Senators 5, Capitals 2
You knew when Alex Ovechkin was declared out with a lower-body injury a few hours before Wednesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators that it was going to be a long night. Actually, you knew that a day before. You probably knew it halfway through Monday’s disaster against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Caps are in one of those ruts. The kind where a team’s body language when something goes wrong tells you all you need to know about the outcome. Every above-average save by the opposing goalie leads to exaggerated negative reactions. Smashed sticks. Shrugged shoulders. Downcast glances. It comes off as indifference on television or while watching from the press box or in the crowd – though it’s more likely just extreme exasperation.
The Caps are in a tailspin and they have little time to recover. Twenty-two games remain and they are two points out of a Stanley Cup playoff spot with the NHL trade deadline looming on Monday afternoon at 3 p.m. Yes, Ovechkin missed the Senators game with what is likely a left leg injury. Yes, Nicklas Backstrom is still out with a concussion. No one cares. Not in the rest of the league, anyway. The Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs are totally cool if injuries sap Washington’s will to compete. For the third game in a row, the Caps fell behind by two goals or more. For the sixth game in a row they conceded the first tally to the opposition.
“When it happens like the past two, three, four games… It’s happened a lot to us,” said forward Mathieu Perreault. “But nobody's going to feel sorry for ourselves. We've just got to get out there and put in effort and try to get good starts.”
Dale Hunter faulted goalie Tomas Vokoun, who indeed probably should have stopped Erik Karlsson’s shot at 9 minutes, 36 seconds of the first period. But if his team could produce at the other end maybe they could shake off the odd bad goal against. It’s a two-way street and Washington is struggling in all aspects of its game right now. Not that the Caps were terrible early. They managed to put 35 shots on Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson and it wasn’t all due to their late flurry in the third period. Washington finished with more shots in the first, second and third periods. But they didn’t finish until they were already down 4-0. Maybe it’s bad luck. Maybe it’s poor goalie play. Maybe it’s all that missing skill. But there’s no question right now that this team down a goal or two feels like it’s down five or six.
“You just can't recover from it,” forward Troy Brouwer said. “It just feels like we let each other down; it feels like we are just giving away points when we need to be playing real good hockey and trying to find ways to climb the standings.”
Best way to do it is build off the final 15 minutes. Perreault scored a goal off his face when a Jason Chimera shot drilled him in the mouth and actually bounced in. That renewed Washington’s sense that hard work can still lead to some lucky breaks. It had been a while. Perreault’s goal came seven minutes after John Carlson scored early in the third period, one that told the Caps they can still bang one home on occasion on the power play. They also had several quality chances down 4-2 to cut the lead to one, but it didn’t happen. Still – that’s where to start seeking answers before they get back at it Friday night at Montreal. Because without at least one win this weekend and maybe two – the Caps also play at Toronto on Saturday night - it’s possible general manager George McPhee will call it a season and start making moves that benefit his 2012-13 club, not a playoff push for the current group.
“Any time you go down by a couple, you figure out what you're doing wrong and find a way to try to break their defense to try to get a good cycle, a good forecheck,” Brouwer said. “And I thought we had a lot of good shifts where we were cycling. We outshot them tonight and I think we had a lot of good chances – [Marcus Johansson] in the slot, [Alex Semin] hit the post in the second. They're coming and they're there and we're getting opportunities. But it's tough when you're down a couple goals. You grip your stick tight. You put a little too much pressure on yourself.”
Washington (29-26-5, 63 points) is still two points behind Florida (27-20-11, 65 points) for the Southeast Division lead and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. Plus, the Panthers now have two games in hand. One of those games is at home against Minnesota on Thursday night while the Caps stew. Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs (29-24-7, 65 points) remain in eighth place and even with Washington in games played (60). They host San Jose on Thursday at Air Canada Centre. The Jets (29-26-7, 65 points) are in ninth, but have played two extra games (62). Make it three after they host Tampa Bay on Thursday.
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