It’s hard to quantify how bad a loss is or rank one L against another. But tonight, the Washington Capitals’ loss to the Vancouver Canucks certainly feels like it ranks Up There in team history.
The Capitals, who are now fighting for their lives to get back into the 2026 playoff race, fell to the tanking Canucks 4-3 at Rogers Arena — their fourth straight loss. The Capitals’ failing came after taking a 2-0 lead in the first period, scoring consecutive power-play goals.
Losing a game 4-3 is not bad in itself. It’s the context that makes this one ugly.
Coming into the game, the Canucks had lost 11 straight, including the previous 7 in regulation.
The Canucks have mostly been in shambles since trading their captain, defenseman Quinn Hughes, to the Minnesota Wild on December 12. During the streak, which began on December 30, the Canucks were outscored 49-20 overall and 32-13 at five-on-five. They owned just 48.1 percent of shot attempts, 47 percent of expected goals, and 47.5 percent of scoring chances at five-on-five during that span.
Even more staggering? They gave up five or more goals in 6 of their 11 losses.
Canucks’ 11-game losing streak
- Dec. 30 vs Philadelphia
6-3 loss - Jan. 2 vs Seattle
4-3 (SO) loss - Jan. 3 vs Boston
3-2 (OT) loss - Jan. 6 at Buffalo
5-3 loss - Jan. 8 at Detroit
5-1 loss - Jan. 10 at Toronto
5-0 loss - Jan. 12 at Montreal
6-3 loss - Jan. 13 at Ottawa
2-1 loss - Jan. 15 at Columbus
4-1 loss - Jan. 17 vs Edmonton
6-0 loss - Jan. 19 vs Islanders
4-3 loss
Before tonight, the Canucks’ last regulation win was on December 19 — a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders.
That’s a span of 1 month and 2 days.
The Canucks have won only 11 games out of 50 in regulation. Two of them have come against the Capitals.
The Canucks swept the Capitals in their season series, winning both games 4-3.
The 4-3 victory over the Capitals marked just Vancouver’s fifth win out of 22 tries at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks are the worst team in the league at home, yet the Capitals seemed uncomfortable from the start.
Assistant coach Patrick Wellar told Monumental Sports Network’s Al Koken that it was communicated to players that the Caps’ third period against the Canucks was “the most important moment of the season.”
The Capitals are facing the real possibility of missing the playoffs if they don’t turn things around quickly. And in Game 51, the message in the locker room was that things were dire and the result of this game was HUGE.
On the first shift off the opening faceoff, John Carlson fell and gave the Canucks a semi-breakaway. In total, the Capitals had just nine shots in the period, the least amount of shots they had in any of the three stanzas, and generated just three high-danger chances at five-on-five.
The Canucks outscored the Capitals 3-0 at five-on-five.
The Capitals are clearly the better team, but in this game, the Canucks generated more. Vancouver posted more expected goals at five-on-five, winning that category 1.85 to 1.59. The two teams were about even in shot attempts (44-42 WSH), scoring chances (20-19 WSH), and high-danger chances (9-8 WSH).
The Capitals now sit 12th out of 16 teams in the Eastern Conference standings with 54 standings points. Their points percentage of .529 places them 14th. They are only six points ahead of the rebuilding Rangers, who sit in last.
