The Rangers, who should be fresh after two days off, face the Capitals in a MSG matinee on NBC at 12:30 pm. Washington comes in off a shootout loss to Detroit in Saturday. Braden Holtby got the nod in that one, so Philip Grubauer will start for the Capitals today, though that isn't much of a drop off between the pipes. Following today's game, New York takes on the Canadiens' on Tuesday.

Fixing the sputtering power play, which is in a 3-for-33 skid, was the main focus at practice Saturday. To help in that endeavor, Pavel Buchnevich, who was a healthy scratch Thursday against the Islanders. will be in the lineup and on the first unit. That five-man unit also includes Ryan McDonagh and Mats Zuccarello at the points with Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad joining Buch up front. The second unit is Brady Skjei and Derek Stepan at the points with JT Miller, Jimmy Vesey and Rick Nash up front. For the love of all that is holy, can we scrap the back pass to try and gain momentum and just find another way to gain the offensive zone.

Buch is skating on the fourth line with Oscar Lindberg and Jesper Fast. The other three lines are:

Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey, Derek Stepan, Rick Nash
Michael Grabner, Kevin Hayes, JT Miller

Today would be a great time for Zib to find his game. It's been a struggle since returning from his broken fibula, and if he is matched against the top two lines, Zib will need to score to alleviate the burden on the other trios while also forcing Washington to change their match ups.

Defensively, Kevin Klein, who missed Thursday's game with the flu, is back in, replacing Adam Clendening and should be paired with Brady Skjei. That leaves Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi, with that pair seeing the Nicklas Backstrom-Alexander Ovechkin line a ron, and Marc Staal and NIck Holden as the other dups. Seeing how bad that latter pair has been, it's time for AV to shift it up. Pair Klein and Holden again with Staa and Skjei, who would play the right side, as the other pairs.

Girardi could see some time off in March, depending on how he feels. New York is about to hit the heavy part of their schedule. The Rangers play every other night the next two weeks. In March, there are five back to backs and a stretch of eight games in 13 nights. The March 1 deadline could bring another d-man, but if not, rotating Girardi, Klein and Clendening makes a ton of sense to keep G and Klein fresh. That same could be said about Staal, especially if the team remains ensconced in their current playoff spot.

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