Nights like Thursday have been few and far between for the Capitals this season. Facing the Kings on Los Angeles, Washington was unable to muster anything in the way of offense. And although they were down just one goal heading into the third period, the Caps weren’t able to engineer one of their patented late comebacks, either. The Caps’ five-game winning streak was halted at the hands of the Kings, who handed Washington its second shutout setback of the season, 3-0.
Ex-Caps goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped all 21 shots sent in his direction, recording his third shutout of the season and pulling to within two victories of 200 for his NHL career.
“I didn’t think we were very good at all, starting from the first period,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought we were hanging around, so you’re hoping that you can find something at some point, because the game was obviously tight, but we just never found it. You could tell right away that we were off. The power play was not good early in that game; we had two in the first period, so your antennas are up right away with our group.”
Kings forward Warren Foegele started the scoring at 13:08 of the first when he chipped a shot past Charlie Lindgren from the top of the paint, giving Kuemper all the offense he would require on this night. And for the game’s first 40 minutes, that was the lone lamplighter on either side.
But Los Angeles entered the third with more than a minute and a half’s worth of a carryover power play, and they quickly provided Kuemper with some insurance.
Twenty-year veteran captain Anze Kopitar teed up a Kevin Fiala one-timer from the right dot on the power play at 1:05 of the third, doubling the Los Angeles lead. With the Kings on the power play in the second period, Lindgren made a dazzling stop on Adrian Kempe on a virtually identical play to keep the Caps within a goal of their hosts.
Forty-seven seconds after his power-play goal extended the LA lead, Fiala set up a Quinton Byfield goal from the slot to put the Caps in an even deeper hole at 3-0. Thursday marked Byfield’s fifth consecutive contest with a goal.
Caps captain Alex Ovechkin was held without a shot on net in Thursday’s game; he had two shots blocked and another shot missed the mark. It was his first game without a shot on net since an opening night loss to New Jersey on Oct. 12.
“The power play, like right away, entries were a mess,” says Carbery. “When we did get in, we couldn't execute. I don't even think [Ovechkin] touched the puck, let alone had a shot attempt on the power play. And then 5-on-5 his line – for the most part – was stuck in the defensive zone for majority of the night.”
In scoring seven goals in Tuesday’s victory in Anaheim, the Caps were routinely around the net and in the middle of the ice. But they were unable to penetrate those areas of the rink with any sort of regularity on Thursday.
“We’ve got to find a way through in the neutral zone, to not get squeezed out to the boards too early, get the puck into the middle, and then kick it out,” says Caps center Lars Eller. “That’s something we’ve got to learn from and look at to get better, because today, I feel like that was missing a little bit.”
Limited to exactly one power play opportunity in each of their three previous games, the Caps managed to record eight of their 21 shots on the power play, but they were unable to seriously threaten Kuemper and the Kings.
“They're a high-pressure team,” says Caps defenseman John Carlson of the Kings. “They come hard, and if you can move the puck around quickly and effectively, then you're going to beat them and make them look like guys are wide open, like the one where [Taylor Raddysh] drew the penalty. There's going to be plays like that for a team that goes gangbusters everywhere. But if you don't, they look real good.”
Washington’s top six has been consistently productive throughout the season, but it wasn’t a good night for that group on Thursday; they combined for just nine shots on net, six of them from former Kings center P-L Dubois. Like Ovechkin, Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas were both held without a shot on goal.
“We couldn't execute through, so it's really at that point the puck possession that they have, and the lack of puck possession for us,” says Carbery. “We can talk about stretching the zone or blowing guys out, but that's all stuff that you can do when you don't have the puck. You're chasing it all night and having to defend way too much. And then when we did get it, we just we couldn't string two passes together. It was really, really sloppy. Then you’ve got to start moving lines around, try to figure out who's going, especially in our top six. And then it gets scrambled.”
Again, nights like these have been rare for Washington this season, and the Caps won’t have to wait long for an opportunity to atone. They conclude their three-game road trip with a matinee match against the Sharks in San Jose on Saturday.
