WASHINGTON — The Rangers were without starting goalie Henrik Lundqvist for Friday night’s emphatic 3-2 win over the Capitals at Verizon Center, as the franchise netminder was still suffering from neck spams.

Lundqvist was hurt when he was run into by his own defenseman, Ryan McDonagh, in the second period of the team’s 4-1 loss to the Penguins on Thursday in Pittsburgh. Coach Alain Vigneault was continuing to call him “day-to-day,” and was not ruling him out for Sunday’s Garden match against the Islanders.

“He’s getting evaluated [Saturday],” Vigneault said after backup Antti Raanta got the win by making 32 saves, while call-up Magnus Hellberg backed up. “He’s getting his neck checked out and he’s still day-to-day.”

Before the game, Vigneault had reiterated what he said in Pittsburgh the night before: “We don’t believe it’s anything serious at this point.”

After Lundqvist had been tossed out of his crease by the collision with McDonagh, and when he didn’t get an injury stoppage from the officials, he threw his goal off the moorings and received a delay-of-game penalty.

Following that game, his Penguins counterpart, Marc-Andre Fleury, called the move “baby stuff,” and there was little reaction from Vigneault on that comment beside a coy smile.

“I didn’t read it, don’t know about it, and really don’t have much to say about it,” Vigneault said. “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, eh?”

Capitals goalie Braden Holtby, the front-runner for the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best netminder, told reporters on Friday morning that he agreed with Lundqvist’s move to stop play.

“I think he did the right thing,” Holtby said, according to the AP. “I thought it was absurd he got penalized for it. You get hit in the head as a goalie, you can’t skate to the bench for a line change. If you’re seeing stars, you can’t see the puck. You have no other option. It was the wrong call, and I felt bad for him.”

Defenseman Marc Staal returned the lineup after missing Thursday’s game with the flu. The team was adamant about trying to contain the illness, and Staal had stayed by himself in the team hotel overnight in Pittsburgh in order to sleep in, then flew on a commercial plane Friday morning to Washington.

With Staal being able to play, rookie Dylan McIlrath came out of the lineup after playing two straight games (the first at forward). Veteran Dan Boyle switched back to his natural right side, paired with Staal.