PLAYOFF PREVIEWS: DET | MON | NYR | VAN
Schedule/TV (All times ET; * — if necessary)
Capitals lead series 3-2
April 15: Islanders 4, Capitals 1 April 17: Capitals 4, Islanders 3 April 19: Islanders 2, Capitals 1 OT April 21: Capitals 2, Islanders 1 OT April 23: Capitals 5, Islanders 1 April 25: at NY Islanders, 3 p.m. TV: NBC, TVA, SportsNet *April 27: at Washington, Time TBD
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Season series: Tied 2-2.
Injuries: Travis Hamonic’s return from an apparent leg injury looms large for the Isles, who require his presence on an otherwise shallow defense corps beyond the top pairing. They’re also without forwards Mikhail Grabovski (concussion), Frans Nielsen (undisclosed) and Matt Martin (undisclosed).
Capitals forwards Tom Wilson (head), Jay Beagle (upper-body) and Eric Fehr (upper-body) were all absent from the season finale. Wilson has since resumed skating and all three are expected to return soon.
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Key players: Ovechkin’s 53 goals this season led the NHL by a mile. He’s obviously the key component to the Caps’ power play, which topped the league in efficiency at 25.3 percent. They should score in droves. The Isles are led by captain John Tavares, who finished one point shy of the NHL lead with 86 (38 goals, 48 assists).
Goalie matchup: A weakness of Washington’s in years past, goalie Braden Holtby is coming off a career year in which he went 41-20-10 with a 2.22 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. Jaroslav Halak (38-17-4, 2.43, .917) has been equally important to the Isles but is making his first playoff start in three years and hasn’t carried the load in the postseason since he led the Canadiens to their conference finals run in 2008-09.
Prediction: Capitals in 6.
