Capitals get blanked at home by Islanders

The Washington Capitals fell 3-0 to the New York Islanders at home in their first game without Nicklas Backstrom. It was a bad night all around and when the Caps thought they got on the board in the third period with a goal from T.J. Oshie, that goal got taken away due to goaltender interference.

Ryan Pulock scored the first goal of the game 22 seconds in and the Islanders never looked back. Simon Holmstrom made it 2-0 at 10:41. The Caps outshot the Islanders 9-2 after the first 20 minutes but unfortunately for them, both Islanders shots went in the net.

The second period saw the Capitals outshoot the Islanders 13-7 while the Caps got outshot in the third period 12-10. It brought the shots to a grand total of the Caps outshooting the Islanders 32-21. None of those 32 shots found the back of the net as former Caps net minder Semyon Varlamov got the shutout, his second straight.

The Islanders capped off the scoring with a goal by Brock Nelson at 11:15 in the second period. Nobody scored in the third period. Caps goalie Darcy Kuemper finished with 18 saves. The Islanders went 0 for 2 on the power play while the Caps finished 0 for 3.

Spencer Carbery talked about his frustrations with the Caps offense at five on five: 

"“It just hasn’t clicked for us yet this year…But you can’t just keep chalking it up to, ‘Oh, at some point.’ We’re at Game *9* and we’re not scoring 5 on 5 at all. So, why? That’s not a small sample size.”"

Carbery would add:

"“Screens and tips, ugly goals, rebounds, off a guy’s shin pads. The first goal that New York scores, I don’t know, I’m trying to recall, if we have one of those goals this year.”"

The Caps look to bounce back on Saturday night at 7 p.m. against the Columbus Blue Jackets in the fourth game of a five game homestand. The game is on Monumental Sports Network.