New York Rangers Rally Falls Short in David Quinn’s return

A slow start doomed the New York Rangers as they fell 5-4 to the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon. After falling behind by four goals early in the third period, the Rangers rallied in the third but fell just short in the comeback.

Colin Blackwell scored the first two goals in the Ranger’s comeback. Alexis Lafreniere also scored as Chris Kreider added a power-play goal to bring the Rangers within one. Adam Fox had two assists in the game.

Tom Wilson scored twice, and Alex Ovechkin added his 10th goal in his past nine games to lead Washington to their third straight win, and 10 out of their last 11.

The returning head coach did not inspire the New York Rangers

David Quinn returned to coach the Rangers at Washington Capitals after missing the past six games while in NHL COVID-19 protocol.

“I was told I was going to be OK,” said Quinn, who has an underlying health condition due to hemophilia. “It wasn’t going to be anything that was going to create more of an issue for me. But anytime you get COVID, basically, the way things have gone, you’re always a little bit worried. But I never really got sick at all and I was very fortunate to have a very mild reaction to it.”

Quinn’s return appears to have had little impact on the Rangers as the Capitals jumped out to a 4-0 lead before a third-period rally closed the gap.

The Rangers went 4-2-0 during Quinn’s absence with Hartford Kris Knoblauch, who served as an assistant during Sunday’s game. Assistant coach David Oliver remains in COVID-19 protocol.

After the game in his post-game Zoom conference, Quinn talked about an issue that has followed the Rangers for a couple of years: too much passing and not enough shooting. In what Quinn described as the “inability to shoot”, following a trend from last season in which the Rangers averaged 31.1 shots on goal per game, good for only 20th place in the NHL.

The Rangers return home Tuesday night to host the Capitals with a 7:00 p.m. puck drop.