Caps' Slide Hits Five in 3-1 Loss

For the second time in as many home games, the Caps faced a team that entered the game just two points behind them in the chase for the two Eastern Conference wild card playoff berths. And for the second time in as many home games, the Caps lost in regulation and dropped down another rung in the standings.

Detroit came into the District on Tuesday night in the finale of a five-game road trip, and the Red Wings skated out of town with a 3-1 victory that dropped the Capitals into 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings. Tuesday's loss is Washington's fifth in a row in regulation, the team's longest such losing streak in just over nine years, since a five-game regulation skid from Jan. 15-24, 2014.
Last Thursday, Florida came into Capital One Arena and caught the Caps in the standings with a 6-3 victory.
Tuesday's setback dropped the Capitals to 1-6-0 in their last seven games at Capital One Arena, where they've also won just three of their last dozen games (3-7-2). Washington's offense is still stuck in neutral; the Caps have been limited to two or fewer goals in nine of their last 11 games, and in nearly half (28 of 59) of the games they've played this season. Washington is 3-22-3 when scoring two or fewer goals this season.
Given the team's extended scoring struggles, mistakes in other areas of their game tend to get magnified, and on many nights - including this one - the Caps have to work much harder for their offense than does the opposition.
"There's no time to hang our heads here," says Caps right wing Tom Wilson, who has scored the team's only goal in each of the two games he has played since returning to the lineup following a one-month absence with a lower body injury. "I think the guys came together today and worked hard. But it's not easy to win in this League. We've got to find a way here. There's a good chunk of games left, but [another] one is down, and we've got to turn this around right now and start putting together some wins."
Tuesday's game started the same way the previous four started, with the Caps falling down by a goal in the first period. Detroit's Robert Hagg staked the Wings to a 1-0 lead at 10:16 of the first with a center point wrist shot that found its way past Caps goaltender Darcy Kuemper. For Hagg, it was his first goal of the season and his first in 76 games, since Oct. 25, 2021 when he was a member of the Buffalo Sabres.
Kuemper thought he had been interfered with on the play, but as it turned out, it was Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk who had inadvertently bumped him in the crease. Those are the kinds of mistakes the Caps seemed to be able to shake off and overcome several weeks ago.
Detroit never trailed in Tuesday's game; the Caps have not held a lead at any point during the life of their five-game slide, a total of 300 minutes of hockey, with four of those games played here in the District. Washington has trailed for 251 minutes and 43 seconds of the last five games, or 83.9 percent of the total time.
Minutes after Detroit took the lead, it lost its captain for the night. Dylan Larkin leveled Caps winger T.J. Oshie with cross-check above the neck, earning a five-minute major and a game misconduct in the process. The penalty game the Caps an opportunity to change the complexion of the contest, but the best they could do was break even.
After Oshie's shot from the left circle on the power play missed the net, Detroit's Pius Suter tore out of his own end with the puck and doubled the Wings' lead to 2-0 with a shorthanded goal on a 2-on-1 rush at 14:22 of the first, beating Kuemper to the blocker side.
Later in the man advantage, the Caps struck to pull back to within a goal of the Wings when Wilson expertly tipped home an Erik Gustafsson point shot from the slot at 15:57 of the period.
"It feels like those kinds of moments, we've got to somehow find a way to turn them our way and use them as momentum," says Wilson. "It just seems kind of like the bounces are going that way, but that's hockey. We've got to find a way to turn them our way.
"I thought guys did a good job tonight working for each other. The compete was there. We just couldn't get it done."
The Caps couldn't muster the equalizer on another power play drawn by Oshie early in the second period, and when they encountered a couple of penalty killing missions of their own in short succession in the back half of the middle period, it kept them from generating anything in the way of an attack for a decent chunk of the game. Washington was limited to two shots on net in the final 15 minutes and 46 seconds of the second period, and none in the final 8 minutes and 25 seconds of that period.
Washington entered the third period down just a single goal, but Detroit restored its two-goal cushion early in the third, a dagger for the offensively challenged Caps. Evgeny Kuznetsov gave the puck away in front of his own net, and Suter quickly threw it behind Kuemper at 6:14 for his second unassisted goal of the night, and his fifth goal in the last five games.
The Caps gamely tried to claw their way back into the game, but Detroit netminder Ville Husso had the answer for all 15 of their third-period shots on net. The Wings helped their cause by blocking 28 Washington shots, and the Caps missed the cage 20 times, including a handful of good looks.
The Caps and Wings are like two ships passing in the night; Washington has lost five straight and its streak of eight straight playoff appearances is in jeopardy. Detroit has now won seven of its last eight games as it vies to break a six-year playoff drought, its longest since a seven-year dry spell from 1970-77.
When they returned home from an uplifting 2-1 win over Boston on Feb. 11, the Caps were in seventh place in the Eastern Conference and playing six of their next seven games at home. But the five consecutive losses since have dropped the Caps from seventh to 11th in the Eastern Conference standings.
Washington's effort couldn't be faulted on Tuesday, but once again, its execution was lacking.
"Anything would have been better than the previous game," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette, referring to the team's 4-1 loss in Saturday's Stadium Series loss at Carolina. "That was not good. Tonight, the guys had the right intentions. We fell behind again 1-0; we can't get that lead, and you're pushing to score goals.
"There were probably three or four things that you'd like to have back where a mistake was made, whether it was a penalty that we took or a shorthanded goal. You'd like to have those moments back, because the rest of the game we pressed and we pushed, and especially in the third period. We couldn't put the puck, so it's frustrating for everybody."