Rangers Steal Game 1 in Washington

WASHINGTON -- If you took a quick look at the box score of Wednesday's game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, you could be forgiven if you were surprised that the home team and higher seed didn't come out on top.

The Caps outshot the Rangers, 35-21, dominated the face-off circle and limited the opposition's chances at even strength, yet still came up short in a Rangers victory in which uber-pest Sean Avery was hardly a factor. How did it happen?

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There were a few reasons that led to the result. The first being a bad call.

After the Caps took a 1-0 lead on a deflection goal by Tomas Fleischman, the Rangers evened the score at 1-1 thanks to a Scott Gomez goal. Unfortunately, during the run of play, the refs missed a penalty when Rangers center Nik Antropov dumped Fleischmann deep in the Rangers zone, while the rest of the Rangers raced up ice. Later, as Gomez came across the blue line, it appeared that Avery tripped Caps defenseman Mike Green.

Asked after the game if the refs missed the call, Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau agreed.

Critical defensive breakdowns didn't help, either. After Antropov scored on a power play to make it 2-1 Rangers, the third and fourth New York goals provided an object lesson in how a team can play a solid all-around game defensively, yet still snap at critical moments to let the opposition back in it. With the Rangers once again on the power play, Gomez was easily able to gain the Caps blue line, forcing both Washington defenders to retreat and give him more room and respect than he deserved. With all that room to work with, Gomez left a drop pass for Markus Naslund, who rifled the puck past an exposed Jose Theodore.

The game-winning goal was far more painful. With his back to the Caps net at center ice, Naslund found Brandon Dubinsky with a pass as the young forward was streaking up the left wing. With only Washington defender Jeff Schultz to beat, Dubinsky put the puck between Schultz's legs and skated all alone in on Theodore, beating him with a wrist shot.

Speaking of Theodore, New York simply had the better goalie. In the first period, obviously feeding off the energy of the home crowd, the Caps came out firing, out-shooting New York 14-4 and enjoying a pair of power plays. But every time the Caps created a scoring chance, Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist was there to keep them off the board. It was much the same late in the third period, when Washington outshot New York again, 12-6.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the ice, Theodore did little to quell the doubts about his ability to come up big when it matters, as he allowed four goals on just 21 shots. You might ask if Theodore really played that badly tonight. Well, know this: one of the top questions on the minds of the press gaggle after the game was whether or not Boudreau was considering making a change in net before Saturday's Game Two. One reporter, Tarik el-Bashir of the Washington Post, even asked Boudreau if he had considered lifting Theodore before the start of the third period tonight.

To his credit, after the game, Theodore wasn't making any excuses, and he wasn't looking to dwell on what happened either:



So what does Washington have to do to turn things around in Game Two? Given how they dominated the run of play for long stretches of Wednesday night, I'm tempted to say nothing at all. Then again, given how they still seem prone to defensive breakdowns at critical moments and don't seem to have a goalie who can pull their fat out of the fire if and when it all goes wrong, I'm sure Boudreau will be wracking his brain for some solution.