch.
“Part of my job is to do that a little more consistently,” Frank said. “If I can do that more often, it will help the team.”
Frank has six goals this season, including two to go along with two assists in Washington’s 8-4 romp over the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 20.
“(Frank) got us a point tonight,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “He scores two massive goals, including the game-tying goal in the third at a point where you are really pushing for an equalizer.
“He has stepped up big time for us, which is why he’s getting an expanded role.”
Dylan Strome notched his club-best sixth multi-assist performance of the season and John Carlson set up Frank’s game-tying goal midway through the third period on Sunday. That assist was the 590th in the career of Carlson, who moved past Ryan Suter for the fifth-most assists by an American-born defenseman in NHL history.
Charlie Lindgren, who made 24 saves Sunday, turned aside all 35 shots he faced in his lone shutout of the season — a 1-0 victory over the Rangers on Oct. 12. He is 4-1-0 with two shutouts, a 1.19 goals-against average and .957 save % in five career meetings with New York. However, No. 1 starter Logan Thompson is likely to get the nod Tuesday.
Jonathan Quick made 20 saves in the previous encounter versus the Capitals and turned aside 30 shots in the Rangers’ 2-1 setback to the Nashville Predators on Sunday. Similarly, top netminder Igor Shesterikin should be in line to start in Washington.
The decision snapped a modest two-game winning streak for the Rangers, much to the chagrin of head coach Mike Sullivan.
“It’s disappointing because we had a couple of really high-character wins the last couple of games, and these guys have worked extremely hard,” Sullivan said. “We knew this was going to be a tough game going into it, but it doesn’t make any excuse for the lack of execution. I think there’s going to be points in the schedule where every team is going to play against the schedule a little bit. This was one of them for us.”
New York played without captain J.T. Miller, who is labeled as week-to-week with an upper-body injury. He sustained the injury during Saturday’s 5-4 shootout win against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Rangers also appear to be dealing with the flu bug. Gabe Perreault and Matt Rempe sat out Sunday’s game with an illness while leading scorer Artemi Panarin (13 goals, 23 assists) missed Thursday’s game in St. Louis while under the weather as well.
“(It stinks) not having everybody,” Vincent Trocheck said, per the New York Post. “Obviously, tough spot back-to-back, and then guys are getting sick and guys go down. But, I mean, that doesn’t affect how we play with pride. If there’s anything to take away from (Sunday’s loss), we didn’t play with pride.”
The two teams will also meet in D.C. in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve.
–Field Level Media
