The Washington Capitals came into their Western-Conference road trip on a mission. With the bye week quickly approaching, the team hoped to regain ground in the playoff picture and go out on a strong note. Instead, they dropped all four games out west and tied their longest losing streak of the year.
Even so, the Caps managed to find a silver lining in their overtime loss on Saturday. They failed to record a victory against the Dallas Stars, but late-game goals from Alex Ovechkin and Dylan Strome erased what had been a two-goal deficit and pushed the game to overtime, giving Washington its first standings point of the trip.
The string of losses still stung, but head coach Spencer Carbery praised his team’s refusal to give up the fight.
“That [is a] huge finish and we didn’t lay down in a really difficult game,” he said postgame. “That’s a really good hockey team and caused a lot of different issues for teams in general, but us as well. So [I] credit our guys for not laying down and finding a way. Six-on-five steps up huge, scores two goals to get that game to overtime.”
Ovechkin started the comeback on the power play, rifling a slapshot into the net with two minutes left in regulation to earn his ninth goal of the season.
After Carbery pulled goaltender Charlie Lindgren for an extra attacker, Dylan Strome managed to get the puck past Dallas’ Jake Oettinger to bring the score even.
The puck seemed to cross the line after the whistle, but later review confirmed the goal stood. In just over a minute, the Capitals had reversed their fortunes to push the game into extra time.
Stars defenseman Thomas Harley ultimately scored the overtime winner, ending Washington’s road trip without a win. After the game, Rasmus Sandin expressed both the joy of the near-comeback and the frustration of the final outcome.
“It shows character and strength in this team, that we come back from four-two. That’s huge, obviously,” he said. “But at the me time there’s 60 minutes of hockey and we didn’t play 60 minutes of great hockey. I think there’s moments where we played pretty good, but it’s too often and too much time of today that it’s not good enough.”
Still, Carbery reminded the locker room not to see the game as a total loss: in a close playoff race, every point counts.
“Would have liked to have found a way to get that second point, but like I told them, that point could be very very important down the road,” he later explained to the media. “And we know we’ve got a long way to go and a lot of work to do to be able to hang in these games against these types of teams in the league: we know that and we’re willing to put the work in. And we will when we get back from the break.”
Carbery’s message struck a chord with his team: all three players interviewed postgame later echoed the same sentiment.
“We knew how important [the game] was and I thought it was great how we didn’t give in there,” Trevor van Riemsdyk said. “Obviously, we weren’t in the situation we wanted to, but to find a way to dig out a point, you never know what those can mean come April.”
To Strome, Saturday’s performance formed part of a larger pattern: the team fought to the bitter end even as they struggled through much of the road trip. Though their previous efforts had failed to earn them a standings point, Strome believed they spoke to the group’s resolve.
“It wasn’t our best road trip, obviously. We got down a lot in all of the first three games–and in this game,” he said. “Just, I think every game of this trip, maybe the last three, we scored two goals late. I think it just shows that we don’t quit and stick with it.”
The Capitals now have nine days off before their next game, next playing against the Montreal Canadiens at home on February 6. Once they return, they will play 35 games in 71 days and face the toughest schedule in the NHL over that span, per Tankathon. Now five points out of a playoff spot, Washington will have their work cut out for them if they want to return to the post season: Carbery believes they’re up to the challenge.
“[My message to the team is] to rest, recharge–and unfortunately the schedule is not going to get any easier for our group,” he said. “And we’ve got our work cut out for us coming home here. So, that’s okay. We know we’re in a difficult division, it’s hard to make the playoffs in the NHL (chuckles), and we’ve put ourselves in a spot where we need to get some points back. And so we understand that.
“It’s going to take a bunch of work: we’re going to have to get tighter in a lot of different areas, we’re going to have to get better offensively, we’re going to have to get some guys rolling and get their seasons kick-started, and that’s okay–but we’re going to work and fight and when we get back from the break we’ll have two and a half months to the finish line that we’re going to put everything we absolutely have into it.”
