Washington Capitals: 3 ways to quickly fix their current slump

The Washington Capitals have lost two in a row and look to get back to their hot ways tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning. For most of March it looked like the Caps were back to their old ways when they had a hot start to the season. But after two straight thuds, there’s lots of questions surrounding the team.

Can they turn things around? And how late is too late?

We have under a month of regular season hockey left folks. The playoff picture will begin to crystallize across the league in the coming weeks. How can the Caps turn things around to jockey for a good playoff spot?

#3 Defense

I’ll be honestly, the Caps defense hasn’t gotten much criticism from me. Maybe that should change. After all, you can’t put every loss on the goaltending. Sometimes it’s the defense in front who can play a factor in goals getting allowed.

The Caps held an optional skate this morning at MedStar Capitals Iceplex so we couldn’t quite get a read on the projected lineup. But here’s what the defensive pairings were at yesterday’s practice, via Samantha Pell of The Washington Post:

Fehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-Schultz

Perhaps they need to shuffle up the pairs a little bit. You never know. Maybe put Dmitry Orlov next to John Carlson and put Martin Fehervary next to Justin Schultz while Trevor van Riemsdyk bumps up with Nick Jensen.