NHL Playoffs 2011: How the Washington Capitals Can Beat the New York Rangers

On Sunday, for the first time in this young quarterfinal series between Washington and the New York Rangers, the Capitals appeared to stray away from their defense-first system.  The Rangers took advantage of some key defensive lapses on Washington's part, and skated away with a 3-2 victory at home.  

With the series resuming Wednesday, for a pivotal Game 4, the Capitals need to regain their composure. That starts with the team's discipline, which can be blamed for at least one of the Rangers' goals on Sunday. 

As a unit, the Capitals took far too many penalties in Game 3.  They were whistled for eight minor penalties on Sunday, which is twice as many as they took in the first two games of the series combined. The Rangers, as head coach John Torterella put it, "aren't good enough" to win by any means, besides playing a "grinding" style of hockey.  

That style of play also includes antagonizing and intimidating many of the Capitals star players, most notably Mike Green, Alexander Ovechkin and obviously the goaltender Michal Neuvirth.  The Rangers' best pugilists, Brandon Prust and Sean Avery, seemed to get under the skin of Neuvirth as the game went on, and appeared to be trying to hammer Green through the boards every chance they got.  

With each crushing hit the Rangers landed on Green, the Capitals star defenseman seemed to shy away from physical contact, which isn't a good sign for Washington.  Green was one of the offensive catalysts for the Caps through the first two games of the series, putting up assists in each of the team's wins. They'll need him to be that kind of force if they're going to take a strangle-hold on the series.  

As ESPN analyst and former Ranger Matthew Barnaby said on television, for the Rangers to be successful, "Sean Avery and Brandon Prust have to hit everything that moves."  If the Capitals are to be successful, they need to turn the other cheek and let the Rangers take penalties.  

After the game, Capitals bench boss Bruce Boudreau criticized everything from the officiating to the quality of Madison Square Garden as an NHL facility, which, in hindsight, was probably a mistake. Boudreau and the Capitals need to go into Wednesday night's game with a "business as usual" mentality. They can't be knocked off their game by the Rangers' heavy-hitting mindset, because if they can stay disciplined and play within their system, their superior skill will allow them to score.  

The Capitals are too good of a team to fall to another bottom seed, but they need to play like the team that stormed up the Eastern Conference standings in February and March, and not like the team they're facing.