Alex Ovechkin hasn’t been quite himself through the first two games of the Washington Capitals’ Eastern Conference first-round series against the New York Rangers.
With it shifting to the nation’s capital, Ovechkin and his teammates look to get going in Game 3 on Friday.
New York leads the series 2-0.
“I thought the first two games, he’s looked a little bit off,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said after the 4-3 loss in Game 2 on Tuesday. “He’s struggling. He should, on a nightly basis, get four or five looks, whether they go in or not. He’s not getting those looks.
“Whether that’s a product of his matchup, whether that’s a product of his line combination, whether he’s playing a role in that, we got to find a way to get him in spots where it’s him and (Rangers goalie Igor) Shesterkin and he’s within the top of the circles.”
Ovechkin had seven shot attempts in Game 1, but none were on goal (five blocked, two missed). In Game 2, he got one on goal, two were blocked and one missed.
Despite the hole the Capitals find themselves in, Carbery saw improvement in his squad Tuesday. The team knows it has to take that to the next level.
“I feel like we fought back well,” center Dylan Strome said. “We bounced back. I feel like we’re right in the series. Obviously, they’ve got to come to our rink now, and we’ve got to find a way to win one here at some point.”
The Rangers can take a stranglehold on the best-of-seven series with a win. But while they’re halfway to advancing, they know they can’t look too far ahead.
“I think it’s really important just for us to go slow,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We go game by game. We don’t talk about anything like that, with regard to outcomes. I think we focus more on the process of making sure that we’re trying to do the right things. …
“(The Capitals) played a big game (Tuesday night), it was definitely more of a spirited game, and I would expect the same thing going into their building.”
New York scored twice in two and a half minutes in the second period of Game 2, snapping a 2-2 tie before ultimately skating away with a 4-3 win.
The Rangers, who owned the third-best power play (26.4 percent) in the NHL in the regular season, scored their first two on the man advantage in Tuesday’s victory.
Center Mika Zibanejad provided one of those, giving him three points (one goal, two assists) in the two games. That brought him to 50 career playoff points in 60 games.
His solid start to the playoffs is a carry-over from the end of the regular season, when the 31-year-old had eight points (two goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak to close out the campaign.
“I think he’s been really good,” Laviolette said. “He’s been playing in high gears. … That’s obvious to me. There were times down the stretch before the playoffs started where he was hitting that level, but for me I think it’s nice to see that he has walked it right into the playoffs.”
–Field Level Media