The Washington Capitals came in to the Garden tonight 3-0 and the Rangers did well to respect them. To their own detrement, the Caps took too many penalties. The Rangers know all about taking too many penalties. To their credit, the Rangers scored 3 powerplay goals. I can guess what the Rangers worked on at practice on Thursday.

The Caps and the Rangers played a pretty clean game. Brashear only played 6 minutes. Hanlon was smart to reign him in after all those early penalties. Nylander had 0 shots on goal. Luck was on the Rangers side in keeping Ovechkin off the board.

Tyutin and Girardi were awesome, offensive and defensively. Girardi always makes the safe play and still got 5 shots on goal. While Shanahan isn’t hitting the back of the net, he did have 7 shots, an assist and saved a goal by being smart enough not to screen Lundqvist. Jagr had 3 assists and except for one agregious give away at center ice, looked like he was in the game, all game. The difference between tonight’s game and the first three of this season was that every Ranger brought it tonight.

The Caps continued to bring it to the last seconds of the game. The score and the shots on goal are not an indication of poor play. Too many penalties early killed them. I have tremendous respect for Olaf Kolzig. He is such a great goaltender. It is my hope that the Caps make the playoffs and continue to play well for the rest of the season, just not against the Rangers.