WASHINGTON — The Stanley Cup champion Washington

Capitals renew a divisional rivalry Wednesday night when the New York Rangers visit Capital One Arena for the first of four meetings this season.New York will be playing for the second straight night after Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout victory over the Colorado Avalanche.Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Shattenkirk converted in the shootout and each had two assists for the Rangers (2-4-0). Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes scored in regulation and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves. New York capped a 2-1 homestand in which all three games were decided by one goal.Article continues below ...Coach David Quinn wanted the Rangers to shoot more and Tuesday they put 43 shots on goal.“Obviously Mathieu Perreault Jersey , if we’re going to score goals, we’ve got to get the puck to the net. We took a step forward tonight in that area,” Quinn said. “I thought we got pucks to the net and we went at it a little harder. … So, I thought that was a step in the right direction for us tonight.”The Rangers tallied only their second power-play goal in 18 chances on the seasonQuinn sat right wing Pavel Buchnevich in favor of left wing Cody McLeod.“This guy’s a talented player and I think one of the things he and I have talked about is we just need more out of him consistently,” Quinn said about Buchnevich before the game. “He’s got an awful lot of talent and skill but that’s not going to get you a lot of production offensively if you don’t do the other things you need to do offensively.”The Capitals (2-2-1) have lost two straight and scored two goals in the process.With three days off between games, the Capitals went back to basics. During Sunday’s practice, coach Todd Reirden’s team worked on stick handling drills. At the end of Tuesday’s practice, they worked on faceoffs. The Capitals rank 30th in the league in faceoff win percentage at 43.8.“Yeah, there’s little details that can help our game Nikolaj Ehlers Jersey ,” Lars Eller told NBCSportsWashington.com. “The more you have the puck, easier the game is going to be for you. We have a little more time in between games than usual during the season here, so we have the time to work on something like that, which can be little things that makes the difference.”The start of Sunday’s practice involved each Capital getting a puck and skating circles with it around the rink, working on their handling.“It was a surprise. I don’t think anyone saw that coming,” defenseman Matt Niskanen told the Washington Post. “Some guys just have it, the puck-handling skills. Other guys have to work at it a lot harder or you lose it.”The Capitals went 3-0-1 against the Rangers last season. All of the games were decided by two or fewer goals, and two of the four contests were decided in either overtime or a shootout.Braden Holtby is 10-9-1 with a 2.42 goals against average, a .920 save percentage and one shutout against the Rangers. If Lundqvist goes back-to-back http://www.jetsshoppro.com/authentic-patrik-laine-jersey , he is 21-12-5, 2.66, .909 with four shutouts versus Washington.Alex Ovechkin is tied with Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie for the Capitals lead in goals with four. In his career, Ovechkin has scored 611 goals on 128 goaltenders. His most-frequent victim is Marc-Andre Fleury (23) with Lundqvist (22) next. EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) The Edmonton Oilers weren’t about to let another 2-0 lead slip away.Connor McDavid scored at 2:19 of overtime and had an assist to lead Edmonton past the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Thursday night, two days after the Oilers blew a two-goal advantage in the third period of a 3-2 loss to Boston.”Going into the third, we didn’t want to repeat the result we had from the previous game,” defenseman Adam Larsson said. ”They made a push, but I thought we answered it today. I thought we did a lot of good things. Even when they scored Brian Gibbons Jersey Womens , we still felt like we had some momentum and we didn’t lose that, we just kept battling and it paid off.”Leon Draisaitl had a goal and set up McDavid’s winner. Zack Kassian also scored for the Oilers, who won for just the second time in their last nine games.”From an offensive perspective, he was a force,” Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said about Draisaitl, who has 54 points in 56 games this season. ”He used his body very well and accelerated out of protecting the puck where he could push off and create space for himself. Really on both goals, that was nice to see. I thought that line started slow and got going as the night went on and Leon was a big part of it.”Samuel Girard and Colin Wilson scored for the Avalanche, who have lost three of four.”It wasn’t a great game by us,” coach Jared Bednar said. ”I think they had a good game – I don’t think we did. For me Jaroslav Halak Jersey Womens , I think we’re lucky to get a point out of that. I don’t think it was a great team effort by us.”The Oilers certainly had the bulk of the pressure in the scoreless first period, putting 19 shots on Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov to seven by the Avalanche on Edmonton starter Cam Talbot.Edmonton broke the deadlock three minutes into the second as Draisaitl put on a clinic, faking out Mikko Rantanen before beating Varlamov up high with a backhander for his 18th of the season.A few minutes later, Varlamov was able to stop McDavid on a clear breakaway and later in the period did the same against Edmonton forward Anton Slepyshev.Edmonton made it 2-0 with 5 1/2 minutes to play in the second when Mark Letestu hooked a shot in front to help Kassian score his seventh.Colorado got a goal back with 19 seconds remaining in the period when Girard’s point shot hit the post and caromed in.The Avalanche tied the game 50 seconds into the third when a pass deflected off an Oilers defender to Wilson, who scored his sixth of the season.NOTES: Edmonton won the season series 2-1, including a 4-2 victory on Sunday when McDavid had a hat trick. … Out of the lineup for the Oilers were Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (upper body), Andrej Sekera (head), Patrick Maroon (lower body) and Drake Caggiula (illness). … Absent for the Avalanche were Vladislav Kamenev (arm), Mark Barberio (lower body) Steven Kampfer Jersey Womens , Jonathan Bernier (concussion), Erik Johnson (upper body), Sven Andrighetto (leg) and Anton Lindholm (upper body).UP NEXTAvalanche: Conclude a three-game road trip Saturday in Calgary.Oilers: At the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.—