The New York Rangers' first-round opponent is set.
The Washington Capitals clinched the Eastern Conference's second and final wild-card spot with Tuesday's 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, setting up an opening series against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Blueshirts.
Postgame takeaways:Rangers clinch Presidents' Trophy in regular-season finale
It will be the 10th playoff meeting between the Metro Division rivals, with the Rangers winning five of the previous nine. That includes the most recent in 2015, when New York rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to win in seven games.
This latest chapter is expected to begin Sunday at Madison Square Garden, with the start time to be announced.
We'll have plenty of time between now and then to dive deep and preview the matchup, but let's start with three things to know about the surprising Capitals.
Holding off the rebuild
It wasn't too long ago when no one was expecting the Caps to be in this position.
They came out of the all-star break sitting seven points out of a wild-card spot, needing to leapfrog four teams to rally their way back into the playoff picture. Then they appeared to wave the white flag by selling off forwards Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha and defenseman Joel Edmundson at the trade deadline.
It seems the players, which includes an aging core of John Carlson, T.J. Oshie and all-time-great Alex Ovechkin, had other plans.
That trio, along with Rangers' arch nemesis Tom Wilson, were major parts of the 2017-18 Stanley Cup winner. But Carlson is 34, while Oshie is 37 and Ovechkin is 38. Their best days are behind them, with an inevitable rebuild already partially underway.
Washington began that process by hiring 42-year-old head coach Spencer Carbery − a candidate the Blueshirts themselves flirted with but never got too serious about − last summer, and he's showing why he was viewed as one of the top up-and-coming assistants around the league. He's gotten enough out of his veterans, including a 31-goal season from Ovechkin on his march to Wayne Gretzky's record of 894, while grooming a new generation of talent that includes forwards Hendrix Lapierre, Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael and defenseman Martin Fehérváry. He's also overseen a career year from Dylan Strome, who led the Capitals with 67 points, and a breakout season for goalie Charlie Lindgren. (More on the latter in a bit.)
Carbery got the group to buy into a grinding style that emphasizes finishing plays on the interior, with many of Washington's goals coming from the home-plate area in front of the net. That helped them go 9-5-1 in the month of March to scratch and claw their way back into contention.
It's been a bit rockier of late, with a 4-4-2 record in their last 10 games. But the drop-off after the top six teams in the East has been fairly dramatic, opening the door for a flawed team like the Capitals to sneak in.
They'll be underdogs by a wide margin against the 55-23-4 Rangers. Consider that New York has five players who registered 72 points or more, including a 120-point campaign from Hart Trophy candidate Artemi Panarin, while Washington has none.
Here's an even more telling stat: The 40-31-11 Caps ended the regular season with a negative-37 goal differential, which is easily the worst of any team in the East's playoff hunt.
Peter Laviolette's DC return
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette has joked about all the different cities he's coached in − there are six NHL teams in all − but this series will pit his two-most recent places of residency against each other.
The 59-year-old, who ranks seventh all-time with 807 career coaching wins, spent the previous three seasons in D.C. It was one of his least successful stops, with a pair of first-round exits followed by missing the playoffs entirely in 2022-23. He finished with a respectable 115-78-24 record, but expectations were certainly higher than that when he arrived.
Longtime assistant coach Kevin McCarthy, who was with Laviolette throughout his Washington tenure, pointed to their staff arriving during the COVID-19 pandemic as a prohibitive factor that prevented them from creating the "family-type atmosphere and togetherness" that's characterized some of their best teams.
"That never really got a chance to flourish there in Washington because of (COVID), especially the first two years because of all the restrictions we had," McCarthy told lohud.com, part of the USA TODAY Network.
The Lindgren brothers
One of the coolest storylines heading into this series will be the matchup of the Lindgren brothers − Ryan and Charlie.
Ryan is in his sixth season with the Rangers, having established himself years ago as a top-four defenseman who plays with as much grit and heart as anyone. But Charlie, who's four years older, has suddenly burst onto the scene.
The 30-year-old goalie spent parts of six seasons toiling in the AHL before finally playing a full NHL season with Washington last year. He began in a backup role, but earned more ice time as the season wore on and positioned himself for a breakout in 2023-24.
He finished a 25-16-7 record, .911 save percentage and six shutouts, which is tied for the NHL lead. He's also posted a .955 SV% and 1.35 goals against average in three career appearances against the Rangers, including a 4-0 Caps' win on Dec. 9.
"He’s someone I grew up admiring and it was a pretty special moment together to get to play against him in the NHL," Ryan said after that game, which was the first head-to-head meeting between the brothers at the highest level. "It meant a lot. I know it meant a lot to my parents and my family. It’s something we won't forget. It’s obviously tough that we lost, but it was really special."
Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work atlohud.com/sports/rangers/and follow him on Twitter@vzmercogliano.
