The Washington Capitals put their game with the New York Rangers to bed after the first twenty minutes, netting four goals on fifteen shots and chasing young Alexandar Georgiev from his net. That first period effort was enough to earn the Caps a 4-2 win in regulation and maintain their lead in the NHL’s Metropolitan Division.

The Caps out-shot the Rangers 33 to 30, but were out-attempted by the blueshirts at five-on-five 51 to 36.

• Since the start of February, Evgeny Kuznetsov has an impressive 29 points in only 23 games. Kuzy scored only the second shorthanded marker of his career on Monday night, the first since his very first NHL goal against the Los Angeles Kings in 2014.
• The Capitals huge four goal first period was only the second time this season that the team has scored four goals in one period. The first occasion occurred in the team’s home opener against the Montreal Canadiens on October 7.
• Alex Ovechkin scored the 45th goal of his season on the power play and if his current goal scoring lead stands through the rest of the season he will become only the second player since the 1967-68 expansion era to lead the NHL in goals at the age of 32 or older. The only player who has currently done that is Phil Esposito when he led the NHL in goals with the Boston Bruins in both 1974-74 and 1974-75.
• Once snakebitten for a very long stretch this season, TJ Oshie is now on quite the hot streak. TJ’s 17th goal of the season was his fifth in his last seven games.
• Nicklas Backstrom recorded two assists against the Rangers. The first of those assists was his 791st career point, which puts him past Mike Gartner (790) for sole possession of third place in career points for the Washington Capitals.
• Jakub Vrana (7:46) and Chandler Stephenson (7:42) played the least of any Capitals skaters at five-on-five. This current Caps team is not deep enough for that to keep happening game in and game out, but alas it does.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, and Corsica.hockey.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Rangers

Featured image: Jared Silber