It was a tough night all around to get anything going, as the Blue Jackets were held to just 18 shots on goal the whole way. Washington played stifling defense, and the Blue Jackets just weren't able to generate much on Samsonov as the night went on.
There were a few chances -- Yegor Chinakhov continued to be snakebit, having a goal wiped off the board for offsides, while Adam Boqvist hit the post at one point in the second period.
But if there was a lesson to be taken, it's that the Blue Jackets need a 60-minute effort like the one they got in the third period. That has come in fits and starts during the four-game skid, but Columbus just hasn't put together enough minutes to grind out a victory.
"No one is going to give you a game," head coach Brad Larsen said. "It's the NHL. You've seen our schedule, who we're playing. We're playing all the top teams right now, and they're playing well, too. No one is going to hand you a game. You gotta go get it, and you have to find a way and grind through it, not just for 10 minutes or 12 minutes. It's gonna have to be shift after shift. We're learning some hard lessons here."
That will happen when playing a team like the Capitals that is leading the Metropolitan Division. The home team jumped on top early with Aliaksei Protas taking advantage of a broken play, a puck that dribbed on goalie Daniil Tarasov that the netminder couldn't parry far enough away. Protas was there to jump on the puck and beat Tarasov back to the far post and give the Caps a 1-0 lead 4:33 into the game.
In the second period, the game-winning goal came off the stick of Alexander Ovechkin, who earned his 20th goal of the season, his 20th goal ever against the Blue Jackets and the 750th goal of his NHL career. He came into the right circle and found Tarasov a little too close to the near post, beating him to the blocker far side with a hard wrist shot to make it 2-0.
Danforth made a nice play to feed Robinson for a slam dunk that made it 2-1 just 6:28 into the third, but while the Jackets had some good moments, they just couldn't get the tying goal.
"I think we all know what the situation is right now," Danforth said. "We're doing whatever it takes to try to get a win. The first two periods, they were all over us, but Tarry kept us in it. The third period, that's how we play hockey. We simplified the game and were heavy on the forecheck, good sticks on pucks, we were turning pucks over. That's how we have to do it.
"I thought we had a chance there in the last 10 minutes. We were all over them, but it just wasn't the case tonight."