The Capitals have spent a lot of this early season struggling to regain the scoring touch that was such a big factor in last year’s hot start and overall success, and last night’s loss was yet another reminder that they still haven’t found it. Over the last three games, they’ve managed just two goals – and with the offense having dried up of late, something as close as a 2-1 deficit can feel like a much more difficult hill to climb.
After Jean-Gabriel Pageau struck shorthanded late in the second period last night – and you can be the judge on whether that goal was offside or not (it was) and whether it should have counted (it shouldn’t have) – the Caps headed into the final frame deadlocked at one.
All they had to do was a) get one past Ilya Sorokin and b) not allow a goal.
Unfortunately, both of those things were much too hard to accomplish, as just under five minutes into the third, Hendrix Lapierre was entering Andy Pelech. Pelech sent it up to Emil Heineman, who took off on a two-on-one with the one guy in an Islanders’ jersey who you probably don’t want taking off on an odd-man rush: Bo Horvat, who led the Isles with six goals coming into last night’s game. With Jakob Chychrun sort of taking away the pass, Horvat opted to fire the puck and it dropped in under Logan Thompson’s glove.
One that Thompson would like back? Probably, but he’d done pretty much all he could to keep his team in the game up to that point (to say nothing of the game before this one) – and you’re not going to win many games if you can’t score more than one goal.
Ultimately the Caps didn’t play badly in this one, which is perhaps the most frustrating part of all; the Ottawa loss was a fiasco, but over the last 120 minutes of hockey they’ve done a decent amount of things well and simply haven’t had the puck luck to go with it. But the power play is laughable (still) and it feels like everything’s just a little…off.
Perhaps getting some bodies healthy will help, as Rasmus Sandin and Dylan Strome’s absences are definitely felt – and now we add Pierre-Luc Dubois back to that group, continuing just a brutal start to the season for the big center. Healthy or not, they have another test ahead as they travel up to Buffalo to take on a Sabres team also struggling through a three-game skid.