Western trip follows bumpy start

Caps flash stretches of skill, struggles early

When forward T.J. Oshie rallied Washington Capitals fans to chant “back-to-back” at the team’s Stanley Cup parade more than four months ago, it wasn’t impulsive. Oshie had considered the standard of play Washington had reached during the playoffs — and how if that was now the starting point, then imagine how good they’d be going forward. But even with most of the roster returning, Oshie acknowledged that winning a second straight Stanley Cup would almost certainly be even harder than the first.

The first seven games of the year have served as a small sample size of the challenge. While the Capitals have shown flashes of the skilled, relentless team that ended last season, they’ve also struggled for stretches. Against the Florida Panthers on Friday night, Washington found itself in an early three-goal hole because of turnovers and a leaky penalty kill before the team clawed its way back to force a shootout, where it lost. It was a maddening display of the Capitals’ inconsistent effort to start the season.

“We were like two different teams,” center Lars Eller said, and while he was referring to Friday’s game alone, the sentiment could’ve fit for last season’s Capitals compared to this year’s early version. It’s too soon for a talented, proven team like Washington to be concerned, but urgency is warranted, too.

“To expect that it starts that same spot [where it left off ], it’s not really I think all that achievable,” coach Todd Reirden said, and that’s understandable. The intensity of a Stanley Cup Final game and an early regular season contest aren’t comparable. But Washington’s bumpy start to the season — it earned three out of a possible six standings points during its recent three-game homestand and has just two regulation wins in its first seven games — has resurrected questions about if a championship hangover is a concern.

As the Capitals embark on their first extended road trip, a western Canada swing facing three teams that weren’t in the playoffs last season, moving closer to the defensively sound form they flashed in the postseason is the priority.

“We’re still trying to find our game,” forward Brett Connolly said. “Would we have liked to have picked up where we left off? Yes. But it’s not easy. We played a lot of hockey last year and a short summer and you come in here and there are a lot of distractions, a lot of that kind of stuff. We’ve done some good things, and we’ve done some not so good things. I think if you look at last season we weren’t very good either at the start. We weren’t at our best. Just take the positives and know that we can overcome that.

“It hasn’t been disastrous. We’re still getting points, we’re still above .500 right now with a tough couple back-tobacks to start the year. So not the worst start, but obviously we have another level.”

The Capitals’ annual October trip to British Columbia and Alberta is typically a team’s first bonding experience, and with two days off between games, Reirden scheduled an outing in Victoria for the day after Washington plays the Canucks. This year’s roster is already well acquainted; the Capitals returned 18 of the 20 players who dressed for the Stanley Cup Final, and just Dmitrij Jaskin and Nic Dowd are new to the organization.

After Friday night’s game, center Nicklas Backstrom was asked if perhaps the Capitals took the stability for granted, relying a little too much on the belief that they’re a good team.

“I don’t feel that we have that attitude in the locker room,” Backstrom said. “It’s a process. We want to get better as a team, we want to play the same way as we did last year, so we’ve just got to keep working . . . . When we’re playing good, we’re doing all of the little details right. I mean, we’re chipping in the puck, we’re working together as a team, and sometimes, when you get out of that rhythm, we’re trying a little too much instead of just making the simple play and work. That was the key last year when we were successful.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Capitals have allowed the most highdanger scoring chances (80) of any team to start the season, surprising considering Washington returned its entire defense corps from last year. The team’s penalty kill has also been a liability, allowing six power-play goals in the past four games, but that’s more expected with Reirden implementing a new and more aggressive shorthanded system with some personnel changes.