The Washington Capitals suffered a 4-0 loss on Saturday night at Capital One Arena to the Colorado Avalanche.
Cale Makar scored at 19:39 on the power play to give Colorado a 1-0 lead. The Caps led in shots 14-8 after the first period.
Shots were even at eight apiece in the second period. Nathan MacKinnon doubled their lead at 13:14.
In the third the Caps were outshot 13-10 but outshot the Avalanche 32-29 overall. Andrew Cogliano scored at 8:57 and Arthur Lehkonen potted one in at 16:12.
It was the Caps fourth straight loss and now their 13 points behind the first place New Jersey Devils. They sit at seventh place which is second to last in the Metropolitan Division.
Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said after the loss:
"“I don’t think we put ourselves in enough good positions to score goals tonight. Everything was more perimeter than the interior, but just with the adversity throughout the course of the game, we didn’t do a good job of handling it.”"
Washington is 2-6-3 in their last 11 games and it’s the second time they’ve been blanked this season after a 2-0 loss on Oct. 27 to the Dallas Stars.
The Caps came out firing in the first period but none could reach the back of the net. Marcus Johansson added:
"“I feel like we had a better start to this game than we’ve had the last few. It’s very frustrating. I feel like we’re such a good hockey team and it’s kind of gotten into our heads a little bit. And we just got to work through it, we got to find a way to work together to get through this.”"
The Caps will be off until Wednesday when they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Thanksgiving Eve at 7:30 p.m. on TNT. They’ll also host the Calgary Flames on Black Friday. It is the perfect time to panic.