The Washington Capitals held a practice on Tuesday at MedStar Capitals Iceplex and it was revealed during the post practice media availability that the team had a players only meeting after two embarrassing losses on home ice.
The Caps lost 6-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes and 5-1 to the Minnesota Wild. After the game Sunday they held the players only meeting in the locker room, something the team traditionally does whenever they are in tough stretches such as this.
T.J. Oshie told the media:
"“Any time you’re in a rut like this and this is in my opinion … we’re not playing to our identity. I don’t think any amount of coaching would get you out of that”"
The Capitals have 84 points and occupy the second wild card spot, 11 points ahead of the New York Islanders. They have a 37-22-10 record and have a big game tomorrow night against the first wild card Tampa Bay Lightning. After that is a road contest against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday before coming back home Sunday to host the Boston Bruins.
"“We’ve been talking as a group as players and just getting some thoughts out there on what things need to change. So I think we got a pretty good handle on it. And our next two games there’s probably no one else I’d rather play to get us going again.”"
The Caps got off to a hot start and were one of the best teams of the Metropolitan Division the first couple months. When the calendar flipped to the New Year they struggled. They seemed to get their groove back in March until those two recent duds.
"“We’ve gotten away from having 20 guys in the lineup come with a purpose to win and win a certain way and we haven’t had that. Sometimes you can get away with it if Ovi goes out and scores a bunch of goals or Kuzy does his thing. But a lot of times, you can’t.”"
Oshie is right. Ovechkin and Kuznetsov can only do so much. It’s up to the rest of the team from the forwards, to the defensemen, to the goaltending. There’s still time to fix the season but time is running out. We’ll see tomorrow night how the team responds after that players only meeting.