Capitals flame out to Blues

The Washington Capitals played with intensity in the first period and if they didn’t outplay them they at least matched the intensity of the St. Louis Blues. The in the final two periods they came out flat in their second straight loss on home ice with a final of 5-2.

The Caps struck first on a shot from Evgeny Kuznetsov on the power play for his 22nd of the season. It was assisted by bobblehead guy John Carlson and Tom Wilson.

Brandon Saad tied it at 11:48. Then Anthony Mantha set up Wilson for a crashing the net goal for his 18th of the season at 13:01. Ryan O’Reilly tied it on a power play at 17:15. The Blues led in shots 15-13 after one.

In the second period the Blues led in shots 10-4 and took the lead at 10:31 from former Capital Nathan Walker. Then Brayden Schenn added one at 17:13 to make it 4-2 after two.

In the third period the Caps couldn’t muster anything as they were outshot 13-4 in the third and 38-21 overall. Despite some good saves from Vitek Vanecek, the Blues just needed an empty net goal from David Perron to end the night.

Capitals Head Coach Peter Laviolette said that the team just couldn’t recover from their slow start:

"“We gave up way too much in the first period. Too many mental mistakes, too many sloppy mistakes.”"

Nicklas Backstrom added: 

"“In all three zones, we weren’t good enough. It starts from the back end and we weren’t good enough there and then a lot of turnovers and a lot of odd-man rushes.”"

This was a game where the Caps were simply outplayed. They’ll look to correct those mistakes as they embark on a back to back this weekend. First up is a road game against the Buffalo Sabres. Then on Saturday night they’ll return home to Capital One Arena to host the New Jersey Devils.