Courtesy: Geoff Burke – USA TODAY Sports
WASHINGTON — Tell me if you’ve heard the story where the Washington Capitals fell at the hands of the New York Rangers in dominating fashion?
I figured I wasn’t alone in that regard.
Wednesday night proved once again the New York simply matches up well with Washington and that brawn outweighs finesse in this rivalry that has been dominated by the Rangers in recent history.
With last night’s 2-0 loss, the Capitals have failed to once again net one single puck past Henrik Lundqvist for the third consecutive game, including playoffs.
The last time the Caps scored on Henrik? Game 5 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2012… Mike Ribeiro, former Capitals center now a Phoenix Coyote, scored the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory for the boys in red.
Head coach Adam Oates realizes that after a nice 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers Monday night, his guys are probably down after losing to one of their bitter rivals.
“One of the reasons you don’t talk to them is you do want them to think about it,” Oates said in regards to post-game chatter with his team. ” You want them to talk among themselves and hopefully, the guys care and they go home and they are not happy about it.”
Oates reiterated that he believes his team is not quitting on him, nor are they quitting on themselves. Film study has to become significantly more important for this team to correct it’s biggest recurring mistakes. Wednesday, Washington had trouble creating offensive opportunities and it frustrated everyone on the bench.
“We just can’t score,” Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin said. ” It’s a big difference right now and we have to score 5-on-5, 5-on-4. We had a 5-on-3 chance, a 5-on-4 chance, we missed the empty net.”
Ovechkin was visibly frustrated in the locker room following the game as he knows he is doing whatever he can to propel his team to victory. However, the Capitals found out what a lot of other teams find out when they play the Rangers: Those dudes can block shots… 22 of them in fact.
Capitals forward Brooks Laich felt the frustration along with his captain as the Capitals were only able to put 22 shots on goal in comparison to the Rangers’ 36.
“Not enough, not enough,” Laich said in regards to the disappointing shot total. ” Not enough good looks and he’s [Lundqvist] is a good goaltender. Offensively, we’re struggling and we’ve got to find out why that is and find a way to correct it.”
In addition to the stellar Rangers defensive efforts across the board, Washington had trouble even leaving their own zone for offensive breakouts to try and generate some sort of offensive rush. Capitals defenseman John Carlson tried to push the pace offensively from the blue line, but the opportunities simply weren’t there.
“When we’re playing in our zone, [we need to] worry about our zone,” Carlson said. ” When we go into the offensive zone, that’s our time to shine.”
Kind of hard to shine when their is virtually an immovable object in front of the net and encompassing the face-off circles, but Washington was trying their best to pepper Lundqvist from every which way. It doesn’t matter where the contributions come from, the Capitals just need several guys to step up and take over games earlier and more often.
“We can’t single out guys; it’s a team effort,” Capitals goalie Braden Holtby said. ” As a group, I don’t think anyone really cares who it is on the ice… we have to do better.”
One of the glaring missed opportunities came on the power play when Capitals forward Joel Ward hit the rink ads when it appeared he had an open net against Lundqvist. Chances of a lifetime like that come on a rare basis against the Rangers and Ward knows this wholeheartedly.
“We had a couple of chances and unfortunate breaks,” Ward said as he didn’t really address his bad miss.
Can you blame him though?
He wasn’t the only reason as to why the Capitals lost to the Rangers. Defenseman Karl Alzner said it best.
“I don’t feel like we’re a real tough team to play against right now,” Alzner told reporters. ” I don’t feel like we play very creative and that’s the key. If we’re creative, we can be successful.”
He pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one, minus one thing: Karl forgot to mention his team’s effort.
The way the Capitals played Wednesday night made it seem like they said, “Hey, they’re the Rangers, we’re the Capitals… okay… they’ve got this.”
How do you tell if a team has the grit and drive? Watch 50-50 pucks. Watch hard-arounds along the boards. Watch forechecking and backchecking efforts. These things have been criticisms of the Capitals in years past with different coaches and somewhat different personnel, yet the same problems continue to persist. When the Columbus Blue Jackets come to town Saturday night, they better hope to generate some positive energy and leave for Canada with a polished win against a middle-of-the-road opponent in the Metropolitan Division.
