Washington Capitals: Top 3 key players to watch against Rangers

The Washington Capitals will look to bounce back from their first regulation loss of the season when they take on the New York Rangers Thursday night in Manhattan. Unlike what we’ve seen so far this season, this will be a one game set before the Caps return home to host the Philadelphia Flyers on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Caps dropped a 5-3 game to the Boston Bruins where they surrendered five unanswered goals after leading 3-0. They’ll look to play a 60 minute game tonight. The Caps will need to close out their opponents better if they want success.

Here are your top 3 players to keep an eye on tonight.

#3 Vitek Vanecek

With Ilya Samsonov still on the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list (along with Evgeny Kuznetsov), the Caps will look to Vitek Vanecek in goal against the Rangers. He was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for January after he posted a 5-0-2 record with a 2.78 goals against average and a .918 save percentage in seven January appearances.

Vanecek became the eighth player in franchise history to be named rookie of the month and the fourth goaltender (Michal Neuvirth, Jim Carey, and Bob Mason) and the first since Neuvirth in October 2010. Through games played Feb. 2, Vanecek ranks third in the NHL with five wins.