The New York Rangers came into Tuesday night’s game with a 6-1-1 record and having lost just once in regulation through their first eight games of the 2024-25 NHL season. Now you can make it two losses after they were punched in the mouth by the Washington Capitals, 5-3 last night in D.C. at Capital One Arena.
Matt Rempe was called up from the Rangers’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Hartford Wolfpack on Oct. 28 and many thought it was to dress for tonight’s game against Washington’s big lineup that includes Tom Wilson and Dylan McIlrath. Just days before Halloween, fans were treated to a Rempe-McIlrath fight at center ice just three minutes into the first period. It was an even fight but McIlrath came out on top after he shoved Rempe to the ice and as he skated to the penalty box let out a roar that pumped up the home crowd.
Just a minute later, at 3:33, Alex Ovechkin scored the game’s first goal. He received a pass inside the Rangers offensive zone near the high slot and released a quick wrist shot that beat Rangers goalie, Igor Shesterkin between the legs.
The Rangers had a quick answer. At 4:21, Will Cuylle drove to the net and one-timed a pass from Kaapo Kakko past Capitals goalie, Logan Thompson, to tie the game at one.
Will Cuylle – New York Rangers (3) pic.twitter.com/Qhrzbtb4tz
— NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) October 30, 2024
There were lots of goals early in this game and that reared its exciting head again at 5:10 with the Rangers getting the short end of the stick. K’Andre Miller attempted a pass near his own blueline but it was intercepted. That Washington player passed to teammate Aliaksei Protas who drove to the net and passed across the face of the Rangers’ goal to Ovechkin who wasted no time slotting the puck into the twine to give the Capitals a 2-1 lead.
The Capitals weren’t done there. At 8:58, Taylor Raddysh took a wrister from the face-off dot that was tipped in by Connor McMichael to give Washington a 3-1 lead.
New York began the second period on the power play and were able to score when Chris Kreider’s skate deflected in a shot-pass to the front of the net from Mika Zibanejad.
Chris Kreider power play goal! 💪 pic.twitter.com/WJZNx75Jqj
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) October 30, 2024
The Rangers effort on defense was suspect all night and this reared its ugly head when both teams were at 4-on-4 and Protas chipped a puck into the Rangers zone and won a 50-50 battle with Rangers defenseman, K’Andre Miller. Protas passed up to the point and went to the net where he was able to deflect in a shot-pass to give Washington a 4-2 lead just under five minutes into the second period.
14 seconds later, Filip Chytil answered for the Rangers, working a give-and-go with rookie defenseman, Victor Mancini and tipping a pass into the net to pull the Rangers within one.
This is a video game. Followed by a Shesterkin 200 foot breakaway save. 4-3 at 14:00 in the second and #NYR on a PP.
pic.twitter.com/Y1pr9J6L7z— Matthew P. Mugno (@mugnoma) October 30, 2024
At 5:30 of the second period, Shesterkin made a huge pad save on McMichael’s breakaway to keep the Rangers just one goal down.
The Rangers didn’t play much better defensively after this and Shesterkin had to make two more big saves before the second period ended; first on Protas’ semi-breakaway and second on Dylan Strome’s semi-breakaway.
Shesterkin kept the Rangers in the game, in the third period. At 4:40, he stopped McMichael from point blank range on a Capitals power play. Halfway through the third period, the Capitals sprung out on a 2-0n-1 and Shesterkin came up with this huge double save.
This double save from Igor Shesterkin 🔥 pic.twitter.com/mM80NNArl9
— ESPN (@espn) October 30, 2024
Unfortunately for Shesterkin who would wind up making 41 saves, the Rangers would give up an empty net goal with 36 seconds left in the game and ended up losing an emotional road game 5-3.
After the game, Rangers second line center, Vincent Trocheck who was a minus-2 in this game, commented on his team’s sloppy start.
“We didn’t come out of the gates as hard as we want to. They took it to us in the first period, so any time you get out to a start like that, it’s tough to dig yourself out of that hole.”- Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck
Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette criticized his team’s play from start to finish on Tuesday night, citing a lack of “pop” in each period.
“Their first period had much more pop in it than ours did. Everywhere from face-off battles, defensive-zone coverage to their offensive-zone play, we were chasing the game. Didn’t get much better to be honest with you for the second and third. There were spurts, but not enough.”
The Rangers were definitely chasing the game from start to finish as they lost important battles and were outshot incredibly 46-19 and lost the face-off battle 61.8 percent to 38.2 percent.
What’s Next for the Rangers
The Rangers will have two off days to clean up their act before they face the Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. The Senators are playing better than they did a year ago, as they sit fourth place in the uber-competitive Atlantic Division. The Sens have a winning record (5-4-0) and are coming off of a dominant 8-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues. The Rangers struggled defensively against a Washington Capitals team that has only scored the 15th most goals in the NHL this season and Ottawa will be no easy out on Friday.
