It has become crystal clear the Washington Capitals are a fairly effective team when they are healthy and the roster is constant, with no players shuttling between the District and Hershey, Pa.
Also very apparent is if there are any little bumps along the path, any variation in the routine that hasn’t been planned for well in advance, chaos might well be the result.
The Toronto Maple Leafs ran into the chaotic team last night before one of the largest crowds of the season at Verizon Center (14,829). It was no contest. Toronto scored twice in the first three minutes, four more times in the second period and breezed to a 7-1 victory, their ninth in their last 13 games.
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The Caps are streaking in the other direction, five straight games without a win, gathering only two of a possible 10 points in that span. Washington played last night with a makeshift lineup, something every NHL team does countless times during a season. Two regulars (Donald Brashear and Brian Sutherby) sat out with suspensions, forcing a revision of three of the four lines.
That might have accounted for the first two goals but certainly not what followed. The Maple Leafs scored three times in a minute span in the second period, four times in just more than four minutes to make it appear they were playing against a group of guys who had met for the first time in a parking lot before the game.
“If you take a look at the game as a whole, obviously we don’t want to get embarrassed like that at home,” coach Glen Hanlon said. “We gave up six shots in the first [three] minutes, all off the rush where we just didn’t hold the line. … We had all kinds of opportunities to tie it up 2-2. … After that it was as if they scored on every opportunity.”
Last night’s game was as bad as the Caps have played since last season, when there were a variety of reasonable excuses for losing this badly. This time, the team is making noise like it wants to play past early April. But it won’t, if last night was any indication.
The fragile psyche of the team was probably shattered 10 minutes into the opening period when, in order, Alex Ovechkin (twice) and Dainius Zubrus took point-blank shots at goalie Andrew Raycroft and he turned all three chances aside with relative ease. Just that quickly — in two or three seconds, and the Leafs already leading 2-0 — it was over.
Nothing went right. Brent Johnson was in goal because he had some success against Toronto in the past. Not last night. The power play (1-for-6) was powerless, the penalty-killers (three goals allowed) deeply flawed. Five-on-five play was amateurish.
“I’m not critical of where we’re at or what we did out there,” Hanlon said. “Sometimes the most negative situations become the most positive because it’s an easy teaching moment. That’s part of our progression here.”
Ovechkin made the game seem close late in the first when he lifted a rebound over Raycroft for his 14th goal of the season.
Kyle Wellwood scored 63 seconds after the start and Michael Peca got his third at 2:44. The lasting damage came in the second — Bryan McCabe at 10:09, Jeff O’Neill at 10:23 and Hal Gill at 11:09, with Darcy Tucker adding one at 14:19 to give him a team-high 16 on the season. Matt Stajan added a goal in the third period to finish the scoring.
“I don’t know what happened with us,” Ovechkin said. “We must figure out what’s wrong and just try to play more defensively. We play terrible in second period. We had chances to score but the game was done in the second period.”
Notes — Defenseman Bryan Muir was a healthy scratch last night, while three others were also missing. Brashear was serving the first of his three-game suspension and Sutherby was serving his one-game suspension. Left wing Alexander Semin was in the last day of his seven-day injured reserve period. He missed three games with a shoulder injury but is scheduled to return tonight against the Islanders. …
With Sutherby coming off suspension and Semin back, right wing Eric Fehr will return to Hershey. He is the Bears’ scoring leader and tied for 10th in the American Hockey League with 22 points.
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