This article is over 2 years old

Live blog: Capitals take on Rangers without Alex Ovechkin

by

1 Comments

Share:

After a listless loss to the Seattle Kraken, the Capitals have two consecutive games against the New York Rangers this weekend. And they are important. The Capitals have slid down the Metropolitan Division standings due to their recent play and currently sit seventh after a 3-5-2 stretch in their last 10.

Today, they’ll have to beat the division’s best without Alex Ovechkin, who is missing the game due to a lower-body injury. Charlie Lindgren will return to the net after rehabbing a back injury (back spasms). He’ll replace Darcy Kuemper in net who has surrendered 20 goals in his last 5 games.

Today’s game is on ABC. Puck drop is a little after 1:00 pm.

Lines

Alex Alexeyev and Matthew Phillips are the healthy scratches.

Caps weirdness

1st Period

Charlie Lindgren will oppose Jonathan Quick in net. Protas-McMichael-Wilson and Bear-Jensen get the start.

Tom Wilson gets two minutes for boarding Jonny Brodzinski. Brodzinski turned into the boards at the very last second. In the resulting scrum, Anton Blidh gets a minor for cross-checking and Connor McMichael gets two minutes for roughing.

Rangers to the power play.

🚨 1-0 Rangers. Nick Jensen turnover in the defensive zone. As the Rangers recoil, Jensen blocks a pass by Adam Fox that goes right back to Fox, who beats Charlie Lindgren after he had slid out of position.

Ryan Lindgren hits Martin Fehervary high (but shoulder to shoulder) and Nic Dowd defends him by trying to fight but he was so eager to fight that he tackled Lindgren and it ended up being an aggressive hug and they just laid there on the ice. I know this is a run-on but that’s the only way to capture it. Dowd and Lindgren gets unsportsmanlike conduct but Dowd gets the extra minor for roughing sending the Rangers to another power play.

🚨 1-1 tie. Right after the penalty kill ends, Connor McMichael sets up Anthony Mantha with a beautiful sauce pass. Mantha finishes the breakaway on his backhand. Mantha’s 12th comes at 17:50. It’s his first in eight games.

The Rangers outshoot the Capitals 8-5, but Washington dominates NYR at 5-on-5 play. The Caps out-attempted the Rangers 17-10 and out-chanced them 10-2.

Intermission analysis

Mark Messier passionately defended Tom Wilson for the boarding penalty he committed on Jonny Brodzinski. Messier said Brodzinski turned into the boards at the last second and that he needs to be more aware on the ice. He suggests the NHL should add a penalty on plays like this for turning your back into the boards so crucial penalties aren’t called in moments like this on a cheap play. PK Subban agrees and criticizes Nic Dowd for going after Ryan Lindgren after his clean hit. He thought it was absurd.

2nd Period

Puck is dropped.

Rangers dominate play for the first three minutes of the period and put on a cycling clinic. They miss wide open nets. Lindgren makes some big saves too. They’re credited with one shot on goal and four attempts in the first 2:50. Washington had none.

🚨 2-1 Rangers. Adam Fox scores his second goal of the game. In front of the Capitals net, Connor McMichael with a soft clear up the boards — he may have thought a Capitals player was there and was not — perfectly setting up Fox for a huge slap shot. Aliaksei Protas drives to block the shot, doesn’t, and it screens Charlie Lindgren.

Nick Jensen draws a tripping penalty on Ryan Lindgren in the Caps offensive zone as he makes a good move with the puck.

Rangers outshoot the Capitals 17-15. The two teams are tied in five-on-five shot attempts, 34-34.

The Rangers are 16-2-1 when leading after two periods.

3rd Period

Puck is dropped.

34 seconds in, Connor McMichael goes down on a rush and almost scores five hole on Quick.

Capitals really struggling to exit their zone early.

Max Pacioretty takes a two-minute minor for cross-checking Ryan Lindgren from behind.

Chris Krieder gets a two minute minor for slashing John Carlson. The two teams will play four-on-four for exactly one minute and give the Caps a one minute power play after that.

🚨 2-2 tie. Skating around the net, Evgeny Kuznetsov sends a blind backhanded shot that bounces off Quick. Nic Dowd gets his stick on rebound mid-air somehow. Wow. Stunning. That’s Dowd’s seventh of the year and comes at the 6:36 mark of the third.

🚨 3-2 Caps. Adam Fox steps up on Dylan Strome during a rush, but bobbles the clear. Strome grabs the biscuit and finds TJ Oshie wide open at the right post for an easy chip in. That’s two goals in 1:53 for the Caps.

Alexis Lafrenière to the box for slashing Connor McMichael with 5:27 remaining.

Huge Rangers push at the end, but Caps hang on. They’re now 13-1-6 in one-goal games this season.

The Rangers outshot them 27-21 and out-attempted them 47-44 at five-on-five.

Comment on the game below along with us!

Related Articles

RMNB is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHLPA, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.

All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International – unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.

zamboni logo