Alain Vigneault and his New York Rangers were thoroughly outclassed and outgunned against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals.
- New York Rangers 1 (40-21-2, 82 pts)
- Washington Capitals 4 (42-13-7, 91 pts)
- NHL, Metro, Final, Box Score
- Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
A game that started swimmingly for the New York Rangers quickly turned ugly at the hands of the best team in the National Hockey League.
Just a little over five minutes into the game, Brady Skjei finished on a beautiful looking play. It was his third goal of the season.
Although the Washington Capitals answered back in the second period, it had looked as though the Blueshirts responded in a major way in the form of Michael Grabner. It was too good to be true. Head coach Barry Trotz challenged and an offside on Grabner’s part nullified the go-ahead goal.
From there, the Caps dominated the game. They scored three unanswered (one in the second and two in the third) that helped them come away with the 4-1 victory.
Marcus Johansson tallied two goals and assisted on another. The great Alex Ovechkin was held scoreless, but he didn’t even need to touch the stat sheet in this one.
Goaltender Braden Holtby was splendid in stopping 29-of-30 shots. Henrik Lundqvist wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t great either. He managed just 34 saves on a terrible 38 shots against.
New York was without Mika Zibanejad. He was late scratch with an upper-body injury. The physicality the Caps came with simply couldn’t be answered by the Rangers. Both Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider were injured in the game. Both, however, did return. Jesper Fast was the lone injured Ranger who did not return.
Next up for the Rangers will be the Bruins in Boston on Thursday night.