Like I said, I will do a shift by shift analysis of Girardi's play to back up my opinion, for the poster who asked. The replay is only two hours, so some shifts might not be included.
First Period:
20:00-Puck race between Girardi and Ovechkin to a puck behind rangers net, Girardi gets to it first but it takes a funny bounce when it lands, catching Girardi off guard and Ovi takes it. Rangers had good team d to quickly stifle him. Nothing comes of it, no shots, no chances, no puck possession.
17:00-Nothing happened, no real defending to do, didn't touch the puck
13:30-Completed pass by Girardi around the boards to a forward who proceeds to make a bad pass up the middle that is intercepted and Washington gains possession. Once they gain the zone, Ovi plays NHL 16 mode, skates around the Rangers zone before shooting, Girardi blocks the shot, Backstrom collects the puck and fires it back on goal. Some puck possession, but no real dangerous chances. At the end of his shift, Girardi makes a nice pass to clear the zone, after Washington's puck possession.
10:30-Not really involved in the play much early in the shift, bats a puck that was in the air into the Caps zone. Not much else on this shift.
0:30 on PK-FO won by Moore to start PK, McD with a pass around the net to Girardi who clears. Later in the shift, McD throws a pass behind Girardi near the net, Hank steers it back on track towards Girardi's skating path, he has time and space, attempts a pass to Moore, Ovi reads the play, and puts it in the empty net.
2nd Period:
20:00-Not really involved much early in the shift, but pinches well to keep the puck in the zone after a Nash chance creates zone time for Rangers, has a shot/pass deflected out for a FO on his pinch. Later in the shift, he has a nice give and go with Miller in the Caps zone, before he vacates his point spot and goes behind the net, tries a creative behind the back pass on net, good idea but no one's there and Holtby steers it away.
17:00-Comes on at the final seconds of one of our PP's, Zucc had a breakaway after bad Caps defense, but one of their defenseman makes a good play coming back, Rangers retain possession, Hayes collects the puck, sees Girardi at the right point, and at this point the play is in a scramble, no one on the left side of the ice besides Brassard, Girardi sends a pass right over to him as soon as he receives the Hayes pass, Brassard has a good opportunity to attempt a shot but does too much and eventually just decides to hold onto the puck. Later in the shift he clears a shot attempt that Hank couldn't control, and then retrieves the puck by beating a Caps player to it, makes a quick pass to a forward who clears the zone zone. Towards the end of the shift, its still an up and down shift, players out of position everywhere, we have the puck in their zone, Zucc and Glass are in front of the net, Brass and Girardi covering the points, McDonagh tries to make a move on a Caps player, and can only get off a bad shot that doesn't even go towards goal instead to the boards the other side. It careens around the boards to the Caps LW. At this point, Brass is changing, Zucc and Glass are in front of the Caps net, McDonagh has fallen down, Girardi is guarding against the Caps player who has retrieved the puck and is coming up his side. He retreats as he should, knowing it should be a 3-3 or at worst 2-3, but its really a 1-3 since the Brass change doesn't allow the player coming on to be in the play and Glass is slow on the back check. Once he realizes the situation, he slides to try and disrupt the pass from Schmidt to Williams, but can't get it. Williams he scores against Hank.
8:00-Early in his shift he has a pass to a forward who clears our zone. Later in the shift, he has a quick pass to Nash in the offensive zone, but Nash makes a bad pass to no one out of a scrum in a corner.
5:00- Nothing happened on this shift
1:15-Covering a forward who has his back to the Rangers net, is 30 feet away from the Rangers net but beats Girardi to a tip on a long pass that allows the play to not be a turnover or icing, it goes into our zone and no Caps are near Hank so he plays the puck to Miller who skates it out of the zone.
3rd Period:
20:00-Off the opening face-off of the period he gets the puck in our own zone, simple pass to the forward on his side in the neutral zone. Later in the shift, there is a scrum in our zone, Girardi kicks the puck to get it out of the scrum but it comes to a Caps defenseman at the point who chips the puck off a Rangers forward who's standing in the center of the ice, Girardi reacts quickly and is the first player to the puck, clears the zone.
17:30-Nothing happened early in the shift. He has a simple pass in the neutral zone, and after we gain possession in their zone, two times during this sequence he has nice pinches to keep the puck in their zone, and let us retain possession of the puck.
14:00- After a Caps player breaks up a pass near the point in their zone from one of our forwards or LHD, sorry, not sure which one, the Caps have a bit of an odd man rush, Ovi takes the puck on the wing, goes wide towards our zone, dangles with the puck, tries to get Girardi to bite, but he doesn't, Girardi instead picks his pocket and takes the puck, Rangers clear the zone.
12:15 on PK-Hank makes a save that he knocks out towards Girardi, but the shot that Hank shoveled towards Girardi either catches Girardi off guard or he fumbles it, probably a combination of both, and he knocks the puck to the corner, Rangers lose a scrum in the corner and the sequence continues in the Rangers zone. Later in the shift, he wins a battle to a lose puck and attempts a very tough clear, gets some of it up the boards, but we didn't have anyone near the boards and Washington keeps it in the zone. Sequence amounts to nothing, no real good chances, just a lot of Washington possession in our zone on their PP.
10:45-Towards the end of the PK, on Girardi's second shift of this PK, the Rangers have possession, defenseman playing keep away. Girardi lifts the puck high into the Caps zone to let the forwards change. The next time back down the ice by the Caps, McDonagh and one of the forwards get beat on a give and go by Kuznetsov and Williams, they are both out of position, Girardi makes it seem like he's about to slide to block Williams lane at a shot, which forces Williams to just hold onto the puck instead of taking attempting a decent shot. The Rangers immediately take the puck away from Williams, rush back down the ice and score the game tying goal.
9:30-Girardi clears our zone under no pressure and makes a nice outlet pass to a forward up the right wing.
6:50-Girardi Steps on the ice just as Yandle takes a shot that Stalberg deflects in. Did nothing on the play, but should help his +/-. Caps win the face-off right after the goal, play the puck into the Rangers zone, tough hop with the puck for Girardi, he chips it to an open teammate who should be able to easily clear the zone, but plays it out of play. On the next face-off since the forward couldn't clear the zone, McDonagh plays the puck over to Girardi who has a lot of time and space but he plays the puck right off Ovechkin for takes it, is by Girardi, beats McDonagh, goes to the net but didn't seem to have control of the puck. Later in the shift, Girardi blocks a shot. Even later in the shift, he is positioned well to get his stick in the passing lane to break up a pass to the point. Towards the end of the shift, Backstrom is trying to get away from Girardi with the puck, but Girardi stays with him, picks his pocket and clears the zone.
4:10-Nothing happened on this shift
1:45-We win a face-off, Girardi chips the puck down the ice. The Caps empty their net, put an extra skater on, they get into the Rangers zone, pass the puck around nicely. Kuznetsov from the side of the goal tries to pass it in front of the goal, but Girardi blocks the pass with his stick. Later in the shift, Ovechkin takes a shot that Girardi's tries to block but he misses, Hank saves it easily, but gives up a rebound that Girardi alertly swats away.
Summary: I counted 19 shifts, and about four bad ones (first shift of the game where he can't control a bad bouncing puck, the pass to Ovi, can't control a shot that Hank steers in his direction that results in zone time for Caps, and the shift where he tried to make a pass but it hit Ovi, although he kind of beasted the rest of that shift, making at least three nice defensive plays in our zone). He had probably about ten nice plays, nothing incredibly significant, a number of shifts where he wasn't really involved in the play, and he had the gaffe on the Ovechkin goal. Maybe someone else can re-watch the game and give a different type of commentary, but other than two or three misplayed pucks that result in no quality chances and the gaffe on the Ovi goal, he had an average game where he wasn't very notable.
