New York Swarms Washington, 5-3; Irwin Records Two Points

Photo @Capitals

The Washington Capitals lost to the New York Rangers by a score of 5-3 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves in the defeat. 

Washington’s Lines at New York

Conor Sheary — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Joe Snively — Dylan Strome — T.J. Oshie
Anthony Mantha — Nicklas Backstrom — Craig Smith
Aliaksei Protas — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Rasmus Sandin — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary — Nick Jensen
Matt Irwin — Alexander Alexeyev

Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: D Gabriel Carlsson

Injured: D John Carlson (upper-body, missed 32nd straight game, out indefinitely); RW Connor Brown (ACL, 64th, indefinite); LW Carl Hagelin (hip, 68th, indefinite); LW Alex Ovechkin (lower-body, first, day-to-day); LW Sonny Milano (non-COVID-19-related illness, first, day-to-day)

Snively came in for Milano while Protas drew in for Sheary with Ovechkin out after Washington’s 5-1 win over the New York Islanders on Saturday. Sheary took Ovechkin’s spot on the top-line.

New York’s Lines

Artemi Panarin — Mika Zibanejad — Vladimir Tarasenko
Chris Kreider — Vincent Trocheck — Patrick Kane
Alexis Lafreniere — Filip Chytil — Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey — Barclay Goodrow — Tyler Motte

K’Andre Miller — Jacob Trouba
Niko Mikkola — Adam Fox
Ben Harpur — Braden Schneider

Igor Shesterkin
Jaroslav Halak

Scratched: None

Injured: D Ryan Lindgren (upper-body, eighth, week-to-week)


First Period

Scoring

4:09, 1-0 New York: Zibanejad one-timed a shot over the glove of Kuemper from the slot after Tarasenko backhanded him a feed from the right dot and Zibanejad fed Tarasenko entering the offensive blueline.

14:29, 1-1: Aube-Kubel ripped a wrister over Shesterkin’s glove from the right dot with traffic in front after getting a feed by Protas from below the goal-line.

14:45, 2-1 New York: Zibanejad got a feed from the half-wall by Panarin, deked, and potted one into a wide open net in front with Kuemper down and out.

18:46, 3-1 (PPG): Kane called his own number with a slapshot through the wickets of Kuemper from the high slot after he got a pass from Fox at the top flat on the tape.

Shots: 19-9 New York

Other Notable Stats: Washington led 7-1 in blocked shots and tallied just one giveaway while New York earned three. New York, who converted once on two power plays, led 4-2 in takeaways and 9-7 in hits.


Second Period

Scoring

4:09, 4-1: Trouba ripped a shot to the top right corner on Kuemper, finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing play after getting a feed from Trocheck at the goal-line.

12:08, 4-2: Irwin slipped a shot under the glove of Shesterkin from the left dot after Oshie dropped a pass to him on the backhand. It marks Irwin’s 11th career multi-point game. With the secondary helper, Sandin now owns the franchise record for most assists (eight) in a player’s first five games with Washington, previously held by Geoff Courtnall (six). Oshie has registered 14 points in his last 13 games (seven goals) and now has four points (two) in two games against New York this season.

Shots: 29-25 New York (but 16-10 Washington in the second)

Other Notable Stats: Washington, who was held off of the board on two power plays, led 12-8 in blocked shots and had two giveaways while New York recorded five. New York led 22-12 in hits and 6-5 in takeaways.


Third Period

Scoring

11:48, 4-3: After getting a feed by Van Riemsdyk, Dowd was robbed with the right pad by Shesterkin before powering past the defense and poking one past him. It was Dowd’s career-high 12th goal of the season. Strome registered his 32nd assist of the season on Dowd’s goal, extending his point streak to five games (three goals, eight points).

17:49, 5-3: Vesey backhanded a puck down the ice into the empty net from the slot in the defensive zone.

Shots: 36-31 New York (6-6 in the third)

Other Notable Stats: Washington did not score on four power plays. New York led 8-5 in takeaways, 18-14 in blocked shots, 30-16 in hits. Each team tallied seven giveaways.

Current Eastern Conference Wild-Card Standings

Washington stays five points behind the New York Islanders (with one game in hand) for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. They also trail  the Florida Panthers (who have one) for the third by two points, remain tied with the Buffalo Sabres (two) for the fourth, stayed a point ahead of the Ottawa Senators (one at the end of Tuesday) for the fifth, and remain two points in front of the Detroit Red Wings (one at the end of Tuesday) by four.

Next game: Wednesday vs. Buffalo (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market)

By Harrison Brown

About Harrison Brown

Harrison is a diehard Caps fan and a hockey fanatic with a passion for sports writing. He attended his first game at age 8 and has been a season ticket holder since the 2010-2011 season. His fondest Caps memory was watching the Capitals hoist the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas. In his spare time, he enjoys travel, photography, and hanging out with his two dogs. Follow Harrison on Twitter @HarrisonB927077
This entry was posted in News and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

17 Responses to New York Swarms Washington, 5-3; Irwin Records Two Points

  1. Anonymous says:

    A shame. Thought the Caps were the better team tonight.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Caps are playing good hockey. Problem is the damage is done and it may be too late. No room for typical losses where you outplayed the opposition.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Crap!

  4. Anonymous says:

    Given the never ending injuries/illnesses, can’t really complain about this one. Even the ESPN crew said it was not the Caps year with their their terrible injury luck.

    Honestly not sold on the Rangers watching this game. There is obvious talent and excellent goal tending but not sure they can sustain 5 on 5 pressure.

    • Diane Doyle says:

      Not that I’m necessarily sold on the Rangers. But if the Rangers do their typical playoff performance, they’ll beat both Carolina and NJ, assuming no upsets, but then they’ll fall to the team that comes out of the Atlantic Division (likely Boston).

      Rangers’ typical season outcomes.

      1) Miss playoffs
      2) Barely make it into playoffs and get eliminated in Round 1
      3) Advance to Round 3 where they fail. They’ve done that as top Division/Conference seed and as third place team in Metro.

      • Anonymous says:

        I can see them beating Carolina, especially with Svechnikov out and their questionable goalie depth. I have no idea how New Jersey will handle the playoffs, should be interesting either way.

      • hockeydruid says:

        Diane that’s a lot better than the Caps the last 4 years…..one and done. Would rather not make the playoffs and get a higher pick than make them only to get sent home after the first round.

    • KimRB says:

      Speaking of the ESPN crew: Messier should not be allowed to do Ranger games. At times, the bias was so thick, it was hard to believe it was a national telecast. Almost as bad as Jack Edwards.

      That cartoon hockey version was just a silly gimmick. Don’t reinvent the wheel, ESPN!

      With Panarin and Zibanijad, I think it’s safe to say, there are a lot of starving barbers in Manhattan. Personally, I’d love to know how Mika gets that lovely bounce to his hair.

      • Anonymous says:

        Mess should not be near a microphone period but certainly not for a nationally televised Rangers game.

      • novafyre says:

        Watched the ESPN video but listened to Joe B and Locker on Caps Radio. Even our local guys are more unbiased than ESPN.

        • Jon Sorensen says:

          I was going to do that, but never made the jump. Is there any issues in syncing, and keeping it synced? Walton used to give a queue at opening faceoff.

          • novafyre says:

            Yes. I basically listened to Joe B and Locker. I listened through TuneIn on my computer browser. Originally they boys were about 25 seconds ahead of ESPN. This is acceptable because once alerted, I could pay attention to the video (which was through the Spectrum website on my computer). But since I do not have ad-free TuneIn, TuneIn would add ads periodically and then after the ad return me not to live but to the same spot, adding a 30 second delay. I did a lot of browser refreshing.

            I have found that watching say NBCSW through a Roku TV, Roku stick, phone app, and website on the computer gives me 4 different times. None are synced. As I move from room to room I go through different time zones. Listening to CapsRadio on a real radio or ESPN on a cable box would provide different delays than what I experienced.

            So if I had really been wanting to enjoy every move, it would have driven me crazy. But since I was resigned to really just listening to a “radio” broadcast and watching important pieces on being alerted, it worked. Still hate Pits Pierre McGuire more, but these ESPN guys come very close.

          • Anonymous says:

            I’ve got ESPN+ (it’s pretty good value) and those games are usually about 10 seconds ahead of the radio broadcast for me when I stream them on my laptop. I just pause it until it catches up to Caps radio and it generally stays in synch for the game.

            Probably unpopular opinion but Mark Messier might be heavily biased towards the Rangers but when he remembered to talk about the Caps he was generally fair and complimentary. That’s more than you can say about some other national broadcasters.

            • KimRB says:

              “but when he remembered to talk about the Caps he was generally fair and complimentary”

              A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while

              • novafyre says:

                To me, they treat non-NY teams as those unloved relatives at a wedding. You’re related, so you can’t totally ignore them, but you do give them the cold shoulder..

Leave a Reply