Capitals once again fall to Islanders in ugly fashion

If you thought Tuesday’s trap game was bad for the Washington Capitals Thursday’s was way worse. The Caps lone goal came in garbage time in a 5-1 loss to the New York Islanders that puts the Caps more and more Riley against the Florida Panthers in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Brock Nelson scored at 10:48 ont he Kpower play and Anders Lee added another on the power play at 15:34. 2-0 was the score after one. Despite the Caps leading in shots 7-6.TheCaps led in shots 13-10 in the second and got outshot 10-7 in the third to outshoot them 27-26 overall.

Shockingly nobody scored in the second period. In he third the Islanders piled it on. Jean Gabriel Pague scored at 3:44. Kyle Palmeiri scored on the power play at 6:23.  Joash Bailey scored at 13:37.

Axel Jonasson Fjällby scored the lone Caps goal in garbage time but at least it came in the McNugget minute. The assists came from Anthony Mantha and Martin Fehervary. Vitek Vanecek made 21 saves.

Mantha talked to the media about losing two straight to the lowly Islanders:

"“Maybe we thought it was gonna be easy, but playing them, it is never easy … I just think we didn’t work hard enough in front of our net and we didn’t get those second chances."

Mantha also talked about the season finale tonight against the New York Rangers:

"“We need to have a great game tomorrow [against NYR] just for the confidence level, for ourselves heading into the playoffs … just finish with a strong game and that is going to help us.”"

The Caps will look to close out the regular season strong against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden tonight. It could be a playoff preview but if the Caps lose rest assured they play the Presidents Trophy winning Florida Panthers.