The New York Rangers completed the sweep of the Washington Capitals with a 4-2 win in DC. Mostly fueled by desperation, the Caps played their best game of the series, but in the end it wasn’t enough. Haters will say the Caps didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs, and they will ignore that it’s extremely difficult to win 4 straight games in a playoff series, no matter the stark contrasts between the talent levels of teams.
There’s a reason why the Rangers won the President’s Trophy, and they took care of business by sweeping the worst team in the playoffs. That’s how it goes. The Rangers may get about a week of rest, and it looks like Adam Fox may need it after a knee on knee hit, before their next series starts up. Finishing a series early? In this economy?
Mika Zibanejad finished the series with a goal and 6 assists and was absolutely the best forward this round. He was a force this entire series in all three zones, holding puck possession for long stretches and shutting down whomever they were out against.
Zibanejad was not the only star player to show up this series who struggled in the past, as Artemi Panarin exorcised his playoff production demons himself scoring 2 goals, including the series winner, and added an assist. The Panarin experience has been a rocky one when it comes to his postseason statistics, but from the 4 game sample this playoff, he looked engaged every single game against the Capitals. This bodes well for tougher matchups to come.
And of course, what more can you say about Igor Shesterkin? The dude is nails in elimination games, doing his job by stealing Game 3 and ensuring the Rangers held on for the sweep. Shesterkin allowed just 7 goals this series, and while it was just the Caps, a goalie really just needs to get rolling. He’s been doing just that with his .931 SV% in the four games.
Now we wait about a week until the next round, presumably against the Carolina Hurricanes, gets underway.
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