The Rangers have yet to score a goal at home this season.
There have only been two games at Madison Square Garden so far, but the Blueshirts have now been shut out on both occasions after failing to find the net in a 1-0 loss to the Capitals on Sunday night.
This game may have seen a much stronger effort from the Rangers than their season-opening clunker against the Penguins, but they have still gone 120 minutes without a goal in front of their home fans.
It wasn’t a matter of effort, energy or consistency — but an inability to finish against a hot goaltender.
Charlie Lindgren was impenetrable in Washington’s net through 60 minutes, stopping 13 shots in the middle frame alone on the way to 35 saves on the night.
The Rangers attacked every which way, especially in the second period, but nothing was getting by Lindgren.
At one point in the middle frame, Lindgren robbed Mika Zibanejad on a two-on-one rush with Artemi Panarin, who set the Swede up for a blistering one-timer that the Capitals netminder gloved down in a highlight-reel save.
Whether it was a full power play in the Capitals zone or a strong five-on-five shift, Lindgren was sharp.
Lindgren, of course, is the brother of former Ranger Ryan Lindgren, who the Blueshirts traded to Colorado last season before he signed with the Kraken as a free agent this summer.
After the last time the Rangers saw Lindgren in goal, the Washington netminder sounded like he took his brother’s departure personally in his postgame interview.
It allowed the Capitals to notch the first and only goal at the 13:47 mark of the second period, when Anthony Beauvillier tipped an Alex Ovechkin shot past Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick.
The Rangers didn’t give up much through a scoreless first 20 minutes, but they didn’t generate much either.
Amid Carson Soucy’s injured reserve designation with an upper-body injury, Matthew Robertson made his season debut on the left side of Will Borgen.
Head coach Mike Sullivan rotated the bottom four defensemen at first, but later settled into Robertson-Borgen and Urho Vaakanainen-Braden Schneider.
Limiting the Capitals to under 10 shots in each period, the Rangers only surrendered six high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
