The Washington Capitals went into New York to take on the Rangers with quite an interesting lineup, beleaguered by injuries. That shouldn’t be an excuse though for what was a very poor defensive effort in a 4-1 loss.
The shots ended tied at 31 apiece and the Caps took the five-on-five shot attempt battle, 48 to 36.
- The Caps defensive zone coverage was a massive problem in this loss. Far too many times was Braden Holtby asked to stop point blank opportunities and odd man rush attempts. It was a mess, summarized by what should have been a comeback attempt in the third period that just turned into the worse spell of play for the team in the entire game. In said third, the Caps at five-on-five got out-attempted 13 to 7, out-scoring chanced 7 to 2, and out-high danger chanced 5 to 1.
- John Carlson was still able to extend his point streak to eight games by recording his 28th assist of the season on the Caps only goal. That has him tied for the league lead in assists with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
- Beck Malenstyn made his NHL debut, congrats to him. He is the 555th player to don a Caps sweater in NHL action. I thought Beck was one of the lone bright spots, providing energy and an offensive touch from the fourth line.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scores on the power play to cut the deficit to 3-1. It's Kuznetsov's 10th goal of the season and he extends his point streak to four games (2g, 2a).
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) November 21, 2019
- The loss snapped a seven game winning streak against the Rangers overall and a nine game regulation, road unbeaten run this season.
- I thought the Caps poorest line was the mashed together, makeshift third line made up on Travis Boyd, Richard Panik, and Mike Sgarbossa. I was also not a fan of the first line’s night as they seemed to not want to play responsible, defensive hockey whatsoever. They were burned for two goals at five-on-five and were a part of a particularly bad “zone fly” on the Rangers fourth goal.
- Aliaksei Protas had a goal and an assist in his Raiders 7-1 victory over the Red Deer Rebels.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Rangers
Headline photo: NBCSN
