The Washington Capitals came out flat against the Ottawa Senators in a 4-1 loss. It was a game where the offense couldn’t’ catch a break as the Senators go a brilliant performance from Anton Forsberg. He made 33 saves on 34 shots.
The Caps power play woes continued. Alex Formenton scored shorthanded at 5:34. The Senators would double their lead to 2-0 at 15:11. The Senators led in shots 12-7 and 2-0 after one.
The Caps got on the power ironically from a power play goal in a second period that saw them outshot the opposition 15-9. It came 46 seconds in on a shot in front of the net by Nicklas Backstrom assisted by Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson. It was Backstrom’s fourth of the season.
At 18:24 the Sens answered with a goal from Brady Tkachuk. 3-1 was the score after two. The Senators extended their lead to 4-1 at 10:29 with a goal from Connor Brown. The Caps led in shots 12-5 but Forsberg was simply a brick wall. On the other end Ilya Samsonov made 22 saves on 26 shots.
"“You see every other team is buzzing right now and we are not. That is something we have to get back to.”"
The Caps have dropped five games in a row on home ice, all in regulation. They’re 6-9-2 since the calendar flipped to 2022. Ovechkin hasn’t scored in six games. It’s not looking good right now and it’s not too early to press the panic button.
"“I just think that everything needs to be better. We got to, I don’t know what it is, I feel like we just got to relax and try to play our game here because that is not our game.”"
The Caps record drops to 26-15-9 with 61 points. They occupy the first Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference with a four point lead over the Boston Bruins. It’s losses like now that could be costly down the road.
The Caps head to Nashville to take on the Predators on Tuesday night. Maybe they’ll be luckier on the road.