MONTREAL -- Spencer Carbery has been very clear since the series began about how the Washington Capitals are not underestimating the Montreal Canadiens, and how they will need to play their absolute best to get past them in the Eastern Conference First Round.
The Capitals didn't come close to playing their best in Game 3 at Bell Centre on Friday. If their best was present at any point, it was gobbled up and spit out by 21,105 fans that created a deafening noise, filling the building with energy, emotion and joy.
Giveaways. Penalties. Blown coverage in the high-danger scoring areas. You name the negative, the Capitals were guilty of it in a 6-3 loss that halved their lead in the best-of-7 series to 2-1 heading into Game 4 here Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TBS, truTV, MNMT, MAX).
"It wasn't good overall, the whole thing without the puck, all three zones," Carbery said. "We hung around, get the equalizer in the third, and then really poor coverage on a face-off situation in the neutral zone and then it snowballs, we lose control."
On top of it all, the Capitals lost their starting goalie, Logan Thompson, to a still undisclosed injury with 6:37 remaining in the third period. Worse yet, the injury was caused by Thompson's own teammate, Dylan Strome, charging into him just as Juraj Slafkovsky scored to make it 5-3.
"That's a crappy, crappy play," Washington defenseman John Carlson said. "You never want to see anyone go down, but (especially) how well he's played for us through this little while. Hopefully he's fine."
It's not yet known if Thompson will be fine for Game 4 since Carbery wasn't able to provide an update in his postgame press conference. Charlie Lindgren replaced Thompson and made four saves on five shots.
The Capitals likely won't show much panic if Lindgren starts Game 4. He's been solid enough for them this season, going 20-14-3 with a 2.73 goals-against average, .896 save percentage and one shutout in 39 games (38 starts).
But it won't matter if the Capitals don't clean up their game.
Montreal scored four of its six goals directly off Washington turnovers.
Alexandre Carrier scored at 19:07 of the first period after Connor McMichael backhanded the puck off the wall in the defensive zone right into the middle of the ice. Alex Newhook got it, fed it to Carrier, who scored from the point.
"I thought we did a lot of uncharacteristic things with the puck," McMichael said. "I don't know what the reasoning behind that was, myself included. But we'll be better for it. We'll turn it on next game."
Nick Suzuki's power-play goal that gave Montreal a 2-1 lead at 8:37 of the second period came from the slot a second after Carlson lost the puck, leaving it like a gift for the Canadiens captain, who backhanded it in.
"I'm just trying to get around the puck and get it out the weakside and it gets away from me," Carlson said. "It doesn't happen very often. I think every situation presents itself differently, but personally I would love that one back."
Rasmus Sandin had the puck on his stick behind Washington's goal with 12 seconds left in the second period. All he had to do was rim the puck around and up the boards to hopefully get it out of the zone.
Instead, Sandin put the puck through the right face-off circle, right to Lane Hutson, who delivered a perfect cross-ice pass to Cole Caufield for a one-timer below the left circle that made it 3-2 Montreal at 19:51.
The Capitals tied it 3-3 on Alex Ovechkin's goal at 2:39 of the third, but Montreal regained the lead 4-3 with Christian Dvorak scoring at 4:17 after a strong forecheck from Joel Armia.
But the giveaway bug bit the Capitals again on Slafkovsky's goal that made it 5-3.
Taylor Raddysh couldn't handle Strome's pass in the neutral zone. Slafkovsky took it and went in on a 2-on-2 rush with Caufield. Slafkovsky got behind Strome off a give-and-go, got the puck, and scored. Strome then barreled into Thompson.
"We weren't very good with the puck so I think it's firmness," Carbery said. "I think it's a little bit of nerves. I think it's a little bit of poise in that environment. We coughed up a lot of pucks in a lot of different areas."
Maybe the energy and emotion in the building had something to do with it, the Canadiens surging with their home fans behind them and the Capitals fumbling in the environment.
It won't be any different Sunday. If possible, now that the Canadiens are in this series, down 2-1 instead of 3-0, the building could be even more raucous, louder, more intense, more emotional.
The Capitals will be prepared for it. They know what they have to do if they want to go back to Washington with a chance to close out the series in Game 5.
But can they?
"They're going to play like they did tonight," Carbery said. "They gave us all sorts of issues. So, you've got to tip your cap. There is no way the Montreal Canadiens are going to go quietly into the night when we're up 2-0 and won two games at home. We all knew that and understood that. We also know that it's going to take our absolute best from the Washington Capitals to win the series. I know that for a fact. So, we are going to have to be at our best for Game 4, Game 5 and the rest of the series in order to win the series. That's just a fact."
