Can the Rangers shut down the Caps’ offense again?

The New York Rangers took a lot of encouragement from their effort against the Capitals Friday night, but the bottom line is they lost two crucial points in their attempt to make the postseason.  Despite a shutdown defense that limited scoring opportunities, the Rangers blew another third period lead and lost.

It was the fourth time in 14 games that the Rangers have taken a lead into the third period and lost with two losses in regulation. It’s the first time in four years that they had lost that many games in regulation.  They have lost five games in regulation or OT only once in the last 11 years and they are getting close.

The good news is the Rangers did a fabulous job for 55 minutes keeping shots away from their net.  They blocked shots and kept the Capitals on the perimeter in their zone, but Washington never stopped trying and ultimately it paid off.  It’s going to be difficult to do that again and the Rangers need to limit shot attempts, not just shots on goal.  The 47 shot attempts at even strength was the most against the Rangers in seven games.

In his post game remarks, Capitals’ Coach Peter Laviolette pointed out that playing back-to-back games is helpful for the coaches.  “It actually gives you a chance to coach the game. All the coaches go to work and figure out what we can do better or things that we did well and try to emphasize that…this is one of the advantages of playing a team back-to-back, like in a playoff series.”

Without David Quinn and his coaching staff, it will be up to Kris Knoblauch, Gord Murphy and Chris Drury to do the same.  They had better be prepared.

About the Rangers

Although Kris Knoblauch hinted that Igor Shesterkin is getting close to playing, he will not be in net and we will see Keith Kinkaid starting.  His last start was the 5-4 overtime loss to the Flyers that came after his 4-0 shutout over the Bruins.  Other than in goal, it is the same lineup as in the last two games.

Jack Johnson’s season is over as he underwent surgery to repair a core muscle issue. Signed to a one-year deal before this season, it’s likely that his career as a Ranger is over.

If you are looking for a reason why the Rangers are in trouble, it’s because they are not finishing.

Steve Valiquette had an interesting statistic when it came to games stolen by opposing goalies.

That’s why they have won only five times in their 16 one goal games. Their winning percentage in one goal games is the third worst in the NHL.

Last night the Rangers had more shot attempts and high high danger chances at even strength in the first two periods, but only came out of it with the 1-0 lead.

The most damning statistic was on the two third period power plays.  The Rangers had seven shot attempts and five high danger scoring chances, but got only three shots on goal.  That’s missed opportunities at a time they needed to score most.

Here is the projected lineup:

20 Kreider– 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 43 Blackwell
13 Lafrenière –  72 Chytil- 24 Kakko
48 Lemieux – 21 Howden– 17 Rooney

55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
25 Hajek – 42 Smith

71 Kinkaid
40 Georgiev

About the Capitals

The Capitals are hot.  They’ve won seven games in a row. They are 14-2-1 in their last 17 games.  By beating the Rangers they have now beaten every team in the East Division.

The hottest Capital is Alex Ovechkin who has now scored in five straight games and has seven goals in his last seven games and with 720 goals is closing in on Marcel Dionne (731 goals)  for fifth most in NHL history.

Tom Wilson comes off his seven game suspension for an illegal hit on Brandon Carlo of the Bruins.  When Wilson is in the lineup he brings a whole new dimension to the Capitals and it will be worth watching to see how he plays.  He’s a marked man in the NHL and it’s worth noting that though he didn’t get a penalty on the hit, the NHL slapped him with the seven game suspension.

Vitek Vanecek stole the game in the first period for the Capitals.  Although he allowed the one power play goal, he made a number of outstanding saves and kept it close so Ovechkin could win it.   On the second night of back-to-back games, the Caps will go with Ilya Samsonov.  He has only one start against the Rangers, the 6-5 overtime loss last season when Mika Zibanejad scored five times.

Here is their projected lineup:

8 Alex Ovechkin -92 Evgeny Kuznetsov – 77 T.J. Oshie
13 Jakub Vrana –  19 Nicklas Backstrom – 43 Tom Wilson
62 Carl Hagelin – 26 Nic Dowd – 21 Garnet Hathaway
73 Conor Sheary – 14 Richard Panik – 10 Daniel Sprong

3 Brenden Dillon – 74 John Carlson
9 Dmitri Orlov -2 Justin Schultz
33 Zdeno Chara –  – 3 Nick Jensen

30 Ilya Samsonov
41 Vitek Vanecek

This season

February 4 – Rangers 4, Capitals 2

February 20 – Rangers 4, Capitals 1

March 19 – Capitals 2, Rangers 1

3 keys to winning

1. Stop Ovechkin – After Friday night, there is one obvious key to winning and that is stopping Ovechkin from scoring.  Great goal scorers can take over a game that is lost and turn it around.  We’ve seen Panarin do it. We’ve seen Crosby do it. Last night it was Ovechkin.
2. Do it again – The Rangers did a brilliant job limiting the Capitals’ from getting shots on goal.  The Caps weren’t impotent on offense, the Rangers just kept the shots from getting through. That is, until there were five minutes left in the game.   If the Rangers can do it again, they will have a decent chance of coming away with two points.
3. Get more shots on the power play – True, they were one for three with the man advantage, but they had two golden opportunities to put the game away in the third period and they couldn’t score.  Three shots on goal on two power plays with the a chance to clinch a win is simply not good enough.  They need to take a page out of the Capitals’ book and get shots on goal and crash the net looking for rebounds.

East Division

Saturday’s schedule

Penguins at Devils
Flyers at Islanders
Bruins at Sabres  – Postponed

Friday’s score

Capitals 2, Rangers 1

Standings

1- Washington     30   20-6-4     44 points
2-  Islanders          31   19-8-4     42 points
3- Pittsburgh        30   18-11-1   37 points
4- Boston              28    16-8-4     36 points
5- Philadelphia    28   15-10-3    33 points
6- Rangers            29   12-13-4   28 points
7- New Jersey       27  10-13-4   24 points
8- Buffalo              29    6-19-4    16 points

About the game and join the live conversation

The game starts at 7pm and it will be It will be televised on the MSG Network with the radio call on  ESPN Radio 98.7 FM.

Be sure and join the live conversation (which was pretty happy for most of last night’s game) here on Blue Line Station. The live thread can be found in the conversations section (below).  The thread is active now and will be throughout the game so you can compare notes with your fellow Ranger fans as they go for the rebound win.