Will Cuylle hat trick paces Rangers to 8-1 blowout win over Capitals: takeaways
For the second straight game this weekend, the New York Rangers thoroughly outplayed an opponent supposedly playing for its playoff life Sunday, smoking the Washington Capitals 8-1 at Madison Square Garden.
This one followed a similar dismantling of the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, a 4-1 Rangers victory. Both the Capitals and Red Wings are just outside the playoff cut line in the Eastern Conference, and had zero luck picking up ground in the standings against a Rangers team that was eliminated from playoff contention weeks ago.
One day after Gabe Perreault’s first NHL hat trick, Will Cuylle recorded his first hatty to lead the Rangers (33-36-9), who’ve won five of six games with one more to play on their current seven-game homestand.
Cuylle, Adam Fox (one goal, two assists), and Mika Zibanejad (three assists) each had three points, most among the 14 New York skaters who landed on the score sheet Sunday.
The Rangers scored on the first shift of the night, Conor Sheary buried his own rebound after he deflected Fox’s shot towards Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren just 23 seconds after the opening puck drop.
Connor McMichael did answer back at 13:45 for the Capitals, scoring on a breakaway with a forehand finish past Igor Shesterkin, who finished with 20 saves in this one.
But the Rangers ran the Capitals out of the building in the second period, scoring five goals on 15 shots, with contributions coming up and down the lineup. Washington became its own worst enemy after the fairly evenly-played first period, when each team recorded seven shots on goal. The Capitals took consecutive delay of game penalties — at 19:02 of the first period and 1:09 of the second.
Though denied on their first power play, the Rangers carried momentum into their second chance, and cashed in at 3:07. Standing by the blue paint, J.T. Miller had the puck bounce off his skate and in when Zibanejad fired a shot off Lindgren to make it 2-1.
They extended their lead to 4-1 on consecutive goals by Cuylle. First, he went to the net to redirect a Braden Schneider feed into the cage at 5:53. Then, Cuylle exited the penalty box after serving a holding penalty, and wired a right-wing snap shot short side over Lindgren’s shoulder at 8:33.
The Rangers didn’t stop there. The fourth line, with three rookies, showed impressive offensive skill on Adam Sykora’s third goal at 13:22. Jaroslav Chmelar got in first with the puck on left wing before finding Noah Laba, who in turn made a gorgeous pass to Sykora going hard to the net.
Fox’s power-play goal from long distance made it 6-1 at 18:27.
The dominance carried over into the third period. Vincent Trocheck skimmed a shot off the rush between Lindgren’s pads — a soft one for sure — at 2:27, and added to the humiliation. Lindgren came into this game after a month-long injury absence, and was 5-1-0 with a 1.49 goals-against average, .946 save percentage, and two shutouts in six career starts against the Rangers.
Cuylle finished off the scoring with his third goal of the game, and 20th of the season, wiring a left-wing shot far side past the beleaguered Lindgren with just 31.5 seconds remaining in the contest.
Key takeaways after Rangers defeat Capitals 8-1
Seven heaven, but eight is great
The Rangers scored a season-high eight goals, after twice reaching seven this season. One of those times was also against the Capitals — a 7-3 Rangers win in D.C. on Dec. 23. The Blueshirts also blitzed the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-3 on the road back on Nov. 12.
On this current homestand, the Rangers outscored the opposition 27-8 through six games. The homestand began with a 6-1 pasting of the Chicago Blackhawks on March 27.
This was also the 10th time in 21 games overall since the Olympic break that the Rangers scored at least four goals. And their five goals in the second period was the most the Blueshirts tallied in any one period this season.
Hats off (again)
It took Cuylle 245 games to record his first hat trick in the NHL. But it was one worth waiting for after the 24-year-old scored two goals on three occasions in his career, including twice earlier this season.
Meanwhile, Perreault needed just 44 games to notch his first NHL hat trick on Saturday.
But together, they recorded the first Rangers hat tricks on consecutive days since Nov. 21 and 22 1982, when Mike Rogers and Mark Pavelich did so. And it was the first time since 2016 (Matt Puempel and Chris Kreider) that the Rangers had hat tricks in consecutive games.
After a season-long 13-game goal drought, Cuylle has four goals in his past three games. And he reached 20 goals for the second straight season.
“It’s cool. I mean, first hat trick in the NHL, it’s kind of a dream come true,” Cuylle said postgame. “It’s great to have it in a game like today where we had a full 60-minute effort from everyone, everyone contributing. I’m just happy with the result.”
Fight night
Apparently, Shesterkin isn’t the only player wearing the Blueshirt that can fight. The Rangers engaged in three fights Sunday after the game got out of hand against a thoroughly frustrated Capitals team.
Interestingly, noted tough guy Tom Wilson didn’t take part in any of the fights for Washington.
Cuylle and Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun threw down in a spirited fight, featuring two of the bigger players on the ice, at 17:12 of the second period. The fight took place after a clean, open-ice hit by Cuylle sent Caps forward Ryan Leonard flying to the ice.
Just 43 seconds later, Tye Kartye tussled with Brandon Duhaime, with the Capitals forward taking two extra minutes for roughing on top of the five-minute fighting major.
Then in the third period, Laba dropped the gloves for his first NHL fight. He tangled with Henrdix Lapierre at 15:36.
Spoilers
Sykora said earlier in the week that the Rangers relish playing the role of spoiler. Well, they sure did that this weekend.
The Red Wings were already not playing their best down the stretch, but credit the Rangers for handling them fairly easily on Saturday. Detroit remains two points out of the final playoff spot in the East with five games to play. Obviously, a win at MSG on Saturday would’ve been huge for them. But, the Rangers said No.
The Capitals entered The Garden having won four of their previous five games, including a massive 6-2 victory over the red-hot Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night. To be blown out by the Rangers 24 hours later, may sink their postseason dreams, since the Capitals remain three points back (with four teams in front of them) now with four games to play.
“Obviously (beating) teams that have that sense of desperation and something to play for, I think… shows that we haven’t really gave up on the year and packed it in,” Fox stated.
Of New York’s final four games, none are against teams fighting for a playoff spot. The Florida Panthers were eliminated from playoff contention, and the Sabres, Dallas Stars, and Tampa Bay Lightning each secures postseason berths already.
