The Washington Capitals fell to the Chicago Blackhawks 8-5 and have lost five straight games for the first time in four years.
After the loss, the Capitals held their first players’ only meeting of the Todd Reirden era.
Video
The takeaways from inside the locker room are that the team is concerned about their focus, defensive play, and moving on from their Stanley Cup season.
“It’s just a situation we sit down and have a little talk. Obviously, we know it’s how we have to play,” Alex Ovechkin said of the team meeting. “It’s a tough time right now. We just have to get over it and get a win and move forward. It doesn’t matter how we play, where we play, we just have to get a win mentally.
“I think it’s all about us,” Ovechkin continued. “When we play smart, we play simple on both ends of the ice, we can play very nice hockey. We make mistakes and it cost us games.”
TJ Oshie put much of the fault on the team’s forwards playing lazy on the backcheck.
“I think we’re not making teams play a full 200-foot game for a majority of our games lately,” Oshie said. “We’re just not putting enough pressure on other team’s D and we’re not coming back hard enough as a group of forwards to put pressure on their forwards on rushes.
“A lot of our offense, especially as forwards, comes from our backcheck and from our pressure and using our skating,” Oshie continued. “Right now, we’re kind of playing the old I got my guy kind of thing, saying if this D-man doesn’t beat me up ice, I’m good. But really, we have to come back and help our D and apply pressure to the other team’s forwards and really get back to our game.”
John Carlson described a hodgepodge of bad hockey, where once the team addresses one major problem, another thing gets worse and costs the team games.
“I think in a lot of different areas. I think we’re not following through with what we talk about. The execution just isn’t there,” Carlson said. “It’s not like we changed everything up and don’t know what we’re doing and are adapting. It’s all on us. However, you want to look at it – what phase of our game is not clicking the most is kind of subjective. There are enough areas some nights we clean up one thing and we get wore at a couple others and we can’t seem to find that consistent balance. For me, we haven’t been great starting. A lot of these games it fees like we’re down a man a shift. We give up a goal on the first shift. It’s something we harp on and we have to go out there and execute. And it’s up to us to do that.”
Carlson added that the team, especially the forwards, need to simplify their game.
“I think certainly we’re caught trying to make the extra pass. Too many plays where we don’t need to,” Carlson said. “Our forecheck is so good. If we commit to that a little bit more, a lot of those plays that we love to do and look cool – snapping the puck around and getting on ESPN and stuff – it starts as chipping the puck in. It’s hard to break the puck out against hard pressure, with the speed and size of a lot of these guys in the league. Then you get thinking, I’m going back every time. I better start getting on my horse and then a lot of those plays start opening up. The D starts sagging. It happens to everyone. There’s no perfect defenseman out there.”
Braden Holtby also took fault on the first goal of the game and thought the team needed to focus more on this season than last.
Strong words from Braden Holtby: "I think right now, our biggest battle is going to be making sure we’re not complacent. It’s one of those things that’s going to be hard, getting over the fact that last year is last year."
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) January 20, 2019
Holtby also took responsibility for the first goal of the game. Reirden didn't think any of the four he allowed were on him.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) January 20, 2019
Todd Reirden pointed out the team needed to play better defensively overall.
"Winning streak or losing streak, we have to be better defensively…. This game, the Nashville game, it's unacceptable." HC Todd Reirden following #ALLCAPS 8-5 defeat vs. #Blackhawks. #Caps have lost 5-straight @CapitalsRadio
— Ben Raby (@BenRaby31) January 20, 2019
After Tuesday and Wednesday’s back-to-back games, the Capitals have eight straight days off with the All-Star Break combined with their bye.
