Capitals end regular season with loss to Rangers
The Washington Capitals fell to the New York Rangers 3-2 in the 2021-22 regular season finale at Madison Square Garden. The Florida Panthers will await the Caps in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The first period was scoreless as the Caps led in shots 12-10.
At 3:26 in the second period Filip Chytil put the Rangers up 1-0. The Caps tied it on a snipe from Justin Schultz for his fourth goal of the season, assisted by Trevor van Riemsdyk at 4:01.
The Caps took the lead on a slapshot from John Carlson for his 17th of the season at 5:13 on the power play. Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie had the assists.
The Rangers tied it at 15:44 on a goal from Alexis Lafreniere. The Rangers led in shots 13-10 after two with the score tied at two.
The Rangers took the lead for good thanks to Dryden Hunt at 6:42. The Cpas led in shots 12-10 in the third period and 36-33 overall. Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves.
Lars Eller spoke to the media on the Caps slump going into the playoffs:
“The last 3 games, we just haven’t really been emotionally invested in the game. Like we are there, but we are not really there. The two Islanders games were almost embarrassing a little bit. Today was a little bit better but I don’t recognize us out there.”
The Caps open up the playoffs on Tuesday night against the Presidents Trophy winning Florida Panthers with two days of practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Sunday and Monday morning before departing.
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Eller talked about facing the Panthers in round one:
“Extremely fast team, lot of power up front, lot of scoring capability. It is going to be fun. Best team in the league this year so a huge challenge for us but … our team can play whatever game is presented. We can adjust and we can be successful.”