Now they'll face a rested Devils team in a set of two weekend games in Newark. A question confronting the Caps and their coaching staff is: How do you balance the team's performance in the last four periods with the way the club played over the last six weeks when it forged the League's best record over that span?
"I think you have to address the issues that you see," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "For me, you always have to be honest about your assessment. For me, I didn't think the third period in New York was so bad [on Tuesday]. I said that the other night; we lost on the scoreboard in that period. And so it was not the period that we were looking for from a scoreboard stance, but I didn't think that we didn't play hard or we didn't compete.
"[Thursday], again we made some big mistakes early. We came out ready to play early, but again I just think the consistency through the game [was lacking] and making sure that everybody's got their hands on the rope trying to pull things in our direction. Those are things we'll talk about and try to get fixed."
Prior to these two straight losses at the start of the trip, the Caps put together a 17-3-1 run over a stretch of 21 games, the best record in the NHL over that span. Washington yielded an average of just 2.29 goals against per game over that 21-game span; only Pittsburgh (2.09) was better in that regard during that stretch.
"We're making mistakes and giving up chances that we didn't give up during that stretch," says Caps center Lars Eller. "For what reason, I'm not sure but we're making mistakes we didn't make for most of the last month. I think everybody's just got to look at themselves and be a little better."
The Caps know they're capable of playing much better hockey because they've played much better recently over a much longer stretch.
"We know we are capable of playing a lot better hockey than we played in the last two games," says Eller. "We don't want to overreact, but we've got to be aware of our mistakes. Look at it, but at the same time don't let it affect the next play with any doubt or with any less confidence in our game. Just learn from it and go out and play with confidence and in the next game be sharper."
