Second period, Capitals get away from Rangers
Sonny Milano #15 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his goal against the New York Rangers during the second period at Capital One Arena on February 25, 2023 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick Smith
WASHINGTON — With all that was happening off the ice, it was difficult to pay attention to the game the Rangers were playing against the Washington Capitals on Saturday afternoon.
Patrick Kane reportedly left his Chicago teammates in San Jose and flew home, Vitali Kravtsov got traded to the Vancouver Canucks and forward Jake Leschyshyn was placed on waivers, all of which means everything is in place for Kane to be traded to the Rangers.
Once Leschyshyn’s $766,667 comes off the books — assuming he clears waivers, he can be assigned to AHL Hartford on Sunday — the Rangers are projected by CapFriendly to have $2.675 million in available space under the $82.5 million salary cap at the NHL trade deadline Friday.
That is enough space to squeeze in one-quarter of Kane’s $10.5 million cap hit, assuming Chicago retains half of the original hit and the Rangers get a third team to absorb half of the remaining hit. If that happens, the Rangers will be responsible for only $2.625 million of Kane’s cap hit.
All that news was breaking while the Rangers were on the ice playing a nationally televised afternoon game against the Capitals, who threw in the towel on the season Thursday when they traded defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway to Boston.
The Rangers allowed four goals in the second period in a 6-3 loss to the Capitals, who snapped a six-game losing streak.
“Defensively we were awful,’’ Gerard Gallant said. “To give up those scoring chances — I mean how many odd-man rushes, how many breakaways? We were more focused on trying to score goals than defend . . . and we gave them way too many chances.”
The Rangers (33-17-9) lost their fourth straight game and third straight in regulation. And to make matters worse, the game wasn’t the only thing they lost.
Defenseman Ryan Lindgren left the game midway through the first period with what the Rangers called an upper-body injury after he was crunched into the boards by Washington forward T.J. Oshie. Gallant said Lindgren is “day-to-day,’’ but it’s almost certain he won’t be playing Sunday when the Rangers host the Kings.
Evgeny Kuznetsov had two goals and two assists and Oshie had two goals and an assist. Tom Wilson and Long Islander Sonny Milano also scored for Washington (29-26-6).
Igor Shesterkin was back in goal after sitting out Thursday’s 4-1 loss in Detroit and looked sharp in the first period, stopping seven of eight shots as the teams entered the intermission tied at 1-1.
Washington took a 1-0 lead at 4:25 when Oshie tipped in a shot by Erik Gustafsson on a power play. The Rangers tied it when Barclay Goodrow tipped in a shot by Tyler Motte at 8:00.
Seconds later, Oshie and Goodrow fought. Oshie had injured Lindgren when he drove him into the boards near center ice. Lindgren left for the locker room at 8:11 and Oshie — who had shown concern for Lindgren as he lay on the ice injured — was not penalized for the hit. So upon the ensuing faceoff, Goodrow and Oshie dropped the gloves and went at it.
The Capitals took over the game in the second period, with Oshie, Wilson, Milano and Kuznetsov scoring. Shesterkin (17 saves) was replaced by Jaroslav Halak to start the third.
Chris Kreider scored on a five-on-three to pull the Rangers within 5-2, but Kuznetsov’s second goal made it 6-2 before Kaapo Kakko scored in the final minute.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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