The three-game-sweep focuses on three hot teams in the NHL and it is hard to ignore the New York Rangers who completed their own three-game sweep of California with a win over the San Jose Sharks Saturday, 3-1.
“I think it was a great answering of the bell,” said Rangers forward Rick Nash, who was named to play in the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star Game earlier in the day. “We talked 
about it for the three days before we came out here that this was going to be a gritty task, and I thought we played great. It’s impressive to get these three wins. At the same point, it’s just three wins. We have to go home, and those are the toughest games to come back home and play that first game.”
Martin St. Louis, Chris Kreider and Nash all scored for New York, St Louis and Kreider built a 2-0 lead in the first.
Henrik Lundqvist made 30 saves for the win.
“We believe we can beat anybody,” Lundqvist said. “We also know why we’re having success. We work really hard and do the little things right. If you don’t do that you can lose to any team in the league. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing the top teams out here or a team from the East. You have to do the little things right.
“Tonight our game wasn’t perfect but we did a lot of important things right and it helped us to win this game. We found a way. We’re just having fun right now. When you win, it’s relaxed. It’s fun to travel and practice and that’s what it’s all about, try to get points.”
The Sharks were coming off a terrible loss to the St Louis Blues earlier in the week and at least gave a better effort Saturday.
“If we apply ourselves that way, most nights at least, we’ll give ourselves an opportunity to win,” Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. “Two mistakes on faceoff coverage in our end. It’s the difference at the end of the night. [The] power play looked like it cleaned itself up, the penalty kill was better. So there are some gains we made, but at the end of the day that doesn’t get us something in the bank account.”
Rangers’ Dan Boyle faced his old team for the first time and was treated to a video salute and ovation from the crowd.
“It felt great,” Boyle said of the ovation. “I’m so thankful and grateful to, one, be at this level in the NHL, in this League and to have played for this team for six years. Just very thankful and grateful. It was an amazing moment. It was just a minute long, but that’s going to stay with me for a lifetime.”
When talking hot teams no one can ignore the Washington Capitals who have been a tear since early December. On Saturday, the Caps defeated the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1, and continued their climb up the standings.
“You saw it in the first shift,” Caps coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought we played a pretty solid game. We were a little bit more no-frills today knowing how diligent Detroit checks and how they can transition. We had to be a little more methodical than we had been.”
The back story of the game was an injury to Wings goalie, Jimmy Howard, who sustained a groin injury and was carted off the ice on a stretcher.
“He’ll go back [to Detroit] and get tested and we’ll see what happens,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “Obviously he looked like he was in great pain.”
Detroit had come into the game on a streak of their own but lacked the intensity they had shown of late.
“We didn’t look as energized as we usually do,” Red Wings forward Tomas Tatar said. “We have to just get ready better and we didn’t have a really good start. [Washington] was just skating better than us. I think we didn’t play as good as we [normally] do and it might be the energy level.”
Iron man Caps goalie, Braden Holtby, made 26 saves for the win in his 18th straight start.
“It’s necessary right now with all the other teams that seem to be winning every game,” Holtby said of Washington’s stretch. “We’re happy with our play right now where it’s at, but we know we have to improve in order to keep it going. If we want to be an elite team, this shouldn’t be a hot streak. This should be a normal streak for us. That’s what we’re going to try to accomplish.”
In St Paul, the Nashville Predators stayed one of the NHL’s hottest teams behind Pekka Rinne who made 36 saves to lead the Preds past the Minnesota Wild, 3-1.
“He was really good,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “There were a couple of saves in the first, and two or three more in the third. I think our guys did a decent job in front of him, but there were a couple opportunities where we needed him to step up and make some big saves.”
Nashville got a goal from Calle Jarnkrok early in the third period to broke a 1-1 tie for the eventual game-winner.
In the first two periods, we got caught making plays through the middle and that fed into their game.” said Predators forward Colin Wilson, who had a goal and an assist. “We got away from that [in the third period], started getting pucks in behind them and making plays. That’s how we win.”
The Wild are now in full out of control spiral. Earlier I the week head coach Mike Yeo was seen losing his temper in practice and the team responded with a decent effort Saturday but nothing that would seemingly show a light.
“We had a chance to grab a hold of the game in the second period and instead we let it slip away,” Yeo said. “I always think that shooting the puck brings a lot of momentum, especially at home. We didn’t have that feel tonight.”
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