Capitals struggles continue in loss to Blue Jackets

The Washington Capitals find new ways to lose and last night was no exception. Up 2-0 and then a comeback mounted in the third, the Caps fell short to the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4.

The fourth line was buzzing. At 17:19, Garnet Hathaway rebounded in a shot from his podcast bro Nic Dowd with Carl Hagelin getting the secondary assist to put the Caps up 1-0. It was Hathaway’s eighth of the season. They outshot the Blue Jackets 11-4 in the opening period, a terrific start.

40 seconds into the second, Dowd doubled the lead on a nice drive to the net. Martin Fehervary and Hagelin had the helpers and it was Dowd’s seventh of the season. Things were good but then it got ugly.

Patrik Laine scored on the power play at 9:38 then Adam Boqvist tied it at 12:42. The Caps would get a power play opportunity and a rare occurrence happened, they scored. It came at 15:57. The Caps changed up their units by dropping Evgeny Kuznetsov to the second unit and Lars Eller to the first. They switched it back.

Kuznetsov would break through for his 15th of the season on a snapshot from the right face off circle. It was assisted by Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson. Laine would strike on the power play with four seconds left to tie it right back up to end the second. The Caps were outshot 14-11.

At 2:40 the Blue Jackets took the lead with a goal from Trey Fix-Wolansky. The Caps would tie it late thanks to the other All Star, Tom Wilson, with his 14th goal of the season at 17:34. Boone Jenner would win the game with 45 seconds remaining.

The Caps outshot the Blue Jackets 11-8 in the third period and 33-26 overall. The Caps went with Pheonix Copley in goal and after four goals and 15 saves his night was over. Ilya Samsonov came on in relief and stopped six of the last seven shots. It caused many fans on Caps Twitter to start clamoring for a veteran goalie via trade. If more of these woes continue, it could happen very soon.

Nicklas Backstrom told the media that it’s all up to them to turn it around:

“The only one that’s going to turn this around is us players. We’ve just got to keep grinding and come together as a team and find our identity. That’s what we’re here for. We want to be as good as possible, and now is the time to really play as a group.”

The Caps will look to bounce back tomorrow night against the Montreal Canadiens on the road. Due to Canada’s quarantine restrictions, Ovechkin will not travel. The team recalled Brett Leason from Hershey.