Is it time for the Capitals to press the panic button?

The Washington Capitals are in a slump right now. It’s been that way ever since the calendar flipped to 2022 and some can even pinpoint to mid December. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Caps on Super Bowl Sunday in a 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

We’re just over a month away from the NHL trade deadline. Fans are clamoring for General Manager Brian MacLellan to fix this. He, alone, can’t do it. It’s up to the guys on the ice. Like Nicklas Backstrom said after the game, they just aren’t buzzing like they used to. And it’s coming at a bad time when other teams are.

"“You see every other team is buzzing right now, and we’re not. That is something we have to get back to.”"

It’s not just that they aren’t buzzing, they’re playing down to their competition and it’s costing them points in the standings. As of this writing which comes before Monday’s slate of NHL games, the Caps sit in the first Wild Card spot only four points ahead of the Boston Bruins. They are three back of the New York Rangers for third in the Metropolitan Division. Needless to say, this upcoming stretch will make or break them.

Backstrom added:

"“Last couple weeks here, we haven’t played with that flow that we did earlier, like the mojo we used to have here. I feel like we are putting ourselves in bad spots, d-zone, neutral zone, we are not creating as much as we should.”"

The Caps are 4-6-0 in their last 10 games. They aren’t just losing games, they’re losing badly. I think all of us at Stars and Sticks can rant about the power play for hours. 28th in the league at a 15.5 percent scoring rate. The worse teams are as follows: the Seattle Kraken, Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens, and Arizona Coyotes. Those are all teams at the bottom of their respective standings. Bad company.

The defense is starting to fall apart with guys like Nick Jensen and Dmitry Orlov the only constants. The penalty kill has dropped to 18th in the league with a 78.8 percent kill rate. This comes after being near the top of the league in that category.

Overall the Caps need to play their game like they did at the beginning of the season. Do that, play a full 60 minutes and chances are there will be more wins than losses. If they don’t changes will come either on the coaching staff, Blaine Forsythe could be on the hot seat, or among the goaltending.

"“I just think that everything needs to be better. I feel like we just got to relax and try to play our game here. Because that is not our game,” said Backstrom."

The Caps will look to play their game on a road trip beginning tomorrow night in Nashville against the Predators.