Rangers show a lot of grit and little else

The New York Rangers laid an egg in Washington in their season opener, losing 5-1.  It was the Alexander Ovechkin show as he scored twice and added two assists in a game he was supposed to miss with an injury.

The Rangers outhit the Capitals 27-12, but all that hitting didn’t help on the scoresheet.  So, chalk one up for the new grittiness, but it didn’t help the final score.

Ironically, it was a tight game until midway through the second period.  Although the Caps scored the only goal of the first period, the Rangers had the better of the play, outshooting Washington 9-6.  The first Caps goals was on the power play and off a bad bounce with a puck deflecting off Trouba’s stick right to a wide open T.J. Oshie.

They didn’t allow a Capitals shot on goal until 9:03 of the second period and that’s when the roof caved in.  At 12:38 Justin Schultz scored a power play goal on a slapshot from the blueline that deflected off Mika Zibanejad.

Gerard Gallant called it “two different games.” saying “for the first 33 minutes we were real good even though we were behind two nothing” and he cited the unlucky bounces on the two power play goals. He said “I thought we played a helluva a first 33 minutes and then we weren’t too good.”

The Capitals then took over the game and scored  24 seconds after the Schultz goal.. Over the last 11 minutes of the second period, they outshot the Rangers 15-1.  It was ugly.

Ovechkin scored early in the third period and with a 4-0 lead, the game was over. The Rangers spoiled the shutout on a power play tip-in by Chris Kreider that Ovechkin answered with a shorthanded goal less than three minutes later.

Gallant said he thought “the penalty kill did a good  job” but didn’t get any bounces.  He also said the Rangers took too many undisciplined penalties and it cost them.

The long awaited fight between Tom Wilson and Ryan Reaves never happened.  Wilson was very quiet this game, scoreless and he didn’t register a hit.  There was some nastiness, mostly courtesy of Sammy Blais, but it never descended into the grudge match that everyone had anticipated.

The Rangers lost this game on special teams.  The Caps went 3-6 on the power play and the Rangers were 1-5 with their only goal late when the match was over. The Ovechkin shortanded goal came during an eight second long man advantage in the third period.

This was a disappointing game with little to be happy about. It’s best for the Rangers to go back to New York and focus on their home opener versus Dallas.  Another effort like this one and the team will be starting the season in a hole that can only get deeper.

If you can stomach it, here is a video recap of the game.