Capitals drop Game 1 to Rangers

The Washington Capitals fell 4-1 to the New York Rangers to drop Game 1 of the best of seven first round series of the Stanley Cup playoffs at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Martin Fehervary had the lone goal for the Caps.

Nobody scored in the first and the barrage of goals came in the second. Matt Rempe got things started at 4:17. Artemi Panarin made it 2-0 at 4:50. Jimmy Vesey made it 3-0 at 6:23.

Fehervary's goal came at 7:31 and it was a deflection off a shot from Tom Wilson. Aliaksei Protas had the secondary assist. 3-1 was the score after two so technically the Caps were still in it.

That is until Chirs Kreider put it away at 16:17 giving Charlie Lindgren a headache of an afternoon. The Caps defense was banged up as they were without both Rasmus Sandin and Nick Jensen. They also lost Vincent Iorio and Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery had no update on the 2021 draft pick when he spoke to the media.

Carbery said this on the hit via Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post on X: "It was close. It was borderline, right? Young player, feel bad for him because he puts himself in a tough spot. Probably needs to move the puck quicker there."

The hit in question led to Panarin's goal and T.J. Oshie wasn't happy about it at all. It was already a thin blue line and it just got thinner unless Jensen or Sandin are available. The Caps practice on Monday morning from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Rempe was a menace the whole game. There was several missed calls on both sides. Beck Malenstyn took an intentional elbow to the face from Rempe and there was no call. Iorio was questionable to return from his hit but ultimatley never made it back.

The Caps and the Rangers go at it again on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. from The Garden on Monumental Sports Network and ESPN.