Washington Capitals must address this issue following the preseason

It was a weird preseason for the Washington Capitals. It did not start off good, then it got exciting as we got to see a mix of veterans and youth. Finally it ended in questions as Alex Ovechkin went down in the first period of last night’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Caps finished with a 2-3-1 record in the six game exhibition slate. If there’s anything the Caps need to work on as they enter Wednesday night’s regular season opener with the New York Rangers, it’s this. They have to stop turning the puck over. Michal Kempny learned the hard way.

Another issue with the Caps is they need to do better clearing the defensive zone. That goes hand in hand with turning the puck over. If you can’t clear it and the other team gets the puck, you’re in big trouble.

Last night in the second period, Nick Jensen lost the puck in the defensive zone. That led to a 2 on 1 rush. Dmitry Orlov poked away the pass but the Caps were unable to clear and Claude Giroux made them pay.

Just north of a minute later, John Carlson was pickpocketed by Cam Atkinson as he took the puck from his stick. It was another 2 on 1 that Atkinson would finish. Later on Atkinson would score again after a bad pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov. That came from a miscommunication between him and Orlov.

Those were the only three goals the Flyers scored and they all came off turnovers. Just think if the Caps held onto the puck more they could’ve easily won 5-0.

Last season the Caps weren’t terrible when it came to turnovers but could’ve been better. They had 407 giveaways which is ranked 20th in the league. That’s a number you want to be ranked as low as possible in. The Caps were also ranked 20th in the NHL in giveaways per 60 minutes with 7.18 a game.

The Caps will have three days worth of practice to fix these errors in time for their season opener on Wednesday night against the New York Rangers.