The Washington Capitals fell to the St. Louis Blues 3-0 on Saturday night, dropping the second half of the home-and-home as they set off on a four-game road trip. Just two nights after netting five goals against the Blues at home, they failed to get even a single puck past goaltender Jordan Binnington in the rematch.
Head coach Spencer Carbery harshly criticized his team’s offense in a game that saw his team not only shut out but also outshot 29 to 18.
“Didn’t get nearly enough activity near Binnington,” he said postgame. “Puck play was as bad as it’s been all year in terms of stringing passes together, tape to tape. Whether that was coming out of our zone, off entries, just really struggled to just simply handle pucks tonight and be able to make anything happen offensively, and frankly to be able to get to that part of our game, so it wasn’t close.”
The Capitals came closest to getting on the scoreboard late in the second period, when Connor McMichael drew a tripping call to earn a power play. Washington failed to convert on three high-danger chances, however, and their even-strength play remained lackluster for much of the night.
When asked how to improve the team’s offense, Carbery offered a sigh and a dark chuckle before responding.
“We’re going to get to work,” he said. “We’ll look at all this. We’ll learn from it and we just have to put a lot of work in, in terms of individual stuff to get better offensively, collectively as a team. We’ve got to simplify it. We’ve got to do a lot of different things.
“Because our five-on-five has been a problem all year and it continues to be a problem. We have to find ways to generate just simply a shot. And I know that sounds pretty elementary, but that’s the point of our five-on-five scoring, we have to change it from trying to score to just try to register a shot. Try to get some activity towards the net because it’s a serious issue.”
TJ Oshie, too, highlighted Washington’s struggles at five-on-five, noting that a lack of mental preparation contributed to the loss.
“I think it’s really just our touches with the puck,” he said. “It was just super sloppy tonight. And that’s probably not being mentally ready and that falls on the leadership to have the guys ready for a game like this. We knew how it was going to be, and we seemed like we were a little surprised by it. So really, that’s really the main issue with tonight. When we’re not doing good on five-on-five, it’s usually our touches and not getting to the middle of the ice.”
The lack of offensive flair felt particularly striking after Thursday night, when TJ Oshie scored a hat trick as the Capitals defeated the Blues 5-2 for one of their highest-scoring nights of the season. Goaltender Charlie Lindgren called attention to the contrast after Saturday’s loss.
“It almost felt like they flipped the script on us a little bit tonight,” he explained. “It wasn’t our best start tonight, obviously. It’s never easy when they score on the first shot; it gets us behind early and then we’re just trying to play catch-up the rest of the way. We knew it was going to be a lot tougher coming into their building. It’s always a really tough place to play. It was just unfortunate.”
The Capitals will play three more Western Conference foes in the next week, facing the Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche, and Dallas Stars on the road. On Wednesday, Carbery highlighted the importance of the then-upcoming roadtrip during an interview with 106.7 The Fan’s *Sports Junkies.*
“This is the stretch that I’m most concerned with, us playing against these West teams and going on the road,” he said.
That stretch becomes even more critical as the Capitals battle for a playoff spot. Their 50 points currently places them one win out of a wild-card slot, though six teams in the Eastern Conference currently hold between 48 and 52 points. After finishing their road trip, they will not play until February 6, pausing for their bye week and the NHL All-Star Weekend–with three games left before the break. The Caps hope to go out on a stronger note.
“I mean we’ve got an off day tomorrow, so use it wisely,” Lindgren said. “Get some work in on Monday and then big game on Tuesday against a good team and another tough building to play in. I think, it’s throw this one in the garbage and I think everyone needs to look in the mirror–including myself–and get back to work.”
