Caps Suffer Worst Home Loss in Four Years

Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau didn’t waste words in his post-game press conference after falling to the New York Rangers 6-0 on Friday night. 

“Our fans deserve better," Boudreau said. "We deserved to get booed there. It’s not fun when you come home and you have the best fans in the world and you play like that.”

The Capitals were playing in their first home game in nearly two weeks, coming off a five game road trip. The trip ended on a high note with strong defensive wins in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, but in 15 minutes they had already allowed more goals than in those two games combined.

Mike Green was also making his return to the lineup after missing six of the last seven games due to taking a puck to the ear on Feb. 6. He would only play 2:25 as a high hit from New York’s Derek Stepan knocked him out of the game in the first period.

Stepan caught Green in the jaw with his arm, although at first glance it looked like an elbow. Green stayed down and could only watch as former Capital Steve Eminger fired the puck past Michal Neuvirth.

“He’s day-to-day,” said Boudreau when asked about Green’s status. “He’s not gonna play tomorrow. Right now it’s cautionary.”

That would prove to be the only goal New York needed, but they got five more. Erik Christensen scored his first of two later in the period on a nice pass from Michael Sauer.

“I’m just there to get lucky on those goals,” said Christensen after the game. “I’m trying to go to the net and the puck just comes to me.”

The Rangers would score two more goals in the second from Christensen and Stepan to double the lead. Vinny Prospal and Brian Boyle added goals in the third to finalize the rout, their second against the Capitals this season. They beat the Capitals 7-0 in New York on Dec. 12.

Alex Ovechkin was one of the few who got quality chances throughout the night. He was skating around defenders with ease and getting strong shots on Lundqvist, but was unable to bury it.

“I had a couple of chances to score goals, but I didn’t score,” Ovechkin said. “They scored right away after my chance and they kept playing their system and they scored goals and we didn’t.”

The loss was the worst at home for the franchise in over four years when they lost 7-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 24, 2006. Ovechkin scored the lone Washington goal in that game.

Ovechkin summed up the feeling in the locker room afterwards, “Everybody feels embarrassed. We didn’t score. They scored six. We’ll have to forget about [the game] and get ready for tomorrow’s game.”

The Capitals play a different New York team, the Islanders, Saturday night on Long Island.

Additional Notes

-       The Capitals have gone 38 straight games without scoring more than one power-play goal in a game. WashingtonCaps.com senior writer Mike Vogel points out that this is the longest such streak in franchise history. They were 0-for-5 tonight.

-       The trade deadline is Monday at 3 p.m. Many expect the Capitals to make a move for a center or defenseman. The Dallas Stars had two scouts in attendance Friday night and could be looking to deal veteran center Brad Richards or possibly someone else.

-       Nicklas Backstrom took only one faceoff. He suffered a small fracture in his thumb on Monday night. Alex Ovechkin and Mike Knuble each took faceoffs for him.

-       In the last three games between these two teams, the Capitals have scored one goal (Matt Hendricks). The Rangers have 14, not counting the extra goal for winning in a shootout on Jan. 24.