WASHINGTON -- Let's just run through some stats real quick. These are the ice-time numbers after 100 minutes of play in Game 2.
New York defenseman Ryan McDonagh has played 48:02. In that time, he's blocked eight shots, given the puck away four times, taken it away once, taken nine shots towards the net -- three on goal, four which were blocked and two missed -- and he's dished out two hits. He also received one big, big hit from Matt Hendricks.
Marc Staal has played 42:41 in ice time for John Tortorella. Michael Del Zotto is up to 37-plus minutes, and Dan Girardi is just under 39 minutes. Anton Stralman has played a modest 25:18 in the game, as the Rangers have clearly just rolled their top-four defensemen. You don't need to tell Stu Bickel that; he's seen just 3:24 of ice time.
On the Washington side, things are much more evenly spread out. The fourth line of Mike Knuble, Keith Aucoin and Joel Ward has played about 15 minutes in total and, as you'd expect, haven't seen much ice in overtime. But on defense, Dale Hunter is definitely rolling six defensemen. Dennis Wideman has played 36:19, Karl Alzner has played 30:53, Roman Hamrlik has played 33:12, Mike Green has played 32:24, Jeff Schultz has played 29:15 and John Carlson has 34:22.
If the Capitals win this game, they'll have done so without overly taxing their top defensemen. Luckily for the Rangers, there are two full days off until Game 4 on Saturday, but if a 50-plus minute night from a defenseman goes without reward, that's certainly bad news.
We have full coverage of Game 3 between the Capitals and Rangers in our StoryStream. For more on the Capitals, check in with Japers' Rink, and for more on the Rangers, check in with Blueshirt Banter.
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