As the old saying goes, all good things come to an end. For the Washington Capitals that meant their winning streak ended after a late goal to a known Caps villain despite getting Tom Wilson back from suspension. Alas let’s digest this thing.
The Rangers struck first with a goal from Pavel Buchnevich at 17:49 for the 1-0 lead which would be the score after one. The Caps outshot the Rangers in the opening 20 minutes 10-8.
Nobody scored in the second period and shots were lower as the Rangers held the edge in the middle stanza 8-7. Things got real interesting in the third period which for the second straight night the Caps were down 1-0. Unfortunately, Alex Ovechkin couldn’t work his magic like last time.
But the Caps made things interesting. John Carlson whiffed a nifty backhander into the net to tie the game at one with the goal coming at 5:55. Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom had the helpers.
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Caps head coach Peter Laviolette talked to the media after the game. Via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post (subscription required):
"“I thought as the game wore on, we started to generate more chances and more looks. We had lots of attempts. They did a good job of blocking shots, but we had [offensive] zone time. We were doing a lot of things we wanted — just unable to get it done.”"
Unfortunately, the one guy who is known to be a Cap killer that lives in the Big Apple was the one to make the difference. That name being Mika Zibanejad who just over a year ago had a five goal game against the Caps.
Zibanejad stripped the puck away from Brenden Dillon late in the game at 17:28 to pot in the go ahead and eventual game winning goal. Brett Howden put the game away with an empty netter to seal Washington’s first loss in over two weeks.
Some Caps fans on Twitter unfairly criticized Dillon on the costly turnover but not Laviolette. He added:
"“It was a tough bounce; it was a tough break. Dilly’s been so good for us. It was just one of those bounces that didn’t go our way. We’ll move past it. We’ll get ready for the next game. He’s a guy that’s been so strong for us the entire year for so many different reasons and so many different roles. We’ll move past that.”"
The Caps will get some well deserved time off. We can still celebrate the fact they won seven games in a row without Tom Wilson in the lineup. But the void without Caps hockey will be a little challenging. But the babes will be back in action on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils. We’ll still have content for you in the meantime.