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The Washington Capitals fell to the New York Rangers 3-2 on Friday night at Verizon Center. The loss dropped the Capitals record to 47-13-4 (98 points).  The win improved the Rangers record to 38-21-6 (82 points). The Capitals are now off to Boston to take on the Bruins on Saturday night. Puck-drop is 7:00 PM.

The starting lines for the Capitals:

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Winnik-Richards-Beagle

Defensive Pairs:
Alzner-Niskanen
Orpik-Orlov
Weber-Chorney

Nate Schmidt was out with a minor lower body injury and is expected to return for tomorrow’s game against the Bruins. Stanislav Galiev and Michael Latta were the healthy scratches. The goalie match-up for tonight’s game, provided by @washcaps:

QUICK TAKES
Another poor start for the Capitals. The Caps headed to the locker room for the first intermission trailing 2-0.  The Caps had eight giveaways for the first period. The Capitals would rally to tie it up in the second period, but would give up a goal just 17 seconds into the third period and lose the game 3-2.  The third and fourth lines had good games, but the top two lines were effectively neutralized by the Rangers. Team stats for the game can be found here: Individual player stats for the game can be found here: Faceoff stats can be found here: All of the game photos can be found here:

A feisty first five minutes with a very quick tempo by both sides. The Caps had three really nice chances early, but to no avail. It would be the Rangers who would strike first on a knock-in of a rebound by Jesper Fast at 5:47 of the period.

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The Caps would get the game’s first power play at the 8:00 mark of the opening frame, but would be unable to generate much in the way of offensive zone pressure. The Caps were a bit sloppy from the start, with six giveaways in the first 15 minutes of play. The Caps were whistled for the game’s second penalty at 15:33 on a tripping call on Karl Alzner, and the Rangers would capitalize.  Keith Yandle would add a power play goal to stretch the Rangers lead to 2-0 at 16:37.

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The first period would end with the Rangers leading 2-0.  Shots on goal were even at 8-8.

The Rangers did a nice job of neutralizing the Capitals attack for the first ten minutes of the second period.  Jay Beagle would finally get the Caps on the scoreboard with a gritty grinder of a goal he wrestled across the goal line at 10:58 of the second period.

The Caps stepped up the offensive pressure following the goal, dominating play, particularly by the forth line. The Caps returned to the power play on a slashing call on Tanner Glass with 1:41 left in the second period. During the man-advantage, T.J. Oshie would tie the game on a Rangers turnover at center ice. Oshie would go the distance and knock home a nifty left- point wrister at 19:21.

The period would end tied 2-2. Capitals led in shots on goal 23-19.

The Rangers would regain the lead just 17 seconds into the third period on a goal by Derek Stepan.

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The Rangers would hold on for the 3-2 win.