Washington Capitals (1-1-0 2pts) v. New York Rangers (2-1-0 4pts)

Game Recap

After defeating the New York Islanders to start their weekend road trip, the Washington Capitals head to the Big Apple to face off with the New York Rangers. “I think there’s a ton we’ll take away. I wish we had a day to digest and show some of the positive to our group,” head coach Spencer Carbery said to the press about Saturday’s game before the Capitals game with the Rangers. “I thought we did a lot of good things, especially, in the first two periods to grab a hold of that game, um, forecheck pressure, a lot of different things that I won’t go into all the details, but there’s a lot of positive things that we’ve looked for and talked about through training camp with our details and our structures, so I was happy with that, and then the third period brings a little bit of adversity and we fight our way through that and battle and find a way to hang on.”

“Well, there’s no secret that [the Rangers] 4th line has been playing well early in the season, and there’s a lot of size on that line, but it’s not just about the size and the physicality,” Carbery said when asked about the Ranger bottom six forwards. “And all the stuff you can expect. They’re playing really well. Their forecheck pressure, they’re taking pucks to the net. They’re finding ways to get pucks to dangerous areas off of those forechecks, and so they’re a handful, and they’re playing a regular shift, so we’re gonna have to be aware of them and then the usual suspects up front, JT [Miller], we’ve seen a lot of him out west in Vancouver and um over the years, so we know what he has to offer, and [Mika] Zibanejad and those guys, and Will Cuylle’s turned into a real good player, young in his career, early in his career, so, um, we’re very familiar with the weapons they have on their side and sort of depth of their lineup.”

Going into the game with the Rangers, Carbery would do some tinkering to the Capitals lineup as Hendrix Lapierre would be replaced by Sonny Milano on offense, and Declan Chisholm would draw into the lineup for his Capitals debut as he would replace Trevor van Riemsdyk. Charlie Lindgren would get the call between the pipes.

In the first period, Milano would make his presence known early with a smart play getting the puck to a pinching Matt Roy to get an opportunity on Rangers netminder Jonathan Quick, who would make the save. The revamped first line of Milano, Dylan Strome, and Alex Ovechkin would generate some more chances early in the period, but the Rangers maintained their composure to keep the Capitals off the board. Later in the period, the Rangers would create some really quality scoring chances, and when it seemed like they could take the 1-0 lead, the Capitals defense and Lindgren would keep the Rangers off the board. At the end of 20 minutes, the score would remain scoreless between the Capitals and Rangers.

During the first intermission, defenseman Declan Chisholm would be interviewed by Al Koken on Monumental Sports Network. “Yea, no it’s way more intense for sure,” Chisholm said about playing in his 100th career NHL game and first as a Capital against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. “It’s just excited to wear the jersey in the regular season, and you know if hopefully we can get the win here tonight.”

“Yea, I think we just need to clean up, um, some of our little close plays,” Chisholm said when asked what the Capitals needed to do better in the rest of the game. “You know they are pretty tight, especially in the neutral zone, so if we can get behind them, and then you know, establish more of an offensive zone game, um, I think we’ll take over.”

In the second period, both teams would continue to grind away to create scoring chances to try to break the scoreless tie, and the Rangers had an amazing opportunity with a 2-on-1 that saw Artemi Panarin feeding Mika Zibanejad, but Charlie Lindgren would make an outstanding save to keep the Rangers off the board. As the period would go on, the Rangers would continue to press the play, but Lindgren would continue to remain dominant between the pipes. With 6:13 left in the period, Alex Ovechkin would shoot the puck towards the net, and Anthony Beauvillier would deflect the shot over the shoulder of Jonathan Quick to give the Capitals the 1-0 lead. A couple minutes later, Tom Wilson would be called for tripping to give the Rangers the first powerplay of the game, and while the Capitals would kill the penalty, they would go back to the box when Beauvillier would get called for hooking. The Capitals would kill off this penalty to take the 1-0 lead into the second intermission.

During the second intermission, Beauvillier would be interviewed by Koken. “Yea, I’m just trying to get open here,” Beauvillier said about his goal. “I know that the net is close, and if he [Alex Ovechkin] have a shot lane, he can aim for my stick and it’s one of those where your happy it goes in, so a great play by Alex there.”

“Yea, I mean, it’s been a good game,” Beauvillier he said when asked about the other opportunities they had. “I think our line is playing fast, we’re creating loose pucks and the forecheck that can, it’s a good game out there. I think really a playoff atmosphere and both teams are playing hard, so it’s a fun game to play.”

Then in the third period, the Capitals would generate some solid pressure in the Rangers zone, including a great rebound opportunity for Beauvillier that would be stopped by Quick. The hard work in the Rangers zone would pay off for the Capitals as they would draw a penalty on J.T. Miller for tripping for their first powerplay of the game. While the Capitals would not score on the powerplay, they would still get some scoring chances after the powerplay had ended. Throughout the third both teams would generate chances, but Charlie Lindgren continued to make highlight reel saves this game to keep the Rangers off the board. With 1:54 left in regulation, the Rangers would pull Quick for the extra attacker, and the Capitals would get two close calls for some empty net goals, but they would go just wide. The Capitals would hold for the 1-0 victory over the Rangers. Charlie Lindgren would stop all 35 shots faced to earn the shutout.

After the game, Al Koken interviewed Lindgren. “Yea, I mean, um, back-to-back at the Madison Square Garden on a Sunday night, couldn’t really ask for much more there,” Lindgren said when asked about his first game and shutout. “You know, obviously it’s a fun building to play in. I’ve had the fortune to play here quite a few times now and, um, now is a good time. Always a great energy. They have a great team over there, but a heck of job by our guys tonight.”

“Yea, I mean I love playing at Capital One and I like playing on the road too,” Lindgren said when asked about playing on the road. “So, whenever my name is called, I want to go out and make the most of it and, uh, like I said, this building is probably one of the more special ones in the league, if not the most special ones. Yea, jut like I said, fun building to play in, and I thought the guys in front of me did an awesome job tonight.”

 

Lineups

Washington Capitals

Sonny Milano — Dylan Strome — Alex Ovechkin

Aliaksei Protas — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom Wilson

Anthony Beauvillier — Connor McMichael — Ryan Leonard

Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Justin Sourdif

Martin Fehervary — John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun — Declan Chisholm

Rasmus Sandin — Matt Roy

Charlie Lindgren

Logan Thompson

Scratched: Vincent Iorio, Hendrix Lapierre, Trevor van Riemsdyk

Injured: Dylan McIlrath (lower body)

 

New York Rangers

Artemi Panarin — Mika Zibanejad — Alexis Lafreniere

Will Cuylle — J.T. Miller — Conor Sheary

Jonny Brodzinski — Noah Laba — Taylor Raddysh

Adam Edstrom — Sam Carrick — Matt Rempe

Vladislav Gavrikov — Adam Fox

Braden Schneider — Will Borgen

Matthew Robertson — Urho Vaakanainen

Jonathan Quick

Igor Shesterkin

Scratched: Connor Mackey, Juuso Parssinen

Injured: Vincent Trocheck (upper body), Carson Soucy (upper body)

 

First Period

N/A

 

End of First	WAS – 0	NYR – 0
Shots	10	13
Faceoff Wins	7/15	8/15
Hits	12	6
Powerplay	N/A	N/A

 

Second Period

WAS Goal – 13:47 – Anthony Beauvillier (1) from Alex Ovechkin (2) and Declan Chisholm (1)

WAS Penalty – 15:18 – Tom Wilson – 2 minutes for Tripping

WAS Penalty – 17:42 – Anthony Beauvillier – 2 minutes for Hooking

 

End of Second	WAS – 1	NYR – 0
Shots	14	27
Faceoff Wins	9/32	23/32
Hits	17	14
Powerplay	N/A	0/2

Third Period:

NYR Penalty – 3:35 – J.T. Miller – 2 minutes for Tripping

 

End of Third	WAS – 1	NYR – 0
Shots	21	35
Faceoff Wins	17/49	32/49
Hits	26	18
Powerplay	0/1	0/2

 

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