RANGERS FALL TO CAPS IN OT
Heartbroken Hank speechless over Zuc trade
A choked up Henrik Lundqvist sat in his locker room stall, looking up and down, searching for words.
But seemingly none could capture the anguish he felt less than 24 hours after teammate and buddy Mats Zuccarello was shipped off to Dallas.
“It's tough,” Lundqvist told reporters following the Blueshirts' 6-5 overtime loss to the Capitals in the nation's capital. . “Good friend… Sorry… I can't.”
The Saturday night trade, which brought back a pair of conditional second and third-round draft picks, signaled the start of the Rangers' long-anticipated trade deadline fire sale. Zuccarello, a life-long Ranger, was in the middle of his ninth season with the team, a span that included a few deep playoff runs and one trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
After the deal materialized, Lundqvist penned a tribute on Instagram to the Garden fan favorite.
“One of the most unique player and teammate I ever played with. Brings so much to the table. Will miss you a ton,” Lundqvist wrote.
But he and his teammates didn't have much time to grieve, taking the ice in Washington to battle the defending Cup champions.
Lundqvist stopped 29 shots for the Rangers, who nearly pulled off a surprising victory despite going into the trade deadline Monday in rebuilding mode. Zuccarello made his debut with the Stars on Sunday, too, scoring a goal and dishing an assist before leaving the game in the second period with an apparent upper-body injury after blocking a shot.
"There's an awful lot of good to take out of tonight," Rangers coach David Quinn said. "The fact that we fought back from two-goal deficits twice . ... We weren't pushed around physically or mentally. These are the things you're going to have to do moving forward to have success."
Evgeny Kuznetsov scored at 4:20 of overtime, just beating Alex Ovechkin's stick to the puck, to take down the Rangers.
"Those two points are really big for us," Kuznetsov said of the victory, which came after Washington twice gave back two-goal leads. "I feel especially today between one and two points it will be a huge difference at the end of the season."
Lundqvist tried to block Kuznetsov's pass back to Ovechkin in front of the net.
But the puck trickled away from Lundqvist and into the crease. Ovechkin first attempted to knock it in for what would've been his 45th goal before Kuznetsov guided it across the goal line from inches out for his 16th of the season.
"I don't think it matters who scores, right?" Kuznetsov said. "As long as we got a win."
Nicklas Backstrom scored his 14th and 15th goals as the second-place Capitals moved within two points of the Metropolitan Divisionleading New York Islanders, having played two more games.
Tom Wilson added his 17th goal, and Nic Dowd and Michal Kempny also scored for Washington. Pheonix Copley made 26 saves as the Capitals won a day after losing in Buffalo to finish their six-game trip at 3-3-0.
"We know it's a big time of the year," Backstrom said. "The last 20 games here, we need to get going, we need to collect points. We need to start playing better."
Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei scored multiple goals for the first time in his career, his second tying the game with 31 seconds remaining in regulation.
Chris Kreider added his 26th, Jimmy Vesey contributed his 15th, and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for New York.