Gameday: vs. NY Rangers, Nov. 25

Coming off his best game of the year, can Sasha keep it up?

The Washington Capitals will welcome the New York Rangers to Verizon Center Friday afternoon as they look to continue momentum picked up from their two wins this week.  The Caps enter tonight's game 12-7-1, which gives them 25 standings points and places them second in the Southeast Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference.  Washington won their last game 4-3 in overtime over the Jets on Wednesday night.  The Rangers, who have been one of the league's best teams after a poor start, are 10-5-3 on the year for 23 standings points which has them third in the Atlantic Division and eighth in the Conference. The Blueshirts have won seven of their last 10 games, but fell to the Panthers 2-1 on Wednesday.  This is the first of four meetings between these two teams this season.

John Tortorella will go with his rock, Henrik Lundqvist, in nets for the second consecutive game.  Lundqvist, consistently among the league's best in every single goaltending category, made 36 saves in a 2-1 losing effort on Tuesday and has his usual outstanding peripherals as well: the Swede has a 7-4-3 record, 2.12 GAA, .935 save percentage and a shutout to his name this season.  The Rangers will be without several key players for today's game.  Defenseman Marc Staal has yet to play a game this season with a concussion that he suffered last year on a hit from brother Eric, while winger Wojtek Wolski has a sports hernia and center Mike Rupp has a bum knee.  All of New Yorks' big guns, however, including shiny new acquisition Brad Richards and newly minted captain Ryan Callahan, are healthy and will play.

Tomas Vokoun is expected to start in goal for Bruce Boudreau following his win on Wednesday, in which he made 22 saves.  Vokoun has started three consecutive games for the Caps and on the year he owns a 2.66 GAA, .910 save percentage, and a shutout to go along with a 10-4-0 record.  On the injury front, Mike Green (groin) and Jay Beagle (face/concussion) are both out with long-term injuries and are not even skating at the moment.  John Erskine is considered questionable with a shoulder injury, but even if he is healthy, it seems unlikely that he would crack the lineup with how well Dmitry Orlov has been playing well in his stead.  The healthy scratch among the forward corps is anyone's guess, as Joel Ward is likely to re-enter the lineup after being benched Wednesday for missing a meeting.

Puck drops for this one 7:08-ish.  Check back later.