Rout at Garden is sixth defeat in a row for Washington
NEW YORK – The signs of progress evident Saturday night were nowhere to be found for the Capitals 24 hours later.
A team in the midst of a frustrating slump hit its low point on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. The New York Rangers scored four times in the second period to blow open an even game en route to an 7-0 drubbing of Washington.
The Caps (18-11-3, 39 points) lost for the sixth time in a row and ninth time in 13 games. They have earned just 10 standings points since Nov. 17 and seen their lead in the Southeast Division slip to just three points over Tampa Bay (16-10-4, 36 points) and four points over third-place Atlanta (16-11-3, 35 points). And both of those teams have played two fewer games.
With defenseman Mike Green (undisclosed) and Jeff Schultz (broken finger) out, the jumbled defensive pairings struggled in front of goalie Semyon Varlamov, who didn’t help matters by allowing five goals on the first 17 shots he faced. Washington also gave up a shorthanded goal in the second period to New York defenseman Marc Staal.
Their frustration was evident as Caps forwards Matt Hendricks and Alex Ovechkin both earned fighting majors with their team down 4-0 midway through the second period. Ovechkin then appeared to jump New York forward Brandon Dubinsky after the Rangers took exception to what appeared to be a clean hip check by Washington’s star left winger on defenseman Dan Girardi.
“I don’t know what to say. We don’t want to lose, we want to win,” said Ovechkin, who took a shot off his right leg in the third period and sat out the final 9 minutes, 16 seconds. “We don’t have luck. How many posts we hit? We still have chances, We just can’t score.”
In answer to the “how many posts” question: Four. Washington’s night was summed up by an offensive flurry in the second period when it rang a post or crossbar three times in a span of four minutes – two of those shots by center Nicklas Backstrom.
The Caps have struggled in recent games at the end of periods. Late goals against Florida and Colorado hurt – especially the Panthers’ tally with just one second left in the second period of Thursday’s game. It happened again against New York. After a relatively even period, Brandon Prust fought off both John Carlson and Boyd Gordon behind the Caps’ goal and eventually received the puck back on the right side of the net, banging a tough-angle shot off the skate of Washington defenseman Tom Poti and over Varlamov’s shoulder.
The Caps’ 22-year-old goalie looked uncomfortable from the start. He was beaten glove side by an Artem Anisimov shot just 59 seconds into the second period and at 2-0 that play opened the floodgates. But because rookie goalie Michal Neuvirth became ill shortly before the game there was no backup goalie for coach Bruce Boudreau to turn to. Washington’s AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, was playing a game Sunday in Charlotte.
“I don’t have an answer right now. I’ve got to think about this,” Boudreau said. “It is unfamiliar territory and I think we have a lot of people feeling sorry for themselves. But as you can tell when you get down teams aren’t feeling sorry for you. They’re pushing it on and piling it on. So we have to find a way to get out of this before it’s too late.”
