Christensen to center Gaborik, Prospal

WASHINGTON -- Center Erik Christensen played just under 11 minutes in the Game 1 overtime loss, but Friday night it appears he will be back between Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal, with whom he skated Thursday.

"We need to create more offense," coach John Tortorella said. "I'm not putting Erik in there for his defensive purposes. He is a skilled guy and has given us some good minutes. After Game 1, there needs to be some improvements in our game, and certainly creating offense is one of them. Let's face it, we need to spend more time in their end."

Christensen is a playmaker who has had success in the past with Gaborik, but he is streaky: In nine games from Feb. 25 to March 20, he had five goals and seven assists, but just one point in the 10 games since.

Anisimov to 4th line

The shuffle dropped Artem Anisimov to the fourth line with Chris Drury and either Mats Zuccarello or Sean Avery. Brian Boyle centered Wojtek Wolski and Brandon Prust; Derek Stepan centered Brandon Dubinsky and Ruslan Fedotenko . . . Defensemen Marc Staal and Dan Girardi, who logged about 33 minutes each, rested and did not practice.

Ratings game

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Game 1 of the Rangers-Capitals playoff series Wednesday averaged 3.45 percent of New York-area homes on MSG Plus, making it the Rangers' highest-rated game since May 8, 1997, when they faced the Devils in the conference semifinals, the network said. The rating was 40 percent higher than Game 1 of the same teams' 2009 first-round series. Among men ages 18 to 34, the game was the second-highest rated program of the night in the New York area, narrowly behind "Modern Family" and ahead of "American Idol."

With Neil Best