The Rangers' problem catches up with them with the loss to the Capitals

WASHINGTON – Since the start of the season, they have gotten away with lax work on the defensive side of the puck.

The Rangers were saved by their elite offensive talent on one side and the elite work of Igor Shesterkin on the other side of the ice.

But not in this game, not against a stronger team and a better opponent like the Capitals. Instead, their opponents forced the careless – and sometimes even careless – blue shirts to pay.

The truth is that Tuesday's 5-3 final score benefited the Rangers, whose spree against inferior opponents came to an end after they reached a stalemate against the champion Panthers at the Garden last Thursday.

Battles were lost. The middle of the ice was barely defended. Odd-man rushes came in waves after poor decisions with the puck that resulted in turnovers in the wrong places.

The loss was an exception, the Blueshirts are now 6-2-1, but the porous work away from the puck was the rule.

The Rangers – who were outscored 34-14 according to Natural Stat Trick and 15-8 on dangerous opportunities by the Capitals – haven't defended nearly as hard or consistently this year as they did last year. The eye test is enough.

“So no, definitely not tonight. The answer to that is we had to defend a lot better than what we did and with a lot more attitude than what we did,” head coach Peter Laviolette said when asked if his team consistently defended hard enough have enough. “I think there were times this year where we defended pretty well, but I don't think we defended really well.

“You can play a few more games against Florida, but I don’t think we defended particularly well against that game.”

The Rangers were a mess on their own side of the coverage. K'Andre Miller had a terrible night, giving away the puck several times in his own game while also having to go to goal for a lost puck battle.

After speaking positively about the Miller-Adam-Fox tandem after the morning skate, Laviolette disbanded them after the second half and reverted to old backup pairings Ryan Lindgren-Fox and Miller-Jacob Trouba.

“I thought it was a little off tonight,” the coach said. “It was about changing it and taking a look at it. We’ll find out.”

Filip Chytil was the Rangers' best striker and his line of Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko had their moments.

But Mika Zibanejad, whose ice time was dwindling, had a very rough evening and the Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere unit was normal except for a few puck possession changes. Lafreniere had little influence here.

The Rangers created enough chances against Logan Thompson, but they played like they were on a treadmill leading to nowhere and gave up more than they took advantage of.

They were down 2-1 with 5:10 left in the first game and 4-2 with 4:30 left in the second game. Shesterkin held the Capitals scoreless the rest of the game, but the Blueshirts couldn't come back.

They didn't lose on offense, they lost both of their points due to sluggishness in the neutral and defensive zones.

Yes, it's October, yes, the Rangers are good, but this is not the template for a championship team.

A year ago, the Blueshirts were 14th in the league with a 60-00 record. Now they are the sixth worst. A year ago, the Rangers were the ninth-best team and allowed highly dangerous chances. Now they are fourth worst.

This is not a template for a championship team.

“The defense has details. The defense is definitely detailed,” said an angry Laviolette. “But defense is attitude and in defense there is a lot of competition and battles that have to take place.

“For me, they’ve been down a couple of times in the last three games. I think every good team starts with good defense and the way they defend and the goal of defense. This leads to getting pucks out of your own team and going on the offensive.

“Battles are defense. When they have the puck, that's defense. It could be forechecking, it could be neutral zone defense, it could be faceoffs, it could be defensive zone coverage. “It wasn’t good tonight,” said the coach. “No question.”

Apart from the 6-2-1, it wasn't the first time.

Ottawa at the Garden on Friday.