There is a lot at stake in Game 7 between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, with Capitals star Alex Ovechkin looking to reach the conference finals for the first time in his career and the Rangers looking to continue their pursuit of the Stanley Cup after losing in the finals last season.

For the Capitals and Rangers alike, they must look to their strengths to get them to the next round. For the Caps, that means getting power plays. For the Rangers, that means having their stars perform. Here are the keys for each team.

Washington

The Capitals had the most successful power play in the NHL this season, scoring on 25.3 percent of their regular-season power plays. They generated 53.9 scoring chances per 60 minutes on the power play, most among teams to advance to the second round.

Washington relies on Ovechkin for most of its power-play opportunities, and he has burned the Rangers in those situations this season. Including the playoffs, Ovechkin has five power-play goals against the Rangers this season.

To shut Ovechkin down on the power play, the Rangers will have to limit his opportunities from his favorite spot: the left circle.

war-on-ice.com

As noted in the included hextally chart from war-on-ice.com, Ovechkin shoots frequently and successfully from the left circle on the Capitals’ power play. Thus far in 2015, the Rangers have not had success shutting down Ovechkin from that spot.

However, all of this is for naught if the Capitals can’t get to the power play. They had 29 fewer power-play opportunities than their opponents during the regular season, the second-worst differential among teams currently in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

This, combined with the Rangers allowing the fewest power-play opportunities in the regular season among teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs, does not bode well for a Capitals team that relies so heavily on the power play.

If the Capitals are to win, they will likely need scoring output from their power-play units.

New York

The Rangers were much like the Capitals this season in that they relied on one player for much of their scoring. Rick Nash netted 42 goals in the regular season, double the output from the next-highest goal scorer for the Rangers. His goal early in the third period of Game 6 helped propel the team to the win, and the Rangers might need more of the same if they want to advance.

war-on-ice.com

Though Nash was the team’s leading scorer during the regular season, Chris Kreider has been the offensive catalyst in the series against the Capitals. Kreider has four goals, three of which have come in the first period of the game.

Known for his speed, Kreider’s offensive approach is to get the puck to the front of the net. He often forces those situations, and he has a lot of success in scoring when he gets to that spot on the ice, as shown by the included hextally chart.

To counteract the Capitals’ mighty power play, the Rangers will turn to their ace in the hole: goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Since the beginning of the 2013 season, Lundqvist has a .925 adjusted save percentage. Even more frustrating for the Capitals, Lundqvist has a .833 save percentage from high-danger scoring areas, both well above league average.

However, the Rangers will have to perform much better in front of Lundqvist than they did in Game 6. During that game, the Rangers had a -27 Corsi plus/minus, meaning they had 27 more plays directed at their net than at the Capitals’ net.

If the Rangers can keep the Capitals off the power play and start directing more traffic at Washington netminder Braden Holtby, they stand a good chance of advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.