Can the Capitals bounce back in November?

The Washington Capitals have dropped two straight games in overtime and are banged up. They lost in a shootout round to the Carolina Hurricanes on Halloween night. Then they lost the next night 1:35 into overtime against the Vegas Golden Knights.

They’ll look to bounce back tonight when they take on the Detroit Red Wings in the Motor City. Part of the Caps collapse on Tuesday included going scoreless after the first minute of the second period, being outshot 31-21 in the process.

Back to backs are always complicated and the Caps even dropped two straight to begin the season. They also got shorthanded when Beck Malenstyn suffered an upper body injury in the first period after blocking a shot. As a result, they called up several prospects from Hershey.

Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette didn’t hold back when asked about the debacle:

“I didn’t like the way we played the third period. I understand the circumstances, I understand the situation, but it doesn’t mean that you have to like the way we played the third. I thought that we sat back, we left too many holes, and we gave up a half dozen chances. We didn’t generate much, and so therefore we’re playing defense and we run the risk at pucks coming at our net.”

It was bad enough the Caps were without two of their best players in defenseman John Carlson and forward right wing T.J. Oshie. Both suffered lower body injuries with Oshie’s injury causing him to be sidelined indefinitely. Malenstyn’s loss only makes the situation more complicated.

Tonight’s game completes a stretch where the Caps played five of their last six games on the road. They’ll kick off a four game homestand on Saturday night against the Arizona Coyotes.

The Red Wings are also dealing with the injury bug as they played without several of their best forwards. It was the defense that did them in as they fell to the Buffalo Sabres thanks to four third period goals in an 8-3 defeat.

The Red Wings have also lost three of their past four and gave up five or more goals in each of their losses.

Marcus Johansson added:

“We’re missing some good, key pieces to this team. But there’s no excuse. We battled hard, and we think we played two good games, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t come out with more than two points.”

The puck will drop at 7 p.m. tonight on NBC Sports Washington.