The Washington Capitals fell to the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 at Crypto.com Arena. It dropped their record to 31-28-6.
The first period was scoreless as shots were 19-3 Kings. Not a typo.
At 11:39 in the second period Rasmus Sandin scored his first goal as a member of the Caps. We told you to add him to your fantasy team! It was assisted by Sonny Milano and Dylan Strome.
Vladislav Gavrikov put the Kings on the board at 13:18. At 19:27 the Kings took the lead on a goal from Phillip Danault. 2-1 was the score after two. The Caps trail in shots 11-10.
At 2:31 in the third period, Alex Ovechkin struck on the power play for his 36th goal of the season. It was the 816th goal of his career putting him 78 behind Wayne Gretzky. It was assisted by Sandin and Nicklas Backstrom. It tied the game.
Unfortunately the Kings would score the final two goals of the night to hand the Caps their first loss since the beginning of the road trip in Buffalo. It is the Kings fourth straight win. The goals came from Mikey Anderson at 7:52 and then Andrian Kempe at 19:56.
The Caps once again played good during the middle of the game but a poor start and a poor finish was what did them in. Part of that poor start was being outshot 19-3 in the first period. Ovechkin spoke more on that:
"“Obviously we have to have a better start. Two games in a row we come out slow, come out kinda soft. …We have to keep grinding, keep playing, and we’ll see.”"
The Caps were outshot 11-9 in the third period and 41-22 overall. Their next game is this Thursday against the New Jersey Devils. The Caps sit in sixth place in the Wild Card three games behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for that second and final playoff spot.