WA-NYR-TradeRumours No matter how well they play, the New York Rangers always find a way to lose. Despite showing dome sparks of their former selves, the Rangers still lost 7-4 to the Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon. The Rangers dominated the pace of play in the first period in what was a dominant start for a struggling team. Chris Kreider opened up the scoring for the Rangers seven minutes into the contest, giving New York a much-needed spark. Withstanding Dylan Strome’s power play goal, the Rangers played solid through the opening 20 minutes. In the second period, the Rangers allowed the Capitals to reestablish their structural game and a couple of defensive breakdowns propelled Washing to take a two-goal lead. While the Rangers got goals from Sam Carrick, Filip Chytil and Mika Zibanejad, they were chasing for most of the afternoon and never seemed to be able to fully climb their way back. The Rangers’ downfall came in the special teams department. New York went 0-4 on the power play compared to the Capitals who managed to score two power play goals. “It's frustrating,” Adam Fox said about the special teams battle via Mollie Walker of The New York Post. [https://x.com/MollieeWalkerr/status/1875641224947794392] “A lot of games, that's the difference, I think. Down one and you get a power play, if you're able to score it's a different game. I think everyone would love to have an answer for not getting it going. You look at the score and the special teams and obviously a big difference.” Moral victories don’t matter at this point, but Rangers players feel they’ve been playing some better hockey as of late and still believe in the nucleus of this team. “We have to take that and build on it,” Zibanejad said via Walker. [https://x.com/MollieeWalkerr/status/1875646444339896658] “That's the only way we're going to get forward. Yes, it's not easy. Yes, it's not going to happen overnight. But if it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. We have a challenge, and we just got to accept it and keep working. We have no other option. We have no other option than try to stay positive, try to work.” The Rangers will be back in action on Sunday afternoon against the Chicago Blackhawks.
