The Washington Capitals weren’t, like, top-to-bottom bad against the New York Rangers on Tuesday; they were just bad when it mattered. They were sort of terrific at gaining the zone and generating scoring chances, which is super nice, but an outpouring of turnovers and some blasé defense doomed the effort.
Oscar Lindberg scored first, exploiting some terrible Caps defense and Alex Ovechkin’s near-castration. Ovechkin got his revenge soon after with a goal of his own, but the period ended with the Rangers up 2-1 thanks to Kevin Hayes’ tricky snipe goal.
The Caps entered a two-goal hole early in the second period when Japers Rink’s Kevin Klein beat Braden up high. Washington started a rally, but Derick Brassard ended it with a gutshot through an uninvolved defense. Marcus Johansson tipped in Karl Alzner’s shot late in the period to put the Caps back in a less-terrible two-goal hole.
Same story in the third. The Capitals had all the possession and momentum, but the Rangers had the killer instinct. Example: Jared Stoll’s backbreaking goal as a power play expired. Some more stuff happened and then the buzzer went off.
Rangers beat Caps 5-2.
Ovi hits Fast and Kuznetsov pic.twitter.com/Su4BubUXSk
— steph (@myregularface) November 4, 2015
Joe B suit of the night
Tough, stupid beat for the Capitals. They played good (check this out), but bad mistakes and badder bounces are all it takes in this silly sport sometimes. They basically doubled up the Rangers’ shot total, and yet here we are, reckoning with defeat, searching for something positive from this game…
Oh. Hi Nate.
Tuesday’s game was special for Nate Schmidt, not because he had some kind of breakthrough performance, but rather because people finally noticed how great he always has been. The Caps would do well to make him a core part of their defense. If he and Orpik swapped spots tonight, this might’ve been a win for Washington. That’s my snide sign-off for the night. Peace out.
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