2024 playoffs: first round, new york rangers vs washington capitals game 3 open thread
after securing a pair of victories at madison square garden to begin the playoffs, the rangers have hit the road for tonight's contest. capital one arena in the chinatown district of washington d.c is the site for game 3 of new york's opening round series against the washington capitals.
for all the security a 2-0 series lead may appear to provide, the blueshirts are well aware of the illusion that "security" is. each of the rangers' last three playoff series have seen a team take a 2-0 lead before eventually losing the series outright. the rangers were the ones that came back from down 2-0 against the carolina hurricanes in the 2022 divisional finals, but have been ousted from the playoffs each of the past two years after taking 2-0 series leads on the tampa bay lightning and new jersey devils respectively.
new york will look to secure a 3-0 stranglehold in a playoff series for the first time since 2007 with a victory tonight, and the capitals will be throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at the rangers to get back in the series and cut it to 2-1. the rangers withstood a late surge out of the capitals to hold on for the game 2 victory, and will need to avoid a repeat of the sloppy start they put together in that game tonight.
player to watch: jack roslovic
roslovic scored a key goal in game 2, breaking a 2-2 tie with a power play goal midway through the 2nd period to give peter laviolette's squad a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the way. roslovic has had his ups and downs since arriving on broadway at the trade deadline, and there's a school of thought that had washington's max pacioretty opted to waive his no-trade clause rather than stay put, pacioretty would've landed with the rangers and roslovic would be elsewhere right now. keep an eye on roslovic as he looks to build momentum from his strong performance on tuesday and make good on new york's decision to acquire him for its playoff push.
enjoy the game!
