Rangers Have Decisive Edge Over the Capitals in Playoff Matchup

When you look at the Capitals’ offense, they don’t have the game breakers like the Rangers do. The depth also got worse when they traded Anthony Mantha and Evgeny Kuznetsov at the rrade deadline. Their leading scorer was Dylan Strome, who had 67 points in 82 games. The Capitals didn’t have a player over 70 points, while the Rangers had five. Alex Ovechkin had a very poor start to the season, but after the All-Star Break, turned his game around and finished the season with 31 goals. He is and always be a threat, even if he is slowing down. Tom Wilson is another player Rangers fans know well. While he didn’t have a great season, with just 35 points, he is still dangerous. The defense for Washington is not what it was when they won in the Stanley Cup in 2018. John Carlson is still the number-one guy, but his game has fallen off. They don’t have the depth to match the Rangers at either forward or defense.

Goaltending: New York Rangers

One of the biggest reasons why the Capitals made the playoffs was a breakout season from Charlie Lindgren, brother of the Rangers’ defenseman. He was the backup goalie at the start of the season, but very quickly, he was outplaying Darcy Kuemper and he eventually took the starter role. He had a very good season, finishing with a 26-16-7 record, 2.67 goals against average (GAA) and a .911 save percentage (SV%.) He was arguably the Capitals’ regular-season MVP because without his great play, they wouldn’t have been close to making the playoffs at all.

While Lindgren did have a great season, Igor Shesterkin was even better for the Rangers. He has a record of 36-17-2 with a 2.58 GAA and a .913 SV%. He started this season off slowly, but since the All-Star Break, has turned things around and was arguably the best goalie in the league to end the season, posting a 17-5-1 record with a 2.20 GAA and a .929 SV%. He gets the edge over Lindgren because he had the better overall season and has the playoff experience of the past two seasons. He knows how to step up his game in the games that matter most and he could truly be the x-factor for the Rangers.

Special Teams: New York Rangers

The special teams heading into this series also favor the Rangers heavily. They finished third in the league on the power play with a 26.4% success rate. The Capitals finished eighteenth in the league with a 20.6% success rate. The Capitals used to have one of — if not the best — power play in the league, but as time has gone on and players have left and gotten older, it just isn’t the same anymore. Ovechkin led the team with 13 goals, while T.J. Oshie finished second with seven. For the Rangers, Kreider led the way with 18 goals, which tied him with Auston Matthews for fifth in the entire league in power-play goals. Zibanejad finished second on the Rangers with 12 goals on the man advantage.

The Rangers’ penalty kill was also great this season. They finished third in the league with a 84.5% success rate, while the Capitals finished nineteenth with a 79.0% success rate. For the Rangers, adding Alex Wennberg at the deadline gave them another player to use on the PK, and gave them six players and three pairs of forwards they could use and played very well from the deadline on. Zibanejad and Kreider each had two short-handed goals, which led the Rangers. While the Capitals have solid defensive-minded forwards like Nic Dowd, it just wasn’t enough to get the PK where it needed to be and if they take too many penalties in this series, it will cost them.

Overall, the Rangers are the extreme favorites in this series. They have the edge in every major category and they are going against a team that barely got in and has the worst goal differential of any playoff team in the salary-cap era with a -37. The Rangers need to do what they have done all season and just dominate their opponent rather than playing down to the Capitals level. If the Capitals want any chance to win this series, they need to smother the Rangers and keep the games low scoring and low event, which is when they play their best. If the Rangers can keep playing like they have for the majority of the season, they should win this series and move on the second round.