Washington has 2 goals in past 2 games, season on brink Thursday
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Tom Wilson directly laid out what the Washington Capitals need to do to come back against the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Second Round.
"It's going to have to be all four lines one after another pushing, pushing, pushing," Wilson said after a 5-2 loss in Game 4 at Lenovo Center on Monday that put Washington behind 3-1 in the best-of-7 series. "And we're going to have to slowly try to push them out of this series."
The Capitals better start finishing their scoring chances the way they did during the regular season if they plan to push this series against the Hurricanes beyond Game 5 at Capital One Arena in Washington on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS).
According to NHL EDGE Stats, the Capitals have not scored on a high-danger shot on goal in the series, going 0-for-24. The Hurricanes have goals on four of their 24 high-danger shots, including on two of five in Game 4 (one was Andrei Svechnikov's empty-net goal).
Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a .933 save percentage on high-danger shots on goal, stopping 42 of 45.
"We just have to find a way to score a goal," Washington captain Alex Ovechkin said. "Obviously he's feeling it right now, but we have to find dirty goals, rebound, redirect. We're going to take a deep breath. The series is not over."
The Capitals were one of the better teams in the League during the regular season at producing on their high-danger shots on goal, scoring on 137 of 616, a shooting percentage of 22.2 percent that was fourth best in the League.
They were above the League average in high-danger shots on goal (593.9) and way above the League average in goals on high-danger shots (119.9).
It's been a much different story against the Hurricanes, and it's not all because of Andersen.
"I think he's still seeing a lot of pucks pretty easily and we're not making it hard on him," Capitals forward Connor McMichael said. "That said, he's playing lights-out right now and everything he sees he's going to save. We still have room to improve in that area and next game we'll have to get some more traffic on him."
Part of Washington's problem is it's simply not generating enough quality looks to turn the law of averages in its favor.
Carolina can live with allowing six high-danger shots on goal per game because it's controlling puck possession, forechecking aggressively to force turnovers, and putting pucks at the net from just about everywhere.
The Hurricanes have 126 shots on goal and 329 total shot attempts in the series.
The Capitals have 77 shots on goal and 187 shot attempts, of which 50 have been blocked, including 15 in each of the past two games, both losses.
The simple math says the more you shoot, the better chance you have to score.
"You know they're a big shot-volume team and they get their minutes in your [offensive] zone, so sometimes you have to be comfortable with getting a really big opportunity every couple of minutes or once or twice a period," Washington forward Pierre-Luc Dubois said before Game 4.
But when the Capitals do get the puck and potentially have a chance, there seems to be a bit of hesitation to shoot when clearly that could lead to a high-danger chance through a tip, deflection or rebound.
"I don't think that's an overriding theme, but I would agree at certain points we need to do a better job of shooting the pucks when we get into some spots for sure," Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. "I don't think it's a massive issue, but there have been times where I've thought through this series, 'Shoot the puck,' in my head, where maybe you have as well. There's that, and then you have to get your shot through too. We get a ton of shots blocked. Those are good situations. You've got to find a way to get the puck through."
The Capitals got enough through and connected on enough high-danger shots during the regular season to finish second in the League with an average of 3.49 goals per game.
They've scored six goals in four games against the Hurricanes, five with Andersen in net, none from the high-danger area.
Sure, they need to generate more from there, but to push Carolina beyond Game 5, it's either finish or be finished.
"Our guys will fight, just like they did [in Game 4]," Carbery said. "We're down 2-0, they reset, we fought right to the end. It doesn't work out, but I don't expect anything different. We've fought all year. I know our guys. I know the character of our group."
