UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The Washington Capitals were outscored last night, but they maintain they were not outworked. And they say that is significant.
But also significant is the team’s winless streak in the last six games, including a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders last night. Just a few weeks ago, such a streak did not appear likely for this rebuilding team.
“Sometimes when you get on these slides you don’t win the first game coming out,” Caps coach Glen Hanlon said. “Conversely, when you’re on a roll you can play a couple poor games at the end but usually get the win.”
People were interested in these podcasts
But the Caps are not winning, or even scoring very often. They got a power play goal last night from old reliable, Alex Ovechkin, his 15th goal this season, but nobody else was able to solve Rick DiPietro, who was as remarkable in net for the Islanders as a man slated to make $67.5 million should be.
Washington has been outscored 15-2 since the second period against Atlanta Nov. 22, when the Thrashers wiped out a 2-0 deficit by scoring four straight. The Caps have scored just nine goals since this streak started, a subject Hanlon is trying to address.
Last night, he reconfigured three of the four lines but had to abandon that tactic early in the second period when wing Richard Zednik left with an unknown injury. He is listed day-to-day. If he is out long, his spot will go to rookie Eric Fehr, who has come on strong since he was recalled two games ago.
“I was trying to get some secondary scoring and trying to stop teams from just stacking up against [Dainius] Zubrus and Ovechkin,” Hanlon said.
It was when the two were reunited on a power play that Washington finally scored against DiPietro. Ovechkin scooped up a Zubrus rebound and put it behind DiPietro for Washington’s goal. But it wasn’t enough to balance the books, which has been the case lately.
The Caps appeared to work hard, harder than the Islanders, but they didn’t accomplish as much. Chris Clark, Ovechkin and Zubrus played well on all lines, but the easy scoring touches of a few weeks back are gone.
“The one way we’re trying to get out of this is through hard work,” Clark said. “We’re not losing the hard work that is our team mentality. We’re outplaying people but right now things are not going our way. DiPietro played unbelievable tonight. We had our chances but we couldn’t put them in. If you don’t get chances, there’s something wrong and you’ve got to change something. We had plenty of chances tonight, they just didn’t go in.”
Jason Blake, who had four goals and eight points against Washington last season, scored late in the first and early in the second. That was all the Islanders would need.
His first goal came when he was uncovered off a backdoor play, the second on a great individual effort. Richard Park scored the third goal off a turnover and the final Islanders score was into an empty net.
Notes — Left wing Alexander Semin and his ailing shoulder were medical scratches last night by mutual agreement with the trainers, but the coaches hope to have him back in the lineup for the Lightning Tuesday at Tampa Bay. He has missed four games. …
Defenseman Jamie Heward and center Boyd Gordon were coaching scratches; right wing Eric Fehr stayed in the lineup instead of returning to Hershey as had been expected. …
The Caps are off today but practice at 11 a.m. tomorrow at their new Arlington facility.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.