Caps Fall Down Early, Fall 5-3

Seeking to string together consecutive wins for just the third time since the turn of the calendar, the Caps got stuck in the mud early and dug themselves a hole that proved too deep from which to extricate themselves. Washington was dominant in the third and played well in the second period, but it had to after falling down 4-1 early. The ditch proved to be too deep as the Caps dropped another game - and another day off the calendar - in a 5-3 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.

"We just didn't do things quick enough," laments Caps' coach Peter Laviolette. "We didn't break pucks out quick enough. We held on to it too long; we didn't attack open ice. And we didn't make the pass when the pass was there, we didn't see it quick enough. We didn't move it quick enough and it slows down; you end up getting checked and things turn over.
"And [the Rangers] were on their toes and jumping from the start, and that'll get you a period that you're not happy with."
Coming off an uplifting 5-1 win over the Islanders on Saturday in the first of two games on their annual mentors' trip, the Caps lost a pair of key performers when captain Alex Ovechkin (lower body) and left wing Sonny Milano (non-COVID illness) were both unable to play on Tuesday. Aliaksei Protas was inserted into the lineup and Joe Snively was summoned from AHL Hershey on Tuesday morning to step in, and three of Washington's four forward lines took on a different look from Saturday as a result.
The Rangers got an early jump on the Caps, taking a 1-0 lead on a Mika Zibanejad shot from the slot at 4:09 of the first period, New York's first shot on net of the night. And the Rangers kept pouring it on; by the time the first television timeout rolled around at 7:30 of the first, the Caps were down a goal and on the short end of a 15-1 disparity in shot attempts, and down 7-0 in shots on net.
Eleven minutes into the first, New York held an 11-0 lead in shots on net and was swarming the Caps in the Washington end of the ice, and it took some big saves from Darcy Kuemper to keep it a 1-0 game at that point.
After killing off a New York power play midway through the first, the Caps drew even on a Nicolas Aube-Kubel goal at 14:29 of the first. But the Blueshirts got that goal back 16 seconds later when Artemi Panarin fed Zibanejad for a rush goal at 14:45.
"We didn't get the tie for long," shrugs Aube-Kubel. "I feel like next shift they scored. You've got to give them credit for that, I guess."
The hole got a goal deeper when the Caps went shorthanded for a second time and Patrick Kane scored on a New York power play at 18:46 of the opening period, pushing the Blueshirts' lead to 3-1.
Just as they scored at 4:09 of the first on their first shot on goal of the game, the Rangers scored at 4:09 of the second on their first shot of the middle period, a Jacob Trouba shot from the inside of the left circle. Leading 4-1 at that point of the contest, the Rangers and goaltender Igor Shesterkin had all the offense they would require on this night.
Looking up at a 4-1 deficit, the Caps gamely tried to claw their way back into the contest. Shortly after the midpoint of the middle period, Washington made it 4-2 when T.J. Oshie made a nifty feed to set up Matty Irwin, the late guy into the zone on the rush. Irwin's shot from the high slot made it a two-goal game at 12:08.
Soon after, the Caps had a power play opportunity with which to try to shave the deficit further, but without Ovechkin and John Carlson, their power play managed two shots on net in eight minutes with the extra man. The Caps are now 2-8-2 all-time in games in which both Carlson and Ovechkin are not in the lineup, and they are 0-6-0 in such games this season. Their power play is 3-for-20 (15 percent) in the six games they've played without two of their top extra-man performers this season.
The Caps continued to put the pressure on the Rangers in the third, and they generated some good looks and chances, but Shesterkin made some key stops, notably denying Dylan Strome with a flashy glove save on Washington's best power play look of the night midway through the third.
Soon after the expiration of that power play, the Caps climbed to within a goal of their hosts when Nic Dowd scored on a second effort, burying his own rebound to make it a 4-3 game with 7:52 to play.
Shesterkin shut the door the rest of the way, and his teammates chipped in with a dozen shot blocks in the third period alone. Jimmy Vesey scored into an empty net with 2:11 remaining to account for the 5-3 final, doing so just nine seconds after Kuemper vacated the cage and before the Caps had a chance to get set up to mount an attack with the extra skater.
"We did have a slow start," says Dowd, who established a career best with his 12th goal of the season. "But I thought Darcy gave us a chance to stay in that game, and played really, really well throughout the whole game. They had some chances, even with their lead.
"But I think the hole, yeah the hole sucks. Getting behind one or two or three goals is tough. But I thought we were right there in it, and we gave ourselves a chance to win that game. I thought we played a majority of the game [well], minus maybe that first 10-12 minutes."
Given their position in the standings and the lateness of the date in the season, the Caps don't have the luxury of starting slow or playing fewer than 60 solid minutes. They'll return home to host Buffalo on Wednesday. The Sabres are even with the Caps in the standings with 71 points, but they've played two fewer games than Washington. That's a must win game for the Capitals.