The Washington Capitals made the trip down to Tampa for the second half of a back-to-back with travel and it went just about as expected. Not well. The Caps fell 5-1 and were never once really in the game.

Can we start talking about the lottery more seriously now?

• The gulf between these two teams was fully displayed in that game. At five-on-five the Lightning out-scoring chanced the Caps by 20 and out-high danger chanced them by nine. The 41 total scoring chances the Caps gave up at five-on-five were the most they have conceded in a single game this season. Their previous high allowed was 37. That’s blatantly terrible.
• The normally very reliable fourth line got absolutely smoked in their five-on-five minutes. With Nic Dowd on the ice in those minutes the Caps were out-attempted 23 to 12, out-scoring chanced 17 to 7, and out-high danger chanced 9 to 2.
• Alex Ovechkin has three combined shots on goal in his last two games. The Caps have scored two total goals in those two games. That math tracks for me.

Craig Smith scores his seventh goal of the season to cut the deficit to 2-1. Smith is now two goals shy of 200 career goals.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 31, 2023

• Peter Laviolette decided to start Darcy Kuemper in both halves of a back-to-back for the second time this season. Kuemper has given up nine goals on 52 shots in those two back-half games.
• Rasmus Sandin tallied an assist on the lone goal. He had gone three games without a point.
• Three teams (Pittsburgh, Florida, Ottawa) ahead of the Caps in the wild-card standings won on Thursday. In better news, Detroit and St. Louis also won and they could soon leap over the Caps which would be great for draft lottery odds.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.