Lars Eller scored his first goal in a Caps uniform to put the Capitals up 1-0 in the first. A heavy forecheck and solid defense by Washington followed and the game seemed to be swaying in favor of the home team as Alex Ovechkin scored his 3rd goal of the season with a glorious shot from the top of the circle to beat Henrik Lundqvist.

The Capitals were in charge of the game at the end of first, despite being outshot 13-10.

Then things began to quickly unravel for Washington as the Rangers scored three unanswered goals from Brandon Pirri and Jimmy Vesey, who racked up his first multi-goal game of his young NHL career.

Braden Holtby finished with 22 saves, but the Rangers found a way around the Capitals defense and their goaltender.

"They dug in there, found a way to keep it out of the net, and they got a little momentum, got it tied up, and then they came at us a little bit in the second period," Barry Trotz said after the game. "Wasn't a lot of shots, wasn't a lot of chances, but all their chances went in."

Rick Nash ended the scoring with an empty net goal in the third.

It was the first regulation loss of the season for the Capitals, who now sit at 3-1-1.

The Caps have had an issue so far this season with letting up in the second period. They have the ability to control a game better than any team in the league, yet something just doesn't seem to click once the second frame begins. Whether its mishandling passes or missing the net, the Caps almost jinx themselves after starting a game on the right foot.

"I just thought the last two games we got away from what we did in the first period. The first periods have been good, that's something we wanted to correct. Our second period, we're going to need to correct," said Trotz.

"I think we scored first two goals and I think we felt like it's going to be over," Alex Ovechkin said. "Five-on-four, four minutes I think we have only one chance when [Niskanen] shot a puck and after that we was so casual. We couldn't stay in their zone so obviously it's blame on us and can't play like that."

Good thing there is plenty of time to fix whatever issues are affecting the Caps as we're only 5 games into the 2016-17 season.

The good parts were really good. The Eller-Sanford-Williams line played very well tonight. They reminded me a little bit of the old Steve Konowalchuk-Ulf Dahlen-Jeff Halpern line from the days of old. They have the ability to control the zone and create offense from grinding down the opposing defense. It is something that the Caps have been trying to perfect for years, and, with luck, this line can continue to progress into the post-season.

It was a bad loss considering how well Washington was playing early on, but it's good that they got their first regulation loss over withand now they can begin to pick apart and analyze their game.

What are you thoughts about tonights loss?

More to come...

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