The Washington Capitals arrived in New York on the precipice. A combination of their own recent hot streak \u2014 earning points in seven of their last nine games \u2014 and some serious help from the out-of-town scoreboard had put them just a single point out of a wild-card spot, turning what seemed like impossible playoff hopes into a real possibility.<\/p>\n
Their task? Beat the New York Rangers. Both teams were on the second half of a back-to-back, sure, but the Rangers shouldn\u2019t have posed too much of a challenge: New York sat dead last in the Eastern Conference, with a shockingly poor 13-19-7 record at Madison Square Garden. Even with the Rangers on their own hot streak, going 4-1-0 in their last five games, the game should have been winnable.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Capitals walked into a massacre.<\/p>\n
An utterly disastrous second period saw the Capitals surrender a five-goal lead that only got worse in the third, culminating in an 8-1 final score for Washington\u2019s most lopsided loss of the season. That would have been embarrassing enough in a game without playoff implications, but it also squandered the advantage they\u2019d fought to gain against Buffalo, leaving them with almost no road left to the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew what we were up against and what\u2019s going on right now with the standings, but we just \u2014 I could go through the list; it was a long one,\u201d said Aliaksei Protas<\/a>. \u201cBut at the end of the day we just lost a very important two points and didn\u2019t show up today at all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just frustrating,\u201d added head coach Spencer Carbery. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating because we fought as hard as we have to get back into this spot where we\u2019re within striking distance. Does it take a lot out of you? No doubt. But these are big games, and unfortunately we just didn\u2019t have any gas tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n The night started out rough for the Capitals, with Rangers forward Conor Sheary<\/a> opening the scoring just 23 seconds into the game, but Connor McMichael<\/a> was able to respond with an impressive breakaway goal later in the first. That comeback potential was nowhere to be found in the latter two periods.<\/p>\n Carbery told reporters postgame he saw the Capitals slip \u201cquite honestly, right from puck drop, first shift of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Of the team\u2019s start, Carbery said, \u201cDoesn\u2019t decide the game, but you could see, we get behind the eight ball. And just from there \u2014 frustrating night for whatever reason. We just did not have anything tonight. We looked really slow. We couldn\u2019t move. And then the execution go along with it, we just didn\u2019t have it today.\u201d<\/p>\n Things started to get ugly in the second period, when back-to-back penalties from Dylan Strome<\/a> And Antony Beauvillier for pucks over the glass allowed JT Miller to retake New York\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just started to pile on after that,\u201d said Matt Roy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Carbery didn\u2019t pin the loss on any single sequence.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, those are huge moments in the game, no doubt,\u201d he said. \u201cBut even without that \u2014 look, I\u2019m not going to put it on one power play. We lost the game 8-1. You just saw the second and third period\u2026 We\u2019re still in that game after the first period. It\u2019s 1-1. And then the second period, wheels come off.\u201d<\/p>\n Through the second and third, the Rangers outshot the Capitals 24-14, out-chanced them 28-8, and held a whopping 11-2 advantage in high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like we gave up too many odd-man rushes,\u201d said Protas. \u201cWe can\u2019t just throw Chucky (goaltender Charlie Lindgren) under the bus like this. Especially in that time of the year when we need points, we need to win.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always been talking about \u2018It doesn\u2019t matter how it looks,\u2019 but it just can\u2019t look like this. We\u2019ve got to find a way to just \u2014 even if it\u2019s back-to-back, they\u2019re also in the same spot. We\u2019ve just got to find a way to be way faster, way smarter with the puck, and we didn\u2019t do it tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlie Lindgren<\/a> didn\u2019t have an easy job: he hadn\u2019t played since March 12, and now he\u2019d been thrown into a season-deciding game. Carbery even left the door open<\/a> for Logan Thompson<\/a> to play both halves of the back-to-back before opting to put Lindgren in net on Sunday. Washington\u2019s skaters didn\u2019t give Lindgren much help up front, either, allowing the Rangers to run roughshod over the game in the final 40 minutes while barely generating anything in return.<\/p>\n But the Capitals needed Lindgren to rise to the occasion, and he fell short of that goal. He let in a quarter of the 32 shots he faced and looked shaky in net, even on chances that he managed to save. Per MoneyPuck<\/a>, Lindgren ended the night with 4.33 goals saved below expected.<\/p>\n The defensive breakdowns that helped doom Washington weren\u2019t new: Sunday marked the fifth time in the last six games that the Capitals allowed at least four goals against. This time, however, they had neither the offensive firepower nor the goaltending to compensate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got some defensive issues through the last, call it, dozen games,\u201d said Carbery. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to cover it up with some goaltending performances, some (high-)scoring games, getting fortunate in some games, but if you look under the hood of what we\u2019re giving up on a nightly, pretty consistent basis, we\u2019ve got to correct some things defensively, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n