"I think a little bit of it is that we've had some leads going into the third," says Caps center Nic Dowd. "Unfortunately, guys are either getting bored or we're getting on our heels a little bit waiting for the time to tick down, and teams have been able to come back on us. It's the NHL; teams are going to make a push.
"But in a game like that, we're up 2-1 in a building [Madison Square Garden] like this with 20 minutes left to go. I'm not going to say we've got to learn how to hold onto leads, because we have one of the oldest teams in the NHL. We have to - as a group - understand why this is and what has to be done here."
With 21 games remaining in the season, Washington will face the Islanders in five of those contests, the most they'll play any opponent the rest of the way.
"I think they've been tight games," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of the games against the Islanders. "There is not a lot of room out there to create, so we're going to have to work for that and we're going to have to work to defend hard. But I think the guys know that they're important games, they're big games, as they have been. The Islanders are tops in the division as are we, so we're playing for a lot here. It should be a competitive game, but I would expect it to be a pretty tight game as well."
Heading into Wednesday night's slate of NHL activity, the Caps are two points head of both the Islanders and the Penguins, with a game in hand on each of those pursuing clubs. Washington has only two games remaining against the Penguins. New York finished its season's series against Pittsburgh with a 2-4-2 record.
The Caps are well aware that these five remaining games against New York - and the two against the Pens - could well decide which team finishes atop the NHL's East Division.
"We play these divisional teams every single night," says Dowd. "One win or one loss and percentages are changing and people are moving - people are moving up or people are moving down. To have a team like the Islanders so close, and we basically have a best-of-five left with them, so that's how we're going to approach it."
When these two teams last met in Washington on March 16, the Caps came out on top 3-1, ending New York's nine-game winning streak - the longest in the NHL this season - and its 12-game point streak (11-0-1). Since those twin streaks were halted, the Isles have won three of seven games (3-4-0), with only one of those wins coming in regulation.
New York enters Thursday's game on the heels of consecutive losses to the Penguins in Pittsburgh. New York fell 6-3 to the Pens on Saturday and 2-1 on Monday. The Isles fell down 2-0 in the first period in Monday's rematch and weren't able to overcome that deficit over the final 40-plus minutes. Neither of Pittsburgh's goals in that game were scored at 5-on-5; the Pens struck once on the power play and got a 4-on-4 goal from Jared McCann with less than two minutes remaining in the first.
"We played an easy game early," laments Islanders coach Barry Trotz of Monday's loss. "And when you play an easy game early, you're going to not feel real good about your game. And then we gave up a late [in the penalty kill] power-play goal, which I actually thought we killed that off really well. And then the 4-on-4, we had just an absolutely brutal line change.
"But we need a better start. We're not gifted enough where we can spot teams two pucks an then work our way back. We've been fortunate we've been able to do it a few times, but not enough, not enough at all."
