WASHINGTON (AP) In a game that didn’t feel much like the postseason Patrick Kane Jersey , the Washington Capitals gave future playoff opponents fair warning about how they handle tight games.Outshot by a team eliminated from contention, Washington stayed close before tying it late and beating the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime on Wednesday night. Braden Holtby stopped 35 of 37 shots, Lars Eller forced overtime and Evgeny Kuznetsov won it to push the Metropolitan Division-leading Capitals closer to their fourth consecutive playoff appearance.Even if it wasn’t the kind of showing the Capitals would like to have come playoff time, Eller’s goal with 1:50 left and Kuznetsov’s 38 seconds into overtime showed what they could do when it matters.”I think we play better when it’s close,” Holtby said. ”With our skill, I think it forces us to turn things on late in the game and I think guys take that as a challenge. That’s I think a reason why you can see us bring it to a next level to try and force the other team into feeling a bit of panic and open up space.”There was little panic in the Rangers, who were playing their first game with no playoff implications since 2004, and they turned that looseness into a 37-33 shot advantage. Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves and Kevin Hayes and Ryan Spooner scored, but New York lamented a defensive miscue on Eller’s goal that let the game slip away.”So frustrating http://www.officialavalanche.com/authentic-adidas-alexander-kerfoot-jersey ,” Lundqvist said after his first game with no hope of playoffs in his NHL career. ”When you’re tied up that late after playing so hard and doing so many good things, it doesn’t matter where you are in the standings, you want to win games and sit in here and feel good about a win. They came back and got it. It bothers me.”After the Capitals came back and got two valuable points, they can clinch with help around the league or by picking up a point Friday at home against Carolina. There are lower expectations on Washington this year after back-to-back Presidents’ Trophies and second-round exits, but Holtby said making the playoffs was a goal at the start of the season.It’s within reach now.”It’s the first step on the way,” Eller said. ”We want to win our division and go into the playoffs on a high note.”Holtby looks like he could be heading into the playoffs on a high note after almost two months of struggles and a minor lower-body injury. He would have liked to stop Spooner’s third-period goal on a shot that beat him clean, but with a question of whether Holtby or Philipp Grubauer will start, it helped that the 2016 Vezina Trophy winner finally looks like his normal self again.”I felt comfortable,” Holtby said. ”It’s something I’m not used to – not playing much. The stamina and such was a little different than I was used to Erik Condra Jersey Womens , but it felt good to go out there and just get to work and play in a high-intensity game.”There are many more high-intensity games to come for the Capitals, who can soon exhale about making the playoffs and prepare for the next step.”The NHL how it is, it doesn’t really matter where you are in the standings,” Holtby said. ”The guys should be proud. We should be proud we’re in a position like that.”NOTES: Rangers assistant Lindy Ruff missed the game after hitting his head on the ice at practice Thursday. Coach Alain Vigneault said Ruff was hospitalized and diagnosed with a concussion but was in good spirits and expected to be back with the team in a few days. … F Shane Gersich, a 2014 fifth-round pick who signed with Washington last week after his season at North Dakota ended, made his NHL debut. … Pheonix Copley backed up Holtby because Grubauer felt a ”tweak” in the Capitals’ game at the Rangers on Tuesday, according to coach Barry Trotz.UP NEXTRangers: Return home to face the playoff-bound Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night.Capitals: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.— The Florida Panthers are off to a slow start this season — but not because they have played poorly.Florida will play its home opener on Thursday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets. While many other NHL teams have already played three and four games this season — Columbus, for example, is 2-1-0 — the Panthers are 0-0-1 and have been off since last Saturday.But the Panthers aren’t worried. They finished one point short of the playoffs last season are a trendy pick to make the postseason in 2019.Article continues below ...Even so Carl Soderberg Jersey , the Panthers are already facing adversity as starting goalie Roberto Luongo is out two-to-four weeks due to a right-knee injury. He was hurt in Saturday’s 2-1 shootout loss at the Tampa Bay Lightning.James Reimer is expected to start on Thursday, and Michael Hutchinson was called up from the Panthers’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.“No one wants to be without their No. 1 goalie, but it could have been worse,” Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. “And we have good depth there.”The Blue Jackets are dealing with their own issues as forward Brandon Dubinsky suffered an oblique injury on Sunday and will likely miss at least four weeks.Dubinsky had brought physicality and grit to what had been Columbus’ best line in its first two games, teaming with Josh Anderson and Boone Jenner. In those two games, Dubinsky had one goal and one assist.“(The injury) is a tough break for him and for our team,” Columbus coach John Tortorella said. “That was our best line, and specifically him.”Columbus beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Tuesday in their first game without Dubinsky. The teams were tied 2-2 after two periods before Columbus closed with a flourish. Nick Foligno starred for the Jackets Gabriel Landeskog Jersey Kids , scoring twice and adding one assist.Former Boston Bruins forward Riley Nash, signed as a free agent this past offseason, has replaced Dubinsky on that Anderson-Jenner line. He was a plus-one in 16 minutes of ice time on Tuesday.Another repercussion of the Dubinsky injury is that Lukas Sedlak — a healthy scratch the first two games — will be more involved as a fourth-line center. He got 6:47 of ice time on Tuesday, including 50 seconds on the penalty kill and 1:03 on the power play.Thursday’s lineup, however, is subject to change.“I can’t say what’s going to happen in my mind as we go through a game,” Tortorella said. “I want to keep lines together. But I also need better play from other people.”The Panthers, meanwhile, just want a victory. They played well on Saturday against the Lightning http://www.officialavalanche.com/authentic-adidas-j.t.-compher-jersey , a team favored to reach the Stanley Cup Finals this season. But Tampa Bay got a short-handed goal in the third period — Florida was using five forwards and no defensemen on its power play and got burned with that alignment — and the Lightning then won the game in the shootout.Winger Mike Hoffman, making his Panthers debut after scoring 104 goals the past four years with the Ottawa Senators, had an unlucky game. He hit the post on an overtime shot that would’ve won the game. Hoffman then hit a post again in his shootout attempt.