WASHINGTON’S WASHOUT JUST A PRE-PLAYOFF TEST
After last season’s quick exit, Capitals ‘need it to be a little rocky,’ Isabelle Khurshudyan writes.
LOS ANGELES In a tied game against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, the Washington Capitals watched two pucks ricochet off goalposts within two minutes in the second period. The Kings pulled away in the third period and Washington returned to a losing locker-room for a third straight game — the first time that’s happened in more than two years.
As the Capitals considered what’s changed in the past month, how this team went from being the hottest in the league — scoring five-plus goals a game — to a sudden late-season losing skid that was extended to four with a 5-2 loss on Sunday to the Anaheim Ducks, they thought of the posts they hit in the second period. A month ago, those would have been good for two goals.
That was a source of both frustration and encouragement, the fact that were it not for a few inches and some bad luck, Washington probably would have won on Saturday night. The strange silver lining to that bout of adversity is that it breeds more, something the Capitals are welcoming. The Pittsburgh Penguins stood just a point back of Washington for first place in the Eastern Conference before their Monday night game against the Calgary Flames, and the Capitals are happy for the competition.
“There’s obviously frustration, but we can’t whine and cry about it like babies,” forward Justin Williams said. “We’ve lost three in a row. Big deal — pick it up and get the next one. The good news is there’s usually another game in hockey the next day.”
In Washington’s case, there was, but it turned into another loss to Anaheim, a playoff-bound team. And the Capitals’ competition doesn’t get any easier with the Minnesota Wild, the Western Conference’s top team this season, coming to Washington on Tuesday. In the Metropolitan Division, three points separate the Capitals, Penguins and Columbus Blue Jackets. Asked if a playoff race could be a good thing for Washington down the stretch, Williams, a threetime Stanley Cup winner from Cobourg, Ont., smiled.
“Of course it is,” he said. “Any competitiveness and tight scoring is encouraged. This is just the way it is now. These are fun games to play.”
That echoed head coach Barry Trotz’s thoughts, even before the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference got tighter.
“It hasn’t come as easy as it has earlier in the year, but that’s OK,” Trotz said. “We need it to be a little rocky. We’re in a little bit of a playoff race right now, and that’s fantastic.”
Washington is now 5-6-1 since its mid-February five-day bye week, and the team has fallen into a scoring slump. The Capitals were 17-2-1 going into the bye week, and they were averaging 4.65 goals per game during that stretch. That probably wasn’t sustainable, but Washington has been held to fewer than four goals in nine of the past 11 games.
The Capitals clinched the division and top seed in the conference on March 22 last year, leaving them with 10 meaningless games to end the season. The Presidents’ Trophy felt inevitable before they officially secured it that day, and with nothing to play for in the regular season, Washington’s performance declined as the team approached the playoffs.
With the Capitals in danger of taking a tumble down the standings and facing a challenging first-round matchup with either Pittsburgh, Columbus or the New York Rangers, they suddenly have motivation at a point in the season when meaningful games resemble post-season contests.
“It’s just not coming very easy for us right now,” forward Lars Eller said. “We have to work hard to score goals the last couple games. It’s an uphill battle. I still think we have another gear, another level that we haven’t really found the last couple of weeks. We’ve got to find it here soon — the sooner the better.”
Said Williams: “It’s just getting yourself mentally ready to play hard games. These are the hard games, the last 15 of the season. And you can’t get frustrated because you haven’t scored in a while. You’ve got to do what makes you successful within our system.
“We’re not obviously scoring and winning as we’d like. All teams go through it. The trick is to not let it snowball too far.”
We can’t whine and cry about it like babies … Big deal — pick it up and get the next one.