While Thursday night’s performance was a much-improved showing from the blowout loss to the Montreal Canadians just two days ago, the Washington Capitals failed to take advantage of two different leads against the Florida Panthers, losing 4-2 on the road and extending the team’s losing streak to six.
The loss sends the Capitals to 22-20-17, and with 51 points, keeps them just one point ahead of the last place Columbus Blue Jackets in the Metro division standings.
Darcy Keumper returned to the net for the Caps, giving up three goals on 40 shots while posting 37 saves. On the other side of the rink, Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky saved 21 of the 23 shots faced.
“We’ve just got to find a way to dig in and just get another level to be able to sustain it,” Head Coach Spencer Carbery said postgame. He said, “You can see those sequences where it’s a real struggle for us just to advance the puck. Just get the puck into the neutral zone and out of our defensive zone, and it’s hard. The guys are trying, and they are tired, so we’ve just got to find a way to get a little bit more consistent for 60 minutes in one night, and we’ll look for that in Boston.”
Alex Ovechkin opened up the scoring, netting his third goal in three games and 13th point in 13 games. A slapshot goal from his signature right circle gave the Caps a 1-0 with a few minutes left in the first period.
Matthew Tkachuk scored his 17th goal of the season for the Panthers, tying the game on a deflection goal in the second period. Anthony Mantha responded with a tip-in goal to make it 2-1 in the second period. But a Sam Reinhart power-play goal in the late minutes of the second period was the start of three consecutive goals that would seal the Panther’s fate and send Washington to Boston with a losing streak in need of breaking.
“It’s been a difficult stretch,” Caps defenseman John Carlson told reporters in the locker room. “So, we’ve got no margin for error, and that’s just the games that we play right now,”
Speaking of errors, the Capitals had plenty to go around the room on Thursday night, committing a total of 6 penalties in the game and four penalties in the first period alone. A Tom Wilson elbowing penalty in the final minutes of the second-period game gave the Panthers a power play goal just 12 seconds into the designated man advantage.
At 22-20-7, the Capital’s playoff hopes are slowly fading while the rugged stretch of challenging games continues. What’s ahead for this roster is still to be seen with the trade deadline looming. For now, a win to snap the streak and get some points is imperative, and it starts on Saturday against the Bruins at 3:30 pm on ABC.