The Washington Capitals faced a gut check the last two days. They played back-to-back games in two different cities against two of the best teams in the NHL this season. They were coming off a bewildering 3-2 shootout loss to division rival Winnipeg. The Capitals needed to come up, however, they came up small in two nationally-televised games.
Hockey fans across America saw what people in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia have seen all year, a group with a lot of talent but disappointing results. They watched a team without any confidence. The Caps seemingly can not score any goals and can not stop other teams from scoring on them. On Sunday, Washington lost 3-2 to the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers on the road. On Monday, they were defeated by the San Jose Sharks, currently in 1st place in the Pacific Division, 5-3. At one point in the third period, they trailed 5-1, in a home game.
Monday’s blowout loss was inexcusable. The Capitals trailed 3-0 in the second period before trying to make a comeback which was futile. Dmitry Orlov scored on a long shot with one second left in the period to get them on the board. However, the Caps could not generate any momentum to the third period. They looked like they were sleepwalking as the Sharks out muscled the puck away from them along the boards throughout the game. Brent Burns released a near 60-foot shot from just inside the blue line that got by goaltender Braden Holtby.
Holtby was starting for regular goalie Tomas Vokoun who had the flu. The Burns goal was not even the strangest one San Jose scored in the game. In the first period, Dan Boyle took a slap shot from behind the center ice red line that Joe Pavelski deflected from nearly 70 feet off Holtby‘s glove and into the net. Pavelski, who had 2 goals and 2 assets in the game, accidentally was standing outside the Capitals zone when the puck hit his stick. It was similar to Dustin Byfuglien’s game-tying goal Thursday. This one gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Late in the second period, Pavelski shot the puck toward Holtby but it was tipped in front by Logan Couture. The puck hit Holtby, rolled up his right shoulder and arm, and dropped down behind him before Patrick Marleau tap the puck over the goal line for a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, head coach Dale Hunter tried to make some lineup changes for the Sharks game and those backfired. Against a big and physical San Jose team, 6-foot-3, 229 pound Mike Knuble was scratched from the lineup for the third straight game. Knuble has struggled offensively this season scoring only three goals in 53 games. He has scored 20 goals in a season for eight straight years including the past two with Washington coming into this season. Joel Rechlicz was chosen instead of Knuble. Rechlicz, 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, had played only 25 games in seven pro seasons entering Monday. He played for only 90 seconds in the entire game. Rechlicz committed a reckless penalty nearly four minutes into the second period when he received a 10-minute misconduct for arguing from the bench. The strangeness did not exist only on Monday night.
On Sunday afternoon in New York, regular goaltender Tomas Vokoun was the first Capitals player onto the ice as Washington came out for warm-ups. However, Vokoun was under the weather with the flu. He could not start so backup goalie Michal Neuvirth did instead. Neuvirth gave up three goals on 28 shots but the scoring plays were due to excellent New York Rangers passing and poor Capitals defense.
Neuvirth was in line to start on Monday against the Sharks if Vokoun was still ill. Instead, Dale Hunter chose to use Holtby, who was called-up with Rechlicz from the team’s American Hockey League affiliated Hershey Bears. Holtby, Rechlicz, and defenseman Keith Aucoin were sent back down to Hershey, Pa. after Monday’s loss to the Sharks.
On Friday, the Capitals began a four-game road trip in Sunrise, Florida nearby Miami versus the Southeast Division leading Panthers. 24 hours later, Washington travels north up the state to Tampa to play the Lightning. Next week begins with a contest in Raleigh, North Carolina against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, the 20th, before traveling to Canada for a meeting with the Ottawa Senators , next Wednesday, the 22nd. The Caps will face three of their division rivals and a playoff contender in Ottawa within in six days.
In addition, they will come home for only one game versus Montreal on Friday, February 24th before another back-to-back in Toronto the next night. The second game of that two-day segment is against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are one point ahead of Washington for the last playoff spot. This is just the beginning of the scheduling troubles for the Capitals.
In March, the Caps are going to be marching in to work more than half of the time. Washington will play 16 games in 31 days with several on the road against strong opponents. They include two games against Eastern 3rd place Philadelphia, a home game against 8th place Toronto, along with two games versus division rival Winnipeg.
Finally, a five-game road trip over ten days March 13th to March 22nd will likely determine if they make the playoffs. The journey includes games at the New York Islanders, Winnipeg, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
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