Rangers Struggle Defensively In Demoralizing Loss To The Capitals

Here's what went wrong for the Rangers in their 5-3 loss to the Capitals.

The New York Rangers didn’t look like themselves through their 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night.

From the start of the night the Rangers were on their heels as Alex Ovechkin scored minutes into the contest.

Matt Rempe made things interesting when he fought Dylan McIlrath in his first shift back since getting recalled from the American Hockey League.

Rempe’s fighting didn’t change anything though. Withstanding Will Cuylle’s goal, the Rangers were dominated.

New York gave up a total of 19 shots in the opening frame and found themselves trailing 3-1 after 20 minutes of play.

In the second, the Rangers picked up their pace of play ever so slightly with Chris Kreider and Filip Chytil both finding the back of the net.

Washington still dictated the pace and made the Rangers play on their terms, something this team isn’t used to whatsoever.

Even when the Rangers were pushing, they had trouble generating high quality scoring chances and it was as if New York were getting smothered by the Capitals’ defense.

Meanwhile, the Rangers had one too many defensive lapses with that continuing to be an issue as of late.

The problem was that the Rangers were chasing the game throughout the entire night, which is always a recipe for disaster.

“From faceoffs, defensive zone coverage to our offensive zone play, we were chasing the game. We didn’t get much better at it. From the second to the third we had spirits, but not enough.”

You can analyze the game all you want, but it’s just clear that the Capitals were better in every aspect.

“They had more shots than us, they were more aggressive, I think they went into more battles than us,” Chytil said. “It was a tough game for us.”

The Rangers will be back in action on Friday night against the Ottawa Senators.