The Rangers have mastered the art of the revenge game through just over two months of the season.
Not only have they won all but one contest following their nine losses, but the Blueshirts have yet to succumb to the same team twice, a trend they continued Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden with a 5-1 win over the Capitals.
Each time they’ve faced an opponent that badly beat them in their previous meeting, the Rangers have bounced back with an indisputable effort. The kind that shows the initiative they’ve taken to identify and correct their mistakes, and then apply it to their game the second time around.
“There’s self-awareness in the room, they realize that,” Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said after his club improved to 24-8-1. “I don’t think we played a very good game in Washington. I don’t think the players probably thought [they did] either. So that’s a chance to go out and play a better brand of hockey.”
This four-goal victory against the fourth-place Capitals came in response to the 4-0 loss the Rangers suffered in Washington this month — their first and only time they were blanked this season.
That was also the first time they had dropped back-to-back games all season, and it spoiled Laviolette’s return to Washington, as well.
So the Rangers took the ice Wednesday ready to make amends against a division foe once again.
Behind K’Andre Miller’s three-point night, as well as six total points from defensemen, that’s exactly what the Rangers did.
This all without their captain, Jacob Trouba, who exited with an upper-body injury after taking one shift on the penalty kill in the second period.
“I love that,” Laviolette said of the defensemen’s contributions in wake of Trouba’s absence. “I love that they were jumping into the holes, which was great. They were moving pucks, they were up in the rush. That’s all part of the game nowadays and it was nice to see them get rewarded.”
With both teams returning to game action for the first time since the Christmas break, a scoreless first period saw some rusty hockey and just three total high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
The Capitals may have struck first on a goal from Anthony Mantha off the rush, but the Rangers trailed for less than three minutes before a give-and-go sequence between Mika Zibanejad and Miller at the 7:03 mark allowed the home team to tie it up off Miller’s backhanded finish.
It was all Rangers from then on, especially in the third period, when they outshot the Capitals 13-7 and added two more goals to the three they posted in the middle frame.
After Artemi Panarin picked the top corner on Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper with precision for a power-play goal and the 2-1 lead, Braden Schneider scored 40 seconds later in the second. Hopping off the Rangers’ bench and receiving the puck in the middle of the zone, the 22-year-old sent it through traffic right down Broadway to pad his team’s lead.
Miller then netted his second of the game from long range before Alexis Lafreniere capped the scoring in the third period.
“I think we just controlled the pace of play and didn’t really give up much,” Miller said. “We were playing our game.”
