Recap: Special Teams Fail The Rangers in 7-4 Loss in Washington

At times, this was one of the Rangers better efforts and one of the more exciting games we’ve seen this season. At other points, this was a showcase of everything that is wrong with this Rangers team. Whether they mean to or not, they give up too quickly, make too many careless mistakes and constantly put themselves in situations where they run out of time to salvage a semi-decent showing. Despite a strong start and even strength goals from Kreider AND Zibanejad, the Rangers let special teams and defensive zone mistakes cost them as they fall 7-4 to the Capitals. 

1st Period: 

The Rangers got off to one of their better starts in recent outings, completely dominating the Capitals throughout the first six minutes of the game. Mika Zibanejad had a great scoring chance off a quick shot in the slot, Adam Fox was actively involved right from the start and had a couple of great looks. This team was establishing good, consistent pressure, playing with good pace and doing the little things right. 

Exactly seven minutes in, the Rangers got themselves on the board. A brutal turnover from goaltender Logan Thompson after an icing was waved off ended up right on the stick of Chris Kreider. With a wide open net to shoot at, Kreider picked up his 13th of the season to put himself on a three-game point streak. 

About a minute and a half later, the Rangers took the first penalty of the afternoon as Will Borgen was called for holding while defending the play after breaking his stick. They built off of their established pace and killed off the advantage quite confidently. Things slowed down a bit after an extended break that resulted from a panel of glass that needed fixing near the penalty box. 

With seven minutes to go in the opening period, the Capitals took their first penalty of the game as Alexander Ovechkin was sent off for slashing. The Rangers had some really good looks on the power play and gave up one grade-A scoring chance on a breakaway for Aliaksei Protas that sailed just wide of Jonathan Quick. Nevertheless, the score remained unchanged across the two minutes advantage. 

In the final two minutes of the period, Brett Berard was a little over aggressive on the backcheck as he took down Andrew Mangiapagne in the Rangers end for another holding penalty. That would come around to bite the Rangers in the rear as they would allow Washington to tie the game up. After some congestion in front of Quick that left him flailing around in the crease, a shot from Jacob Chychrun at the point set up an easy rebound for Dylan Strome to make it a 1-1 game. 

Quick was not happy on the play, to the point where he shot the puck down to the opposite end of the ice while screaming at the officials. He even went to the bench to presumably inquire on why the coaching staff wasn’t challenging the goal. I understand Quick’s frustration and given the uncertainty that constitutes goaltender interference in the first place, perhaps it was worth a challenge. However, given how long the actual goal came after the initial jam in front, I’m not sure there would have been much of a case. 

The Rangers didn’t bother a challenge and the goal stood which kept the score 1-1 heading into the first intermission. Shots were 11-10 in the Rangers favor who, I can’t believe I’m saying this, dominated at 5-v-5 play. Special teams became their demise as they gave up the late power play goal and gave up some risky shorthanded chances. 

2nd Period:

The Capitals woke up to start the second and after two and a half minutes, they had the lead. A shot from Martin Fehervary at the point took a redirect off the stick of veteran Lars Eller which sailed right over the shoulder of Quick, 2-1 game. 

This certainly took the wind out of the Rangers sails as the pace of the game seemed to flip drastically. The Rangers were now the ones chasing the play, turning the puck over, almost reverting to what they looked like at their worst against the Bruins the other night. Things went from bad to worse nearing the midway point of the period as the Capitals extended their lead to make it 3-1. 

Mangiapagne, who always seems to find the back of the net against the Rangers, does a good job of winning a puck battle down low that sets up a perfect passing play between him and Nic Dowd while the Rangers stood around and watched. Quick didn’t stand a chance as Mangiapagne one timed the shot right to the back of the net. 

With about seven and a half to go, Ryan Lindgren took a stick up high that went uncalled and left him hunched over in serious discomfort. After he headed to the Rangers bench, Will Borgen did a great job of getting right in the play to chip the puck ahead to Filip Chytil. Chytil did an even better job of finding Will Cuylle in front of Washington’s net to fire a quick shot home to make it a 3-2 game… At least for a moment. 

The Rangers may not have wanted to risk a coaches' challenge but the Capitals did not share a similar sentiment. After using a timeout in order to take a lengthy look at a potential missed offsides, it was determined after an absurd amount of time, that the play was indeed offsides and the goal would not stand. As the broadcast mentioned, the point of coaches' challenges across all sports is to correct the egregious errors and this was not one. We’re talking centimeters, maybe an inch of being offside. A conclusion they needed several minutes and a number of different camera angles to come to.  

At any rate, play continued and soon enough the Rangers were back to the power play as Brandon Duhaime was called for cross-checking. Despite maintaining possession through the majority of those two minutes, the Rangers had nothing to show for as the teams returned to even strength. However, a bad turnover from Ovechkin gave Sam Carrick an up-close breakaway moments later that he was able to sneak past Logan Thompson short side to officially bring the Rangers within one. 

Of course maintaining momentum is another thing on the list of the Rangers’ problems as Lindgren sent the puck over the glass on the following shift to send Washington back to the power play. Things were looking good as the Rangers had a number of short handed scoring chances but again, the Rangers gave up a power play goal. A nice pass from Strome found Connor McMichael who sent the shot through a slight screen of Braden Schneider to the opposite side of the net Quick was sliding to. Worth noting, Quick did not look too comfortable recovering from that play. 4-2 game. 

That would do it for the second as the Rangers still had the slight advantage in shots on goal 19-18 but trailed by two on the scoreboard. Special teams continued to be a problem as the Capitals were 2-for-3 on the power play to the Rangers 0-for-2. Despite everything, this game was still in reach but would require a retro Rangers comeback that we have yet to see this season. 

3rd Period:

The Capitals were pretty much teasing how bad the Rangers power play has been as they took yet another penalty to start the third. Nic Dowd went off for slashing the stick of Carrick which left it in two pieces. As expected at this point, the Rangers power play was quite lifeless, coming up empty handed for the third time this afternoon. Two minutes later, it was Washington back to the power play as Will Cuylle was called for high sticking after making accidental contact with John Carlsson up high coming down from taking a big hit. 

The Rangers held them off enough to come out of it unscathed as the man advantage came to a premature end. Pierre-Luc Dubois had gotten tangled up with Fox chasing the puck into the corner, taking him down to earn a tripping penalty. This brought the team’s to sixteen seconds of 4-on-4 play, still allowing the Rangers a close to full 5-on-4 power play. After three pretty unimpressive looks, Mika Zibanejad returned to the top unit in Alexis Lafrenière’s place.

While the power play came up empty handed once again, a phenomenal outlet pass from Urho Vaakanainen sent Filip Chytil in all alone with about eleven and a half to go in regulation. Chytil opted to shoot the puck and roofed it right under the crossbar to beat Thompson and make it a 4-3 game. 

I don’t even know what to say about Washington’s fifth goal. So many things have to go wrong for a team to go from Presidents’ Trophy Winners to basement dwellers in legitimate competition for the first overall draft pick. This goal was a textbook example of how so many things can go wrong, so quickly. Trocheck fumbles an offensive zone face-off, Miller fumbles the puck as it comes back to him, Ovechkin picks it up, Quick lifts his leg for merely a second while flailing to make the save and in a matter of seconds, the team is trailing by two yet again. 

The Rangers needed an immediate response if they had any hope in hanging around and sure enough, they got one. A good effort from Miller moved the puck ahead to Reilly Smith who sent Mika Zibanejad on a partial breakaway where he was able to beat Thompson on a shot similar to where Carrick was able to beat him, 5-4. 

In what was quickly becoming another “season in a nutshell” type of game for the Rangers, a Washington shot ripped off the post as the Rangers defensemen stood and watched. Protas was right there to bury the rebound, 6-4 game. 

With just under three minutes to go, the Rangers pulled Quick for the extra attacker. After a dominant minute or so, a frozen puck gave the Rangers the opportunity to use their timeout. All that did was delay the inevitable as time continued to run out and Tom Wilson of all people, walked the puck into an empty net. We can pick apart different elements of this game, give credit where credit is due and critique the mistakes that cost this group but at the end of the day, this team, as currently constructed, is simply not good enough. 

They’ll have a shot at redemption tomorrow afternoon as they pay a visit to another basement dweller that embarrassed them less than a month ago in the Chicago Blackhawks. As it did in the final two minutes of this game, time is running out for this team. A magical run could salvage the season and land them in the wildcard conversation but the longer that takes and eventually doesn’t come to fruition, the more obvious it becomes that this team is in serious need of a retool.