Staring down the possibility of elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Washington Capitals received a much-needed boost to their lineup Sunday morning.
After being out since suffering upper-body injuries April 7 and April 13, respectively, defensemen Rasmus Sandin and Nick Jensen are expected to return to the lineup for Game 4 of Washington’s first-round series against the New York Rangers.
“On track to play tonight,” Coach Spencer Carbery said Sunday morning. “We’ll see how the rest of the day goes, but looking optimistic.”
Defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, who suffered an upper-body injury in Friday’s Game 3 loss, previously was ruled out. The Capitals had grown increasingly thin on the blue line after losing Vincent Iorio to an upper-body injury in Game 1, so the return of Sandin and Jensen would significantly bolster the defense.
“It should help us a bunch,” Carbery said. “Two guys that have been in our lineup the majority of the year. Good individual defensemen. Both do different things but also give us NHL-caliber D-men, which we’ve had there. ... [They] have a ton of experience in these situations.”
Sandin will return to his role running the second power-play unit, which included forwards Tom Wilson, Connor McMichael and Max Pacioretty on Sunday morning. (Ivan Miroshnichenko served as the placeholder in that group for Alex Ovechkin, who plays with both units.) Having Jensen back will give a lift to Washington’s penalty kill, which has had its difficulties in this series.
The New York Islanders and the Tampa Bay Lightning staved off elimination with wins Saturday in Game 4, and the Capitals are looking to do the same against the Rangers on Sunday night.
“Throw everything at them,” winger T.J. Oshie said. “There’s really no reason to be nervous. We don’t got any time for it. Just go out there, get to our game. We looked at some stuff this morning that I think will help us in the match tonight. We’ve got our fans behind us, which always gets the boys going. Excited about the challenge.”
Washington has been at its best this season with its back against the wall. Avoiding a sweep is the biggest such moment the Capitals have faced, but Carbery expects his group to respond to the test.
“I don’t think there’s a cookie-cutter [scenario] of one team’s going to be nervous and one team’s going to be back on their heels,” he said. “We’re going to worry about what we can do and playing up to our standard, and playing with a mind-set of [being] excited for an opportunity to win a game on home ice.
“There’s nothing to be tight about. There’s nothing to be nervous about. We’re going to let it loose once again on home ice.”
This story will be updated.