The Washington Capitals surrendered five unanswered goals the New York Rangers for a sullen loss at Madison Square Garden.
Anthony Mantha continued his nuclear streak with a quick goal after a neutral zone turnover to make it 1-0 early in the second, but strap in. K’Andre Miller pulled off a sick sequence with Mike Zibanejad to tie it, then Artemi Panarin executed a frame-perfect glitch to beat Kuemper up top, then 40 seconds later Braden Schneider used several screens to make it 3-1 after two periods.
Miller made it 4-1 with his second goal of the game, a long bomb after Kreider evaded a dispassionate stick check from Kuznetsov. Alexis Lafreniere beat Kuemper on a one-timer to bring us into reverse Bailamos territory (i.e. giving up five or more goals in a loss).
Caps lose.
- The Capitals had a really solid first period with a definite edge in possession, but the Rangers dictated play and generated more chances after that.
- Anthony Mantha is on a heater with four goals in three games. He had seven shots on goal at the 40-minute mark of this one.
- Darcy Kuemper had been climbing out of his early-season xG hole with a run of good play lately, and then the back half of this game happened. He went about another 3.5 goals in the hole. If you’ve read a lot of these recaps, you know I don’t do a ton of “he should of had that one,” and while I don’t want to glaze up the competition either, check out Miller and Mika here:
This is such a nice scoring play from K’Andre Miller + Mika Zibanejad pic.twitter.com/zkKwQbBMy9
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) December 28, 2023
- I love when John Carlson dominates five-on-five play, but then he turns the puck over at the blue line during the power play. Knowing you all in comments, we’re gonna linger on that last part. Carlson also committed one of those rare smart penalties in the first period, hooking Mika Zibanejad on a breakaway, and possibly preventing a goal.
- Rangers captain Jacob Trouba left the game early with an upper-body injury, possibly after hitting Tom Wilson. I’m telling on myself here but, I didn’t even know he was captain. And then I looked it up and it happened before the 2022-23 season started?
- Spencer Carbery flipped lines in the third, trying Ovechkin with Kuznetsov. Shocker: playing the world’s greatest scorer with the world’s least interested backchecker didn’t work. They were on the ice for the second Miller goal, when Kuznetsov’s pretended stick check spiked my blood pressure. I’m so tilted by 92; the RMNB should take the keyboard away from me.
We’re back with more hockey, and Joseph Bravo is wearing earth tones, which is a good sign for earth signs, which Darcy Kuemper is (May 5, Taurus). #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/HrYaAP0gKd
— RMNB (@rmnb) December 28, 2023
Alright, that was a stinker. We were due for a stinker. Sometimes you simply have to give up five unanswered goals to a hated division rival. But it can’t become a trend. The Capitals are about to enter one of their toughest stretches of the season — the average standings pace of opponents over the next few weeks is above 100. So tonight needs to be an anomaly.
Headline photo: @KurtLinke3
