Peter Laviolette’s playoff experience guided Rangers through Capitals’ muck

Peter Laviolette has been around a few of these things before. 

One hundred and fifty-five of them, to be exact, after Sunday’s 4-1 Rangers playoff victory over the Capitals at the Garden to take a 1-0 series lead. 

So, there was zero level of panic in the Rangers’ coach after a first period in which the Capitals played about as close to the blueprint on how they needed to play to have a chance in this series. 

The Capitals were doing what they do — muddying up the game and preventing the faster, more skilled Rangers offensive weapons to roam and feast on scoring chances. 

Washington had twice as many blocked shots in the first period (eight) as it had shots on Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin (four), and the high-voltage Rangers managed only seven shots on Capitals netminder Charlie Lindgren. 

The result was a rather nondescript, scoreless opening 20 minutes to what the Rangers hope to be a very long postseason run, as they chase their first Stanley Cup in 30 years with a team that looks amply built to hoist the chalice at the end of the line.