POSTGAME NOTEBOOK - Jackets 5, Caps 4

At Home He's A Tourist - In making the Stanley Cup playoffs in 13 of the last 14 seasons, the Capitals have forged the second-best home ice record in the NHL over that span, trailing only the Pittsburgh Penguins. But this season - and recently, in particular - the Caps haven't found much comfort playing at home.

When Garnet Hathaway scored the game's first goal late in the first period of Tuesday's divisional match-up with the Columbus Blue Jackets, it ended a stretch of 358 minutes and 25 seconds of the Capitals playing without a lead in their own building, a span that dates back to early in the second period of a Jan. 16 game against Vancouver.
When Nic Dowd scored just 40 seconds into the second period, it marked the first time the Caps held a multi-goal lead at home since a Jan. 10 game against Boston. But as was the case in that game against the Bruins last month, the Caps couldn't hold or add to that early two-goal cushion, and they found themselves on the short end of a 5-4 score at night's end.
Washington lost its two-goal lead in the second period, then went back in front by a goal only to go into the third period tied when Patrik Laine scored his second power-play goal of the period with just 3.7 seconds left in the middle frame.
Making his NHL debut, Columbus winger Trey Fix-Wolansky netted the first goal of his NHL career early in the third, giving the Jackets their first lead of the game.
With goaltender Ilya Samsonov off for an extra attacker, Tom Wilson tied it at 4-4 for Washington with 2:26 left, only to see Jackets captain Boone Jenner score with 42.2 seconds remaining. The loss marked the second time in as many home games the Caps yielded the game-winner in the final five minutes of regulation of what had been a tie game.
Tuesday's loss was the Caps' fourth straight regulation setback at home, marking the first time in nearly a decade and a half that Washington has had a home losing streak of that nature and length. From Oct. 26-Nov. 26, 2007 - during the bridge of the Glen Hanlon and Bruce Boudreau coaching administrations here in the District - the Caps dropped six straight home games in regulation.
When it was over, Jackets coach Brad Larsen was asked how proud he was of his team.
"Yeah, tough building," he replied, in a nod to the Caps' longstanding home ice dominance. "You get one practice after a big [layoff] here, and you play a pretty solid team that's loaded up.
"I liked our first period; I thought we played really well. We just decided not to hit the net for most of it, and that was a shame because we had some really good looks there. So we stuck with it, and we get there. The power play really came through huge tonight. We really were 3-for-3 but we got 2-for-3 but I think the time expired on the one."
Tuesday's loss to the Jackets leaves the Capitals with 12 wins in 26 home games (12-9-5) this season. Washington is 2-6-1 on home ice since the turn of the calendar, and it is 3-8-1 in its last dozen on home ice, with only one regulation win (Dec. 29 vs. Nashville).
The last time the Caps won fewer than half of their total home games in a season was 2006-07 when they went 17-17-7 on home ice in Alex Ovechkin's sophomore season in the NHL.
Killing With Kindness - Washington's penalty killing outfit started the season strong, getting through the first 22 games of the season without yielding multiple power-play goals against. The Caps have had seven such games since, but more alarmingly, they've yielded multiple power-play goals against five times in their last dozen games, including Tuesday's contest against Columbus.
"Our penalty kill, I mean, what'd they go, 3-for-3?" asks Dowd. "That hurts. If our guys get three power-play goals, we're going to win the game for sure. That's the way that we're looking at it. But I think special teams played a big role again tonight."
On the morning of Nov. 30, the Caps were ninth on the League's penalty-killing ledger with a kill rate of 86 percent. This morning, the Caps' penalty killing unit is ranked 19th with a kill rate of 78 percent. But over their last dozen games, Washington's shorthanded unit is 30th in the circuit with a kill rate of just 64.9 percent.
Pull Out - Tuesday's game marked the third straight contest in which Washington's starting goaltender did not finish the game. On Feb. 1 in Pittsburgh, starter Vitek Vanecek left the game early in the first period after suffering an upper body injury in a collision with Penguins winger Kasperi Kapanen. Samsonov came on in relief at that point, backstopping the Caps to a 4-3 overtime victory.
A night later in Washington, Samsonov started against Edmonton but was pulled just after the 5-minute mark of the first after yielding three goals on four shots. Pheonix Copley came on in relief, absorbing a hard luck loss on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' shorthanded goal with just over four minutes remaining.
Copley got Tuesday's start against Columbus, and after blanking the Jackets over the first 29-plus minutes of the game, he was dented for four goals on 10 shots in a span of 13:02 of playing time. Samsonov came off the bench once again, this time absorbing a setback when Jenner scored in the final minute of regulation.
Tuesday's game marks the first time since 1993 (s/t Japers' Rink) that the Caps have pulled their starting netminder in three straight games, but this instance is even more unique in League history because the relief goaltender picked up a decision in all three games.
Prior to Tuesday night, that oddity had occurred only three times previously in NHL history, with Detroit being the most recent team to do so from Feb. 16-19, 2019. No NHL team has ever had a relief goaltender come in and earn a decision in each of four straight games.
Climbing The Ladder - Caps defenseman John Carlson assisted on Evgeny Kuznetsov's power-play goal in the second period of Tuesday's game, collecting his 557th career point (124 goals, 433 assists) in the process. That point pushes him past Dale Hunter and into sole possession of sixth place on Washington's all-time scoring ledger.
Ovechkin also had a helper on Kuznetsov's goal, the 619th of his NHL career. That moves him ahead of Sergei Zubov for the third most assists by a Russian-born player in League history.
By The Numbers - Somewhat improbably, the Caps are 9-10-4 this season when the opposition takes more penalties in the game, and they are 16-4-5 when they take equal or more penalties in the game … Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with 23:59 in ice time … Orlov and Nicklas Backstrom led the Caps with four shots on net each … Ovechkin led the Caps with seven shot attempts … Orlov and Martin Fehervary led Washington with four hits each … Orlov and Fehervary led the Caps with two blocked shots each … Dowd was a beast on the face-off dot, winning 17 of 18 (94 percent).