Capitals get crushed by Rangers 4-1

The Washington Capitals returned to action for the first time in a week but they were rusty and couldn’t continue their road dominance as they fell to the New York Rangers 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers struck first at 12:57 from noted Cap killer Mika Zibanejad. The Caps outshot the Rangers 11-7 after one.

Alexis Lafreniere made it 2-0 at 18:48 in the second period as shots were even at nine in the middle stanza.

At 6:57 of the third, Chris Kreider made it 3-0. Barcley Goodrow extended it to 4-0 at 11:09. Alex Ovechkin scored at 18:58 off a feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov for his 32nd goal of the season. The Caps outshot the Rangers 17-5 in the third period and 37-21 overall. Ilya Samsonov made 17 saves for a .810 save percentage.

The Caps tried everything when it came to generating shots on net but Igor Shesterkin was a brick wall. Nick Jensen told the media after the game:

"“If he can’t see the puck, he’s not going to save it. If you’re throwing pucks to the net, and pucks are getting tipped, getting thrown to the backdoor, rebounds, he doesn’t save those, either. We just had to be a little bit harder…”"

If there was any silver linings from this game it was the fact that T.J. Oshie skated for the first time since Jan. 15:

"“I was a little bit tired, if I’m being honest. Long time off the ice. Haven’t skated a lot, really, the whole season. Had a shift in the 3rd where I ended up being the low centerman and I ended up getting beat on that play.”"

The Caps power play had another frustrating night as they went 0 for 4. The Caps tried different things including flipping Justin Shultz for John Carlson on the top unit. Coach Peter Laviolette said it was:

"“Just to move the power play. …just to give it a different look. It (wasn’t going) the way we wanted it to go.”"

The Caps will look to bounce back this Saturday afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers at 12:30.