Two days in a row the Washington Capitals fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Sunday night's version was a 4-1 loss in the final regular season home game before the playoffs. That contest plus the 7-0 defeat the day before adds up to the Caps allowing 11 goals on 49 shots.
Washington is 3-6-1 in their last 10 games
The Caps lineup wasn't that complete to be fair. Alex Ovechkin sat out in Saturday's game while John Carlson was out Sunday. There isn't much on the line compared to a year ago when it took all the way until game 82 to clinch the final playoff spot. The Caps are already in. Now it's a matter of correcting their play before it's best four out of seven moving forward.
Andrew Mangiapane told the media after the game, "No concern at all, really. We know we're a good team. We've just got to be prepared to play Game 1. And we've got to use these last two games to ramp it up here, obviously. But I think we're a mature group in here, and we know what needs to be done and how we need to play for Game 1... I don't think anyone's really panicking in here."
It's a good sign from the room that the team isn't freaking out despite the unstellar play of late. It's also a good time to rest veterans for the playoff run ahead. As far as injuries go it's not looking too good for Aliaksei Protas and Logan Thompson, who have now been out of the lineup for quite some time.
"Obviously, it's not ideal. There's been a lot going on. We don't want to make excuses. I think tonight was a little bit better, the compete was there. Obviously a couple of mistakes, they just end up in the back of our net. At this time of year, it's such a fine line as to winning and losing, and we've got to learn from this and know that down this stretch, nearing the playoffs, it's going to be those little things going our way that are going to be the important part. So I think we've got to fine tune a little bit, clean it up. But overall, our game was a little better, and we'll use these last two to get ready and hopefully be fine for Game 1. "Tom Wilson
There were some positives on the stat sheet. The Caps out chanced the Blue Jackets 29-15 at five on five per Natural Stat Trick while also holding an 8-5 edge in high danger chances and 63.6 percent of expected goals for. The Caps have also allowed three or more goals in each of their last 11 games.
I wouldn't overthink it too much. The Caps have a bit of time to correct their small mistakes and we'll see how they fare in the final two regular season games against the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins before we await the games that really count.