ARLINGTON, VA — The Washington Capitals started the first round of the 2024 NHL playoffs with a whimper, dropping their first two games to the New York Rangers. After losing 4-1 to kick off the series, the Caps fared somewhat better in Game Two, falling 4-3 but launching a sustained, albeit failed, comeback push in the final minutes. Still, a 2-0 deficit in the series means the team will have little room for error as they attempt to reverse their fortunes back in DC.
While head coach Spencer Carbery credited his players for improving their five-on-five play in Game Two, he highlighted the need to maintain offensive pressure and convert on their chances.
“I thought we were much better [at] recovering pucks,” he told reporters after practice Thursday. “I thought we did a good job of being able to attack the net and then get that puck recovery and get another opportunity. We had way better sequences where we were able to create a little bit more movement in the offensive zone, where our D started to get active. We skated on touch. Those produced a lot more sustained pressure and then was able to set the next line up for success as well. Any time, as you know, everybody’s fighting for O-zone time, especially this time of year.
“The key is, can you sustain it to now it becomes 20, 30 seconds? To where their group is tired, they get a puck out, they’re just looking to change and now you’re coming quick and you’re coming right back on top of them. Now you’ve set up another shift of being able or enabling the next group of forwards and D to be able to play in the offensive zone.”
The Caps out-chanced the Rangers 20-11 at five-on-five in Game Two, recording seven high-danger chances to New York’s three, per Natural Stat Trick. But their only even-strength goal came early in the contest when Connor McMichael struck 5:09 into the first period.
Although the Capitals’ struggles to score five-on-five remain present, their larger shortcomings in the first two games emerged when penalties were called. Carbery criticized his team for the six minor penalties they took in Game Two, as well as the inconsistent play of their special teams.
“We have not done a good job of [keeping it five-on-five], I can assure you of that, as you’ve watched,” he said.
Both Carbery and his players questioned the officiating after Game Two, where they took particular umbrage with the non-call on Artemi Panarin after an apparent head shot on TJ Oshie. On Thursday, Carbery acknowledged players’ frustration with the inconsistent whistles.
“I don’t spend very much time on it, but when you talk to players, that’s their No. 1, is trying to figure out the consistency of how it’s going to be called,” he said. “That’s always what they are talking about. As long as it’s consistent, we can adapt and figure it out. Players are smart. They get a feel. That’s why in games in the regular season, players know early in the game, ‘OK, this is going to be tightly officiated or it’s going to be loose.’ They just adapt off that, both teams. So I think that would be something players are definitely very aware of, trying to find a consistency game to game of how this is going to be officiated and what is the standard.”
Even so, Carbery wasn’t willing to let his team off the hook for spending so much time in the box. Players — and Carbery — may quibble with individual decisions, but the rookie bench boss argued the Capitals didn’t do enough to avoid those situations in the first place: he highlighted both Martin Fehervary’s second-period interference penalty, called just 20 seconds after the Caps had tied the game 2-2, and Nic Dowd’s third-period roughing call as borderline plays that cost the team.
“(The key is) discipline, for sure,” he said. “Some of the penalties that we took, they’re penalties. And they’re not smart penalties…Say what you want about the embellishment on (Alexis) Lafrenière, okay, but [Fehervary] can’t put himself in that spot, especially the shift after a goal. The game becomes 2-2 and he nudges him and whether it’s, whatever you want to say about the call or the player that it happens on, it doesn’t matter because you’re putting yourself in a spot where they potentially call a penalty. Now we’re going shorthanded, and we just tied the game. We just grabbed momentum in the game.”
“Those are instances and situations, like I talked about postgame, where we have to be smarter from a discipline standpoint. [Dowd’s] penalty as well. I know what he’s doing. He’s trying to box out. His stick gets high. They don’t have a choice. They have to call a penalty there. We can do a better job of trying to keep this thing at five-on-five and help ourselves. And then when we get into some special teams, we need to do a better job overall, power play and penalty kill.”
The Capitals will have a chance at redemption on home ice in Games Three and Four as they fight to regain their lost ground. Game Three will begin at 7 pm on Friday at Capital One Arena.
