The Washington Capitals are down 2-0 in their first-round series with the New York Rangers after Tuesday night’s 4-3 loss at Madison Square Garden. The Caps will come home to DC needing a win in Game Three to stave off certain elimination.
Better game but still some rough spots that cost them.
- The Capitals handled themselves perfectly well at five-on-five in this game. At the end of regulation, they were up 8 in shot attempts, 10 in scoring chances, and 3 in high-danger chances. Unfortunately, the refs this postseason seemingly don’t want much of the game played at even strength unless a play involves Artemi Panarin making head contact with TJ Oshie.
- Special teams were a bit of a disaster for the Capitals. They scored two power-play goals but gave up the back-breaking, shorthanded game-winner to K’Andre Miller. Their penalty kill was also sliced through twice by New York and that was the difference in the game.
- Charlie Lindgren was also human again which is a big problem for Washington. Chuckie made just 23 stops on 27 shots. Per MoneyPuck, he allowed 1.69 more goals than expected. Igor Shesterkin stopped 0.58 more goals than expected. Another swing in the stats that went New York’s way.
With an assist on the Capitals' third goal, John Carlson (19g-55a-74p) passed Gary Suter (73) for the fourth-most playoff points by a U.S.-born defensemen in NHL history.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) April 24, 2024
- Really nice night from Lucas Johansen in the 11:55 of ice time he received in his first career NHL playoff game. With him on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals held positive differentials in shot attempts (+12), scoring chances (+1), and high-danger chances (+1). Washington didn’t allow a high-danger chance with him over the boards. I also thought Alex Alexeyev was very good but we’ll save the last two bullets for other takeaways.
- Connor McMichael was the team’s most present skater in terms of individual output. Outside of putting away his first career NHL playoff goal, he also recorded 10 shot attempts, five individual scoring chances, and three individual high-danger chances. He was also the only player on the team to really show any pushback toward Panarin.
- I said this in my recap outro but I’ll repeat it again. There are still a couple of reasons to be hopeful about this series. The Capitals won both games at Capital One Arena against the Rangers this season and they’ll have two days before the next game for their injured players to heal up and get back in business.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
