Recap: Rangers Continue to Struggle, Lose to Caps 3-2

Afternoon games are always something to say the least. After yet another game where the Rangers found the back of the net first, poor defense resulted in them giving up the lead and falling short to pick up their fourth loss in a row. A couple of changes from Thursday in St. Louis as Mika Zibanejad would return to the lineup after missing the game against the Blues with an illness. Additionally, Anton Bldih would make his NYR debut in place of Jake Leschyshyn, joining Nick Bonino and Jonny Brodzinski on the fourth line.

1st Period:

Things got off to a very slow start for this Rangers team as they went well over seven minutes into the start of this one without a shot attempt let alone a shot on goal. Neither team really seemed to have much gusto to their play as the early pace of the game felt similar to that of a Sunday free skate.

Close to the midway point of the period, Tom Wilson did what Tom Wilson does and threw a dirty hit from behind on Jonny Brodzinski which left him on the ice and a cautious scrum ensuing around him. Anton Blidh was quick to his Hartford Captain’s defense which resulted in coincidental roughing penalties on top of the boarding call to Wilson. This gave the Rangers their first power play chance of the night but as has been the theme for them as of late, they wouldn’t pose as much of a threat as they’ve proven capable of.

With about six and a half minutes to go in the opening period, Will Cuylle did a great job of forcing a turnover from Nick Jensen. Adam Fox then went to make a pass over to Mika Zibanejad in the slot but the puck went off the skate of a Capitals defender and right back to Fox who was able to throw it into an open net to give his team a 1-0 lead.

That’s three goals in the last four games for Adam Fox who had gone a long stretch of time since scoring prior to that.

With just under five minutes to go, Ryan Lindgren laid a huge shoulder to shoulder hit on Martin Fehervary. This naturally led to Nic Dowd of Washington to throw his gloves in the air and go after Ryan Lindgren for what ended up looking like an aggressive hug that immediately brought them both to the ground. Thankfully, despite the gloves coming off, the players only got two minutes each for the attempted fight with Dowd getting an extra two minutes for going after Lindgren.

I will say, the officials mostly got the call right there although I’m not sure why they dubbed the matching penalties as “Unsportsmanlike Conduct.” If anything, it should have been matching roughing penalties with Dowd getting the extra for Unsportsmanlike. Nevertheless, the Rangers got the power play they deserved but the league really needs to do something about these forced fights as a result of clean hits.

Again, the Rangers were ice cold on the power play and wouldn’t be able to convert. Just as time on the man advantage came to an end, Anthony Mantha blocked a shot at the point which led to Connor McMichael picking up the loose puck to send Mantha on a breakaway. Jonathan Quick would commit to the deke too early and Mantha finished off a beautiful move to tuck the puck in the back of the net to tie the game up 1-1.

That would just about do it for an action packed first period despite the slow start. Shots were a little more on the few and far between side as the Rangers out-shot Washington 8-5 and won all but three face-offs for a 82% success rate. Washington had the majority of the high danger scoring chances but if the Rangers could just find a way to up their possession game, they were more than capable of taking serious control of this one.

2nd Period:

Off to a much better start in the second, the Rangers were controlling the majority of play through the first couple of minutes. Charlie Lindgren came up with a massive save at the doorstep off a beautiful pass to Vincent Trocheck from Artemiy Panarin.

Just over five minutes into the second period, Adam Fox took the puck away off a terrible turnover from Connor McMichael. He let a slap shot go through tons of traffic at the point which was able to soar straight to the back of the net for his second of the afternoon. Kudos to Jimmy Vesey for providing a direct screen to Lindgren from atop the blue paint, 2-1 Rangers.

The Rangers continued doing a good job of generating offense but Washington was still finding chances as well. Jonathan Quick came up with a couple of key saves to help his team hold onto the lead as we neared the midway point of this afternoon matinee. With about seven minutes to go, The Capitals were getting more chances in the Rangers zone and as Nick Jensen was cutting to his bachand, Ryan Lindgren tripped him up which would give Washington their first power play of the night.

While the Rangers weren’t able to get their power play going up to this point, their penalty killers found success on their first attempt of the outing to help maintain that 2-1 lead. The final five minutes of the period were a little on the uneventful side as the teams maintained a pretty even pace up to the second intermission. After two, the Rangers were still up in shots now 17-15 with high danger chances much more even at 8-7 in favor of Washington.

3rd Period:

Just a couple of minutes into the period, Max Pacioretty hit Ryan Lindgren from behind, sending the Rangers to the power play once again. With this being their third man advantage of the night and only having the one goal lead, this would really be an ideal opportunity for the Rangers to capitalize but alas, they wouldn’t even see the entire power play. Exactly one minute into it, Chris Kreider was sent off for slashing, bringing play to 4-on-4 for 60 seconds.

Just as the Capitals shortened power play came to an end, Evgeny Kuznetsov flew around the Rangers net and threw a backhander in Quick’s direction. That shot would deflect off of Nic Dowd’s stick below the crossbar and end up in the back of the net, tying the game up 2-2.

Just two minutes after tying it up, Dylan Strome caught a bouncing puck upon entering the Rangers zone and ended up making a perfect pass to a pressing TJ Oshie who was right there in the blue paint to put it home. Oshie appeared to catch everyone by surprise including Jonathan Quick who didn’t even move and instead, just watched the puck find Oshie right at the doorstep. Capitals up 3-2.

This team was lacking tenacity and making more costly mistakes as the game went on. With close to five minutes to go, Alexis Lafrenière was called for slashing which would give the Caps another two minute advantage with time quickly slipping away from the Rangers. The shorthanded squad remained perfect but upon returning to even strength, the team wasn’t getting much going.

With a couple of minutes to go, the Rangers pulled Quick for the extra skater. After a handful of icings from Washington, Lafrenière had a nice chance in front of the net that was eaten up by Charlie Lindgren. The Rangers called their timeout from there and had a couple of big chances but it was too little too late. Washington held onto their one goal lead and extended their series lead against the Rangers to 2-0.

An extremely uninspired start that saw some sparks thanks to Adam Fox but was overall another brutal showing as this team is really going through it right now. Thankfully, the Rangers won’t have long to sit on this one as they’ll head home to run it right back with Washington in less than 24 hours.