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The
New York Rangers and Washington Capitals opened their playoff series with what
wasn’t the prettiest of games, but if this is an example of how tight the
series will be the fans of both teams will be on the edge of their seats. The Capitals protected home ice with Alex
Semin’s OT winner 18:24 into the first session of extra hockey. The play saw Jason Arnott catch an attempted
clear from Marc Staal at the point and then a wide open Semin in the slot who
ripped a one-timer past Lundqvist high on the stick side to give Washington the
1-0 lead in the series.
New
York while not playing a great game by any stretch had opportunities to win the
game and steal Game 1 in Washington and have to take some measure of solace in
that fact. It tells the Rangers they can
raise their game and change the result. The
Rangers grinders played well in the game, but their offensive talent failed to
do anything of major note in the game.
The team fought well and proved to everyone this will be no pushover in
the series.
The
problem with the loss is not just that they lost, but how. The fact that both Ovechkin and Semin scored
gives the Capitals two biggest offensive weapons confidence for the rest of the
series and after both went scoreless against New York in four meetings this year
now have two goals in their back pocket already.
The
first period saw the Rangers badly outplayed by the home town Capitals, but
Henrik Lundqvist was excellent to keep the game at 0-0. The team took two bad penalties in the
period. The first was a too many men on
the ice call that was caused when Brandon Dubinsky jumped over the boards early
and the other was a weak boarding call against Mats Zuccarello. The Rangers killed off both power plays, but
were lucky during the period when both Alex Semin and Jason Arnott hit the
crossbar after beating Lundqvist with their shots. The Arnott chance came after an attempted
Prust breakout pass went off the skate of Marc Staal and found Arnott alone in
the slot. Alex Ovechkin was also left
open multiple times during the period, fanning once on the shot and then
getting stoned by Lundqvist.
The
second period saw the Rangers play to a more equivalent level of the
Capitals. Each goaltender had a huge
save in the period. Neuvirth stoned
Gaborik from the front of the net just before the midway point of the period
and then late in the period Backstrom was in alone on a breakaway before
Lundqvist shut him down. The play for
Backstrom was created by the Capitals stretching the Rangers defense with a
breakout pass from Carlson to Ovechkin who then hit Backstrom alone in the
middle of the ice.
The
Rangers happiness to be tied after two periods increase dramatically just
moments into the third period when Matt Gilroy scored to make it 1-0. The play was created by Brandon Prust taking
the body in the corner, working it down to Wojtek Wolski behind the net who
found a pinching Gilroy and he beat Neuvirth with a snap shot far side.
Washington
tied it 13:44 into the period on a goal from Alex Ovechkin. The play saw the Capitals jam at the loose
puck around the crease and while it appeared that the referee was going to blow
the play dead the puck was in the net before.
The play would go to review before being confirmed as a goal. The goal was a huge one for the Capitals who
were beginning to press for the goal and the pressure would have only mounted
the longer it went on.
- Brandon Dubinsky was awful tonight and must be better as one of the Rangers leaders if they are going to actually win the games instead of just contend.
- The defense played very well as a group and I was impressed with how Sauer, McDonagh and even Gilroy adjusted to the differences of playoff hockey.
