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Rangers beat Caps 4-1, at least Ovi scored

By Peter Hassett

 2 Comments

February 24, 2022 9:33 pm

The Washington Capitals returned from their six-day break by dropping a road game to the New York Rangers. The Caps played fine, I guess, but save once they couldn’t beat New York goalie Igor Shesterkin.

Mika Zibanejad scored first thanks to a sharp drop pass from Alexis Lafreniere, who scored in the second period after a failed clear by TJ Oshie. Chris Krieder made it 3-0 in the third after another failed clearing attempt. Barclay Goodrow made it 4-0 on the rush.

As a blessing to you directly, Alex Ovechkin chipped a goal to end the shutout with one minute left.

Caps lose.

  • The Caps had the puck a lot, but they didn’t do much with it. At my last check, the Caps took around 60 percent of the shot attempts but generated just 52 percent of the expected goals. Which is to say that the convenient and obvious story isn’t the only story of the night.
  • The convenient and obvious story is goalie Igor Shesterkin turning away NEARLY everything Washington had. Thank you Ovi for padding the stats.
  • TJ Oshie returned to play for the first time since January 15. This is just his third game of 2022. When he’s healthy, Oshie’s a huge boon to this team, so let’s give him some time.
  • The Capitals tried some new stuff on the power play. They had Ovechkin try to get some looks up close, they used Justin Schultz instead of John Carlson for a spell in the third period, and they tried letting Nicklas Backstrom be the entry guy once or twice. None of it worked, and they allowed some tantalizing shorthanded chances as well. Frustrating.

  • ESPN’s call was insipid. It began with a substance-free hyping of Tom Wilson vs Ryan Reaves and was peppered throughout with credulous declarations of Reaves’ impact on the game. (Reaves got a secondary assist on the fourth goal.) Also, Leah Hextall’s analysis was inaudible to me. The one good thing the broadcast did was remind us all the time how bad Washington’s power play was. We had almost forgotten for a moment.
  • Conor Sheary, who bows to no one, fought Ryan Lindgren. So there’s that.

  • Out of town: The Devils lit up the Penguins (6-1 at last look), and Nashville retired Pekka Rinne’s number. This is only partially an excuse to share that amazing goalie-goal clip above.

That was a bad game. You could argue whether or not the Caps really showed up at all. Thirty-seven shots is a lot, but it wasn’t nearly enough of a challenge for that goalie. Some spotty play in the defensive zone. A still execrable power play.

I don’t know how this team isn’t panicking. They’ve been pretty bad for two months now. They should change something. Anything.

All the love and solidarity in the world to Ukraine.

Headline photo: @real_jon_c

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