Capitals set to open Stanley Cup playoff series against New York Rangers - The Washington Post

NEW YORK — The Washington Capitals are set to open their first-round series of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Sunday afternoon, meeting the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Washington, the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, squeaked into the playoffs with a win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. And the Capitals are heavy underdogs against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers.

But after a roller-coaster ride of a season — that began with Washington rallying around the mantra that it had something to prove this year — the Capitals enter the first-round series knowing the challenge that is ahead, but also having an internal belief that, as they have all season, they can pull off a surprising outcome.

“You look at the Rangers, they’re quite the opponent,” goaltender Charlie Lindgren said earlier this week. “Presidents’ Trophy winners, top-to-bottom from their forward group, their defense group, their goaltending, it’s elite. So when it comes to this matchup, we’re going to have to put everything we got into it.

“But again, I have a lot of confidence in this group and I think what we’ve gone through this year prepares us for this matchup.”

Sunday’s game will air on Monumental Sports Network and ESPN.

Lindgren is Washington’s projected starter for Game 1; Igor Shesterkin is expected to start for the Rangers.

At practice on Saturday, the Capitals showed no changes to the lines and defensive pairings that they used against the Flyers. Connor McMichael centered Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie, Dylan Strome centered Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson, Hendrix Lapierre centered Max Pacioretty and Sonny Milano, and the fourth line of Nic Dowd, Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aube-Kubel remained intact. On defense, Martin Fehervary and John Carlson formed the top pair, with Dylan McIlrath slotting in alongside Alex Alexeyev and Trevor van Riemsdyk skating with Vincent Iorio.

Rasmus Sandin, who suffered an upper-body injury against the Ottawa Senators on April 7, and Nick Jensen, who suffered an upper-body injury against the Tampa Bay Lightning on April 13, both joined Washington for practice in noncontact jerseys.

“Trending in the right direction,” Capitals Coach Spencer Carbery said of the injured blue liners. “Both practiced today and were a part of essentially everything we did on the ice, so it’s a good step.”

Carbery didn’t rule out the possibility that one or both of Sandin and Jensen could come into the lineup for Game 1. He will address the media at 12:45 p.m.

This story will update.

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