Rangers 6, Caps 3
Tough to figure out the Caps sometimes. They played a decent first period against the Rangers on Friday afternoon. No goals, but they had some chances. There weren’t many defensive breakdowns. Michal Neuvirth didn’t have to be superman in goal.
But where they were moving their feet and hustling and winning some battles in the first period, all of that disappeared early in the second. The Rangers scored three times in a 4 minute, 18-second stretch and just like that Washington was in a hole it couldn’t dig out of. Check out the details in our game story here.
Bruce Boudreau and multiple players brought up these recent implosions after the game. The list isn’t pretty:
Vancouver (Oct. 29): 4-4 game at the start of the third period. Caps give up three goals in 4:07 in a 7-4 loss.
Dallas (Nov. 8): 2-2 game at the start of the third period. Caps give up three goals in 7:41 in a 5-2 loss.
Nashville (Nov. 15): 1-0 lead late in the third period. Caps give up three goals – one an empty-netter – in 3:58 of a 3-1 loss.
Winnipeg (Nov. 17): 1-1 game midway through second period. Caps give up three goals in 4:16 of a 4-1 loss.
Toronto (Nov. 19): 1-1 game late in the first period. Caps give up three goals in 6:13 of a 7-1 loss.
New York Rangers (Nov. 25): 0-0 game early second period. Caps give up three goals in 4:18 of a 6-3 loss.
There’s no real explanation for that. Boudreau wondered if it was a confidence issue. Or maybe his team just starts to feel sorry for itself. Several of his players agreed with that assessment – and that it needs to stop now with a back-to-back game at Buffalo looming on Saturday. A win there will be the difference between a nice week and one where they’re just treading water.
“We’re getting too down,” said defenseman Karl Alzner. “As soon as we get a goal scored against us it kind of feels like it’s the end of the world. It’s just one goal. It’s bound to happen every game. We’re killing our momentum by having them score and then giving up another one.”
Follow me on Twitter @bmcnally14
