Washington @ New York preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 24, 2019 ) NY Rangers 5, Washington 6

Captain Alex Ovechkin hopes to continue another scoring surge and give his Washington Capitals a chance to move into first place in the Metropolitan Division Sunday afternoon when they visit the rival New York Rangers. Ovechkin enjoys a comfortable lead in the league with 45 goals after scoring seven times in his last eight games and posting at least a point in every contest - 11 total - during the same span.

“His ability to score goals, create offense, is something that I have never seen before,” Washington right wing T.J. Oshie told reporters of Ovechkin. “There are greats in the league, but none that I have seen that are such a natural prolific goal scorer. He does a lot of heavy lifting for us. It goes to show how special of a player he is.” The Capitals, who are 8-0-1 in their last nine games against the Rangers, have won three straight and five of six overall to slide into virtual tie with the New York Islanders in the division after beating them 3-1 on Friday. The rebuilding Rangers, who dealt two of their top four scorers before the trade deadline, will try to put up a fight after suffering a 4-2 setback at home against Montreal on Friday for their third straight loss (0-1-2). “It just felt like the goals (against) deflated us, especially that second one,” Rangers coach David Quinn told reporters after Friday’s defeat. “Just the way they got them was too easy. Here we are working hard and getting chances, and nothing going in for us. Bad bounces and quirky plays and it ends up in the back of the net.”

TV: 12:30 p.m. ET, NBC, TVA

ABOUT THE CAPITALS (37-21-7): Washington’s top performers are all perking up during the hot streak as Oshie (three goals) and center Nicklas Backstrom (two) each have five points in the past three contests. Center Evgeny Kuznetsov has produced five points in the past four outings to move within one of 60 overall and is slated to play his 400th NHL game Sunday. John Carlson has recorded eight points in his last eight games while fellow defenseman Nick Jensen owns a plus-2 rating with six shots in three games since being acquired from Detroit.

ABOUT THE RANGERS (27-27-10): Center Mika Zibanejad has been the top threat for New York all season long with a team-best 63 points and the Swede needs one goal to set a career high of 28. Chris Kreider is two shy of his career best of 28 goals after posting a pair in the last four games while fellow forward Jimmy Vesey has scored three times and set up three others in the same span. Vladislav Namestnikov, acquired at last season’s trade deadline, has produced four points along with a plus-3 rating in the last four contests to push his total to 24.

OVERTIME

1. New York D Libor Hajek, who came over from Tampa Bay at last year’s trade deadline, had two shots and two takeaways in 17:35 of ice time during his NHL debut Friday.

2. Washington G Braden Holtby beat the Rangers earlier this season to improve to 11-9-1 against them all time with a .919 save percentage.

3. New York D Brendan Smith, who has been taking some shifts up front lately, is slated to play his 400th NHL game Sunday.

PREDICTION: Capitals 4, Rangers 2