The foe is familiar; the faces, too.
The Capitals have met the Rangers in the playoffs three times in the past four years, most recently with the Blueshirts surviving in seven games last season. No team has won consecutive games, the final five games have been decided by one goal and no team has scored more than three goals in a game.
When this year’s first-round series begins Thursday night in Washington, the Capitals are preparing for a hard-fought rematch, not a reenactment.
Last year, playing under Dale Hunter, the Capitals played with a Rangers-like defensive mindset, grinding out wins while sacrificing bodies. Under new coach Adam Oates, however, they have played with a fast-paced style that fueled a 15-2-2 run to end the regular season.
“I was very confident in what we did last year, but the games were so tight always,” defenseman Karl Alzner said at the Capitals practice facility in Arlington, Va. “We never blew a game open. Whereas this year, I think we can still play in those tight games, but we can still blow games open. I feel very confident in the team now, the way we’ve been playing.”
The Capitals jumped from 13th to fifth in the NHL in scoring and Alex Ovechkin, free to create in the new system, is once again a superstar scorer, leading the NHL with 32 goals.
They are different, but don’t believe the Rangers are.
“They play an aggressive, pressure-type game and they’re involved in every single game,” Oates said. “It’s nothing we haven’t seen. A lot of teams play that way and that’s [Rangers coach John Tortorella’s] version of it… they don’t change. They’re not changing their style or the way he wants them to play and we’re not doing anything different either. We’re playing the way we want to play.”
* Oates said he expects Joel Ward to play in Game 1 tomorrow after the winger participated in a full practice Tuesday. Ward, 32, has missed the past nine games with a knee contusion. … Oates said there were no updates on center Brooks Laich, who underwent a sports hernia surgery and is expected to return during the playoffs, but the return date is unclear.