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Pings and penalty kill problems: Rangers beat Caps 4-1

By Chris Cerullo

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November 20, 2019 10:37 pm

Wednesday night, the Washington Capitals brought their walking wounded lineup into action against familiar foes in the New York Rangers. Another rendition of the handsome goalie battle was upon us.

Artemi Panarin opened the scoring early in the second period on a power play and extended the lead on another man advantage in the third. Pavel Buchnevich added a strike in the third as well. Evgeny Kuznetsov got the Caps on the board with a power play strike of his own. Brett Howden had the Rangers’ fourth.

Rangers beat Caps 4-1.

  • The first period was a bit of an uneven one for the Caps. The Caps dinged the posts behind Henrik Lundqvist three times, but also gave up multiple odd man rush chances that needed Braden Holtby heroics to stop. The second half of the period was much better than the first half.
  • That whistle came real quick when that referee took a puck to the head/face and was bleeding. Wonder if that correct action could be applied for you know…everyone on the ice.
  • Coming into tonight’s action, the Capitals had played 23 games so far this season and the Rangers had played 18. The Rangers are not the only squad to have played only 18 games to this point. I find it entirely stupid that NHL scheduling can allow that sort of drastic “games in hand” scenario.

  • King Lundqvist stifled the Caps very dominant second period. The Caps could not find an ounce of luck as the bounces just seemed to roll the wrong way.
  • Did anyone else hear Mike Milbury complaining about not getting lunch during the first intermission? You have a hot mic, Mike.
  • No Hagelin, no Dowd, no Hathaway, no Backstrom, and Tom Wilson in the box after a stupid boarding penalty. All of that showed as the Caps penalty kill, usually populated by all of those names, got pounced on by the Rangers twice in three opportunities.
  • The Caps have hit approximately 15 billion posts and crossbars this season. Those don’t count as shots, but they do count as incredibly annoying.

  • You’d want to see a better third than we got from the Caps. Some absolutely horrific defense in both the first and third periods. Looked like they didn’t really care. The Rangers suck. The Caps do not. Unacceptable.
  • Beck Malenstyn was a bright spot in his NHL debut. He was a sparkplug on the fourth line and showed tremendous speed and some grit.
  • The Caps came into this one with seven straight wins against the Rangers. That streak has now obviously ended.

No Joseph B tonight, so check this kid’s dope hair out.

We will see you next on Saturday for an afternoon test against Jay Beagle’s Vancouver Canucks.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Rangers

Headline photo: NBCSN

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