Down Slow - Ten days ago in Philadelphia, the Caps staged a stirring late comeback to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 victory over the Flyers. Washington led for most of that game, and it quickly turned the tables on the Flyers within a minute of Philly taking its first lead of the game with just under four minutes remaining in regulation.
POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Flyers 2, Caps 1
Caps fall down early and turn in dismal first in loss to Philly, Oshie scores his first PPG since opening night, more
Saturday afternoon's rematch between the Caps and Flyers in Philadelphia went quite differently. The Caps waded slowly into an afternoon game in which the Flyers came out with early energy and verve, and the slow start cost Washington. The Capitals were down two goals after being outplayed in virtually every aspect of the game for the first 20 minutes.
Washington responded with a much more assertive final 40 minutes, but the damage had already been done. Despite playing well against a beleaguered Broad St. bunch that entered the game with a six-game losing streak (0-4-2) in which it yielded at least four goals against in all six games, the Caps couldn't find the back of the net at even strength and they suffered a 2-1 loss.
The Flyers took the lead on a Claude Giroux goal just 11 seconds after the opening puck drop, and they held the lead for the rest of the afternoon.
"It definitely hurts in the scoring department," says Caps defenseman John Carlson of falling behind so early in the contest. "The battle is even harder from the get-go. It is one of those mental things when it is 1-0 that early. We have 59 and a half minutes left to score one goal to even it up. From that sense it is more of a mental thing to make sure you can battle through that, to flip that switch right away."
The Caps limited Philly to just eight shots on net in the final 40 minutes, twice keeping the Flyers from putting any pucks on the Washington net for stretches of over 10 minutes, including a two-man Philadelphia manpower advantage of 49 seconds in duration.
In the wake of Saturday's loss in Philadelphia, Washington comes home empty-handed from a two-game road trip against Metropolitan Division opponents. The Caps scored just two goals in the two games: an Alex Ovechkin goal with 62 seconds left in Thursday's 4-1 loss to the Rangers in New York and T.J. Oshie's power-play goal in the second period of Saturday's setback to the Flyers.
"We are not playing good enough," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "That is the bottom line. We are capable of playing better and playing better in that first period and we didn't."
Silent Weekend - While the Caps can point to a fair amount of shot volume in their two losses on this trip, they don't seem to be spending a lot of time wearing down the opposition in the offensive zone, and they've not been effective at creating second opportunities close to the net.
"I think when you look at all of the stuff it seems like we are getting a lot of chances," says Carlson. "I think we could improve the quality of our chances for sure. But I think that a lot of these talented players have scoring zones that are a lot different than other players too. They might feel more comfortable somewhere else.
"I think we can all work together to create more chaos and havoc. I think a lot of it is just finding the back of the net. I think we talked about this not too long ago and it seemed like it flipped a little bit, but we are kind of in the same position."
Late last month, in a 1-0 home loss to Vegas on Jan. 22 and a 4-1 setback to the Sharks on home ice two nights later, the Caps were limited to one or fewer goals in consecutive games for the first time in just over three years, since January of 2019. It only took a month for it to happen again.
Back in November, the Caps led the NHL in 5-on-5 goals for a period of time. They've been limited to one or zero goals at even strength in five of their last dozen games, and they've tumbled to ninth in the NHL in 5-on-5 goals (118).
Power Move -Oshie's power-play goal in Saturday's game was his second extra-man tally of the season and his first since opening night (Oct. 13) against the Rangers in Washington.
Since he joined the Capitals at the start of the 2015-16 season, Oshie's 58 power-play goals are second only to Ovechkin's 101 among all Capitals. Oshie has nearly twice as many extra-man tallies as third-place Nicklas Backstrom (33) has over that period of time.
When he arrived in Washington, Oshie had 110 goals in 443 games played over seven seasons in St. Louis, and only 23 of those goals came on the power play. With the Capitals, he has scored 156 goals in 433 games, and he owns a gaudy 17.9 shooting percentage as a Capital as compared to his 11.8 percent mark with the Blues.
By The Numbers - Carlson led the Capitals with 24:56 in ice time … Backstrom, Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov tied for the team lead with four shots on net each … Kuznetsov led the way with eight shot attempts … Tom Wilson led the Caps with seven hits … Trevor van Riemsdyk led Washington with five blocked shots.
