First Period:
- Alex Ovechkin (3) Assists: Dylan Strome (7), Aliaksei Protas (4)
- Will Cuylle (3) Assists: Kaapo Kakko (6)
- Alex Ovechkin (4) Assists: Aliaksei Protas (5), Dylan Strome (8)
- Connor McMichael (4) Assists: Taylor Raddysh (1), Rasmus Sandin (3)
Second Period:
- Chris Kreider (6) (Power Play) Assists: Mika Zibanejad (5), Vincent Trocheck (6)
- Aliaksei Protas (2) Assists: Rasmus Sandin (4), Trevor van Riemsdyk (4)
- Filip Chytil (4) Assists: Victor Mancini (3), Braden Schneider (2)
Third Period:
- Nic Dowd (3) (Empty Net) Assists: John Carlson (5)
Stats:
Adam Rotter:
- The fact that this was a close game is another testament to Igor Shesterkin because the Rangers got dominated by the Capitals. The Capitals were the faster and hungrier team, they were quicker to loose pucks, forced the Rangers into turnovers and spent nearly the whole night in the Rangers zone.
- This is one of those performances that you’d expect if. the team played four games in six nights on the road against a heavy team…and that just wasn’t the case. They made poor decisions, weren’t strong on pucks when they were making passes or in battles…and yet they did have a couple of big chances in the third period to tie it. As poor as they were playing it still felt like a winnable game and had they cleared the zone a couple of times in the first period rather than letting the Caps keep the puck in the zone and score, they probably would have won.
- It hasn’t been this bad, but defense, other than goaltending, has not been a strong suit for the Rangers so far this season.
- A lot of players, especially defensively and in their own zone, had tough nights…but not the third line. They didn’t dominate as much as they have in previous games, but they did score two goals again.
- The Chytil line was the Rangers best again and at 5-on-5 he played 15:19 compared to Mika Zibanejad, who had 16:36 overall with PP and PK time, getting 11:47. Kaapo Kakko and Will Cuylle also had more even strength time than Chris Kreider and Reilly Smith.
- I didn’t really understand why the Ranger sent Matt Rempe down to play two games in Hartford only to call him back up…until I remembered that Tom Wilson, and Dylan McIlrath, were next on the schedule. Rempe, I guess, did what he was expected to do and fought McIlrath, but I’m not sure it was necessary to call him up just for that reason. Jimmy Vesey should be returning soon and so Rempe will likely go back to Hartford and hopefully continue to play center and in all situations.
- Next up is Ottawa on Friday