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    Rangers are deployed in Washington
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    Rangers are deployed in Washington

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    WASHINGTON, DC – The final score suggests Tuesday's playoff rematch between the Rangers and Capitals was close. In fact, it was the most one-sided game in a mostly smooth start to the Blueshirts' season.

    The result was their second regulation loss, both in the last three games, with the Caps holding a one-goal lead until suffering a late miss in a 5-3 win at Capital One Arena.

    “It has to be that way,” center Vincent Trocheck said when asked if this game felt like a wake-up call. “We have to look at it and make sure we play our best every night. We can’t just show up and expect to win.”

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    Despite the relatively small margin of victory, the home team dominated.

    The Caps outscored the Rangers 46-19 and kept them on their heels for most of the evening. Among the most glaring deficiencies were poor defense and an inability to match Washington's strength in puck battles.

    “We had to defend a lot better than what we did, with a lot more attitude than what we did,” head coach Peter Laviolette said.

    The Rangers (6-2-1) are one of the NHL's top-scoring teams, which, combined with the steady presence of all-world goaltender Igor Shesterkin, has masked many defensive deficiencies. But since Thursday's loss to the defending champion Florida Panthers and now this disappointing performance in D.C., those issues have come to the forefront.

    “Not every team has that luxury,” captain Jacob Trouba said of Shesterkin, who made 41 saves while conceding 45 goals. “Not that we rely on it too much, but he makes some pretty excellent saves. He played fantastic tonight. We just weren’t good enough in front of him.”

    Laviolette expressed those concerns even though New York had a six-point lead early in the season, but sounded much more stern on Tuesday. His players will surely hear it soon too.

    “Defense is definitely about details, but defense is all about attitude,” he said. “There is a lot of competition in defense and the battles that have to take place. For me they've been down a few times in the last three games. And I think every good team starts with good defense and that.” The way they defend and their purpose on defense leads to getting pucks out of your defense and when you're on defense you don't plays well, you end up spending too much time.

    Not enough pop

    The first period was possibly the worst 20 minutes the Rangers have played to date.

    They were under fire from the first shift, losing 19-5, the most they allowed in a nine-game span. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Capitals spent a long time pinning the Blueshirts in their own ranks while plying Shesterkin with chance after chance, including seven with high danger.

    “Their first one had a lot more pop than ours,” Laviolette said. “Everywhere, from faceoffs, battles, defensive zone coverage to offensive zone play. We watched the game. To be honest, we didn't get much better at it in the second and third games. There were flare-ups, but not enough.”

    Matt Rempe tried to provide a spark after being recalled from AHL Hartford on Monday, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. The 1.90 meter tall rookie suffered the brunt of the blows in a fight with heavyweight Dylan McIlrath, and a minute later the fired-up Caps scored fewer points.

    Mishaps and lost battles

    Alex Ovechkin fueled Washington's fast start, scoring two goals in the first 5:10 of the game. The first resulted from one of several board battles the Rangers lost, with Aliaksei Protas doing the dirty work of getting the puck to Dylan Strome, who then found Ovechkin for a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

    The NHL's second-leading scorer of all time scored his career goal No. 857 less than two minutes later after Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller failed a clear attempt. This time it went from Strome to Protas to Ovechkin, with the latter beating Adam Fox to the back door for a one-timer finish.

    “It’s just about winning more one-on-one puck battles,” Trocheck said. “Tonight they won most of them and that’s what kept them in our game.

    Washington made it 3-1 at 8:58 when Connor McMichael redirected a shot from Taylor Raddysh.

    It could have been even worse had it not been for Shesterkin, who stopped 16 shots in the period and endured a series of turnovers and defensive blunders before his eyes.

    The only New York line capable of generating offensive momentum was Will Cuylle, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko, who have rightly earned extra ice time of late, nearly three minutes more than Chris Kreider's sputtering top line, Mika Zibanejad, finished and Reilly Smith. They were responsible for Rangers' only goal of the period when Kakko set up Cuylle with a backhand shot from the rush, which the 22-year-old scored for his third goal of the season.

    Meanwhile, the top six strikers were missing from action. They led 19-6 overall, were 21-5 in scoring chances and 11-2 in HD chances. The line with Kreider, Zibanejad and Smith posted an xGF of 24.41%, while Artemi Panarin, Trocheck and Alexis Lafrenière dropped to 16.26%.

    Shaky night for the Miller-Fox pair

    Results were better for the Rangers in the second period, with two goals from Kreider and Chytil helping them take a 4-3 lead. But things weren't looking any better.

    They again spent a lot of time on defense, with the Capitals credited with a whopping 11 HD chances compared to three for the Blueshirts in the middle 20 minutes. However, Washington only converted that into a goal when Protas won a board battle with Miller and then beat him at the top of the net for the relay finish.

    It was a particularly tough evening for the Miller-Fox pair, who received a vote of confidence from Laviolette on Tuesday morning.

    “K'Andre and Foxy were a really good pair for us,” he said. “We like it, so we haven’t changed anything about it.”

    That tone changed after the game when Laviolette called Miller and Fox “wrong.”

    They were considered one of the best duos in the NHL and were the only constant in the Rangers' D-corps through the first eight games, but finished with a rating of minus-two, which was by far their worst performance to date. Miller was particularly shaky as the Rangers went 14-3 outshot and had a 6-0 HD chances deficit while he was on the ice at five-on-five.

    That caused Laviolette to change his mind and return to his usual pairings in the third period. Fox was reunited with his longtime partner Ryan Lindgren, while Miller returned to Trouba.

    “It was just a matter of switching and taking a look,” Laviolette said. “We’ll find out.”

    Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more about his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.

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