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Takeaways From Capitals 5-1 Loss To The Rangers In New York

By Jon Sorensen·
Screen cap: X/@NYRangers

The Washington Capitals came out of their three-day holiday break with a lot of excitement. Guys were starting to come back into the lineup, the team was rested after four straight overtimes and they were winning games. However, it was anything but in their 5-1 loss against the New York Rangers. 

After a really solid first period, and a 1-0 lead midway through the first, the Capitals started to take their foot off the pedal and the Rangers made them pay. They scored three unanswered goals in the second period and Washington did not have any sort of push for the reminder of the game.

Despite some shuffling of the forward lines, nobody was able to get a puck past Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who made 26 saves.

“Other than Anthony Mantha and that line, we just don’t score five-on-five. So it makes it really, really challenging when you’re held to one, two goals every night,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said following Wednesday’s loss. “We did some really good things early in that game and then put ourselves behind the eight-ball. But for our group, it’s really, really challenging when we get down in games.”

Here is what stood out. 

 Lack of Defensive Zone Structure

The defensive zone structure has been a huge reason why the Capitals have been finding ways to win games. In recent games, the Capitals have done an excellent job of protecting the house in front of their goaltenders, but for whatever reason they got away from that gameplan.

New York was cycling the puck with speed and was getting to the middle of the ice. After having just one high-danger chance in the first period, the Rangers had five in the final 40 minutes of play. 

Alexis Lafreniere’s goal, which made it 5-1 New York, was because of the constant interchanges and movement between the Rangers players. Adam Fox sneaks behind Anthony Mantha and then Aliaksei Protas goes towards Fox, which leaves Lafreniere wide open.

The Caps have been running a man-on-man defense. While it has been working over the last few games, it got exploited big time on Wednesday.

“You gotta start taking chances on the other side of the puck, you got to start pushing a little bit and they’re good in transition. So, they can make you pay when the puck is not bouncing your way,” Tom Wilson said. “They got behind us, they had a lot of odd man rushes towards the end of the game, and we got to try and eliminate that.”

Darcy Kuemper Struggling

Darcy Kuemper did not have a very good game. Even though his defense did not do a good enough job in front of him, he would like to have at least one or two of those goals back. Artemi Panarin’s power-play goal, which made it 2-1 New York, is one that Kuemper needed to stop. Once the puck went in, he was surprised that it snuck past his glove.

Meanwhile, K’Andre Miller’s first goal of the game is one where a goaltender needs to come up with a big save despite the fact that Miller is in a high danger scoring area. However, the other three that New York scored on he had no chance on. Braden Schneider’s goal and Miller’s second of the game Kuemper was screened, and Lafreniere’s tally was on a backdoor one timer.

“I think overall like all season [we’ve done a] really good job,” Martin Fehervary said after the game. “Once we open it up, like I mentioned, and then we’re just [giving] too many chances right in front of him and we didn’t help him at all.”

But overall, it was not a very good night for the 33-year-old netminder, as he gave up three goals on 11 shots in the second period.

Anthony Mantha Continues Hot Hand; Fourth Line Generating Chances

Let’s talk about some positives, shall we? Mantha has four goals in his last three games and five points in his last five. He scored his 11th goal of the season, which matched his season total last year. He also had a team-leading seven shots on goal. His line with Protas and Connor McMichael has been the most consistent throughout the season.

Washington’s fourth line of Beck Malenstyn, Nic Dowd and Nicolas Aube-Kubel generated a lot of chances. They were skating very well and getting in on the forecheck. They had six shots at five-on-five and had three scoring chances.

Notable Numbers and Observations

  • Rangers had 11 high-danger chances at 5v5
  • New York had 24 scoring chances at 5v5.
  • New York blocked 15 shots.
  • Tom Wilson had seven hits which led the team. 
  • The Capitals had a tough time getting to the middle of the ice and breaking New York’s structure. 
  • The travel schedule could have played a part in the game. Typically, teams leave the day before a game, but the Caps left DC at 7 a.m. on the day of. 

The Caps will travel to Belmont to take on the New York Islanders on Friday, Dec. 29. 

By Jacob Cheris