Catastrophic collapse against the crashing Canucks: numbers for the morning after

The Washington Capitals have lost four games in a row, and their latest defeat was a brutal one. After going up 2-0 against the winless-in-their-last-11-games Vancouver Canucks, the Caps allowed four unanswered goals and ultimately fell 4-3.

A wise man once said, “So, s***’s not going right, it’s not f***ing working the last 10 days. F***ing make it work by outworking the opposition.”

• The Capitals controlled the majority of five-on-five play and, for once, got two goals in the same game from their power play. They still lost. There are a few things at play there: individual defensive errors, some shoddy goaltending, and, in the words of Bruce Boudreau, simply, things just not going right. To the Canucks’ credit, I thought they did a really great job in the third period defensively, limiting a desperate Caps team to just nine shots on goal. Believe it or not, I actually had fewer issues with this loss, in isolation, than I have with some of the other recent defeats. Still, you obviously need to win this game. No doubt about it.
• Logan Thompson did not have a great night in a game his team really could have used one. Thompson made just 21 saves and, per MoneyPuck, allowed 1.3 more goals than expected. At the other end, Kevin Lankinen was credited with saving 1.95 more goals than expected. That’s your whole 4-3 result and then some.
• Hendrix Lapierre saw 6:43 of ice time in the loss. That’s nothing new. I just bring it up to point out that I really think the Capitals could use a boost of some sort by maybe giving Ilya Protas his NHL debut soon. Couldn’t hurt to try.

• Alex Ovechkin hit the 7,000-shot mark in the loss. He fired two total in the game and grabbed an assist on the team’s second power-play goal. I thought Ovi was one of the team’s better forwards, but he just can’t do it on his own anymore. The Caps need to find him a consistent line he can form some chemistry with for a few games.
• John Carlson recorded two assists, giving him 600 in his career. He is the 21st defenseman in NHL history to reach the 600-assist mark and, per NHL PR, only the third active defenseman to reach the milestone with one franchise, after Victor Hedman (635) and Kris Letang (619).
• Justin Sourdif got on the scoresheet in front of his friends and family. He also grabbed an assist on Dylan Strome’s late goal. Strome also had three points (2g, 1a) in the game, which felt like his best effort in several weeks.