LOST IN THE WASH’
WASHINGTON — The Rangers have leaned on their shot production and abundance of near-goals as positives during this ugly stretch of the season.
But the fact is, while on the precipice of their first win in a week and a half, the Blueshirts were once again burned by two goals off the rush in the span of 1:53 in the third period to drop their fourth straight game, 3-2, to the Alex Ovechkin-less Capitals on Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena.
It counted as the Rangers’ third regulation loss when leading after two periods and gave the team a concerning 1-4-1 record over their past six games.
The loss also set up the Hurricanes to pull within one point of the Rangers in the Metropolitan Division standings if they won their matchup against the Penguins on Saturday night.
“We’re going through it a little bit right now,” said Adam Fox, who scored both of the Rangers’ two goals to up his total to four in the past four games. “When you’re in a funk like this, sometimes it seems like it’s hard to climb out of. We kind of were cruising at the start of the year, getting wins and playing the right way.
“When you’re in a funk, it almost seems like you’re never going to get out of it. We’ve got to come together here. Quick turnaround against the same team, so it’s a good opportunity for us to do that.”
The Rangers outworked the
Capitals in most areas of the game through 40 minutes, which gave them a 2-1 lead heading into the third period.
But Washington stayed competitive by taking advantage of the opportunities that were given to them before attacking the visitor’s lingering weak point in defending the rush.
As the Capitals’ power play expired, Evgeny Kuznetsov bulldozed into the zone, flew around the Rangers’ goal and backhanded the puck on net where it was tipped in by Nic Dowd.
Washington center Dylan Strome then worked the puck past Fox on an odd-man rush before feeding T.J. Oshie at the side of the net for the go-ahead goal.
The Capitals notched two equalizers throughout the game, but the Rangers couldn’t get theirs.
“There’s different things, different ways odd-man rushes develop,” said Fox, who put the Rangers ahead, 2-1, at the 5:15 mark of the second period. “Sometimes you’re pressing in the O zone, you’re moving around and then just recognizing we need bodies back and to keep the rush in front of us. We gave up a few. They’ve been biting us. It’s been a focus for us, something that we’re still trying to clean up.
“I think once we do that and capitalize on a few more of our chances, I think that’s how we get out of this.”
The physical tone of this one was set by none other than notorious Capitals agitator Tom Wilson.
Bodying Jonny Brodzinski into the corner boards and briefly knocking him out of the game in the first period, Wilson drew the ire of his Hartford teammate Anton Blidh, who was making his season debut and competing in his first game with the Rangers.
The Rangers earned a power play out of the scuffle then another later in the period. The second one came after Ryan Lindgren lit up Martin Fehervary and had to answer to Dowd.
Whiffing on both opportunities en route to an 0-for-3 showing on the day, it marked the fourth time in the past eight games that the Rangers failed to score a power-play goal.
It was the third period in this one, however, that will stick with the Rangers.
They won’t have too much time to sit on it before the rematch Sunday afternoon in New York.
“We’ve got to win a game tomorrow,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “That’s the objective tomorrow is go back and win a hockey game.”