WASHINGTON _ Early in the week, when the Rangers were still in the midst of their one-game-in-11-days stretch, coach David Quinn had said he didn't want to be hasty in making too many changes within his lineup, given the fact the Rangers had only played three games and didn't have much of a sample size on which to base any judgments.
But after two losses in a row, Quinn just couldn't help himself. The second-year coach jumbled his forward lines for Friday's game against the Washington Capitals, moving struggling Chris Kreider up from the second line to the top line, putting him on the right wing with Artemi Panarin and Kreider's longtime centerman, Mika Zibanejad. Pavel Buchnevich, who had been the first line right wing for the first four games of the season, dropped down to Kreider's spot on the left of the second line, with center Brett Howden and rookie right wing Kaapo Kakko, and Quinn tinkered with the third and fourth lines, too, and changed up a couple of defense pairs as well.
The changes weren't enough to halt the losing streak, though. T.J. Oshie had two goals and John Carlson had three assists as the Capitals closed out a homestand with a 5-2 victory that dropped the Rangers' record to 2-3. Kreider had an assist on a goal by Panarin and Buchnevich had a power play goal, but it wasn't enough as the Rangers dropped both ends of a back-to-back against the Devils and Capitals. They return to action Sunday afternoon against the Vancouver Canucks at the Garden.
"We've been thinking about it for a little bit, and I just think it's something that might get some people going," Quinn said before the game of all the changes. "You're looking for chemistry within lines and, you know, I just think having Kreider up on that right wing might give those guys a little bit different look than they've had with 'Buchie.' "
Both Kreider and Buchnevich remained on the first power play unit despite that group having gone 0 for 6 in New Jersey and 0 for 10 in the last two games. There had been much clamoring among Rangers fans to move Kakko up to the first power play and Quinn acknowledged the coaching staff had kicked that idea around, as it has many others. But he didn't make a change there.
"Again, you don't want to panic," he said. "It's been two (power play-goalless) games I thought one game that we didn't score (against Edmonton last Saturday) we looked pretty damn good on the power play."
The power play looked OK in the first period when Buchnevich scored his first goal of the season, off assists from Zibanejad and Jacob Trouba at 12:25. That tied the score at 1-1, after Oshie had gotten credit for a power play goal at 2:24 that went in off the skate of Marc Staal to give Washington the early lead.
Michal Kempny, playing his first game of the season after tearing his hamstring in March, gave the Caps a 2-1 lead before the period was over, banging in a rebound at 15:16. Washington would push the lead to 3-1 on a goal by Nic Dowd at 3:45 of the second and had many chances to make the lead even bigger. But Lundqvist was huge in the period, stopping 16 of 17 shots, including a penalty shot by Jakub Vrana _ awarded because of an alleged hook by Brady Skjei _ and several other great scoring chances.
Panarin scored with 3:04 left in the period, finishing at the net off a pretty give-and-go return pass from Kreider, and Lundqvist made one more big stop on a rebound try by Oshie with 2:12 to go to keep the Rangers within one entering the third. Oshie scored his second goal and Garnet Hathaway had an empty netter in the third for the Caps.
