Washington Capitals Falter on the Road: What Went Wrong?

Dallas Stars

Coming off a ten-game road win streak and a nine-game point streak, the Washington Capitals were hot and fired up to take on the Dallas Stars on Monday at American Airlines Center. The Dallas Stars are notoriously successful at home, boasting a 13-3-0 home record so far this season and not allowing an Eastern Conference team to win in their building in over nine months. Going in, the Capitals knew they’d have to fight for the win, but they just did not have enough fight to come out on top. What went wrong for the men in red? The game started off well for the Caps, with Dylan Strome striking first– a slick goal made after a quick line change that rendered the Stars unable to bring out fresh faces. While Dallas was tired and slowing down, Taylor Raddysh slid the puck to Jakob Chychrun, and Strome was able to deflect Chychrun’s shot past goaltender Jake Oettinger.

Oettinger was, understandably, one of the major barriers to a Washington win. Coming into Monday’s game, the goaltender was undefeated in his career starts against the Capitals and boasted a .950 SV% and 1.60 goals against average. Oettinger had a 25-save game, only allowing Dylan Strome to find the back of the net. The second big issue for the visitors was forward Roope Hintz. Hintz is a notorious Caps killer, consistently performing well against Washington. On Monday night, he scored two of the Stars’ three goals, one of them being a power play goal. An unlucky bounce off the glove of Rasmus Sandin allowed Lian Bichsel to score just his second goal of the season, bringing the Stars up 2-1. Roope Hintz lit the lamp once again in the third period, capping off a dominant win for Dallas.

The Washington Capitals were uncharacteristically unsuccessful on the power play this game, being unable to convert any of their four chances with a man advantage. The Dallas Stars have the league’s best home penalty kill at 90.5%, making power play goals a tough ask. While the Capitals played at a similar caliber to the Stars in terms of statistics, the ice was just not tilted in their favor. For a good chunk of the first two periods, the Capitals were just a play away from a stellar scoring chance. They’d get the puck to a player in a prime offensive spot, and that player would see an even better path to the net, but the Caps were rarely able to make the last move needed to convert.

Head coach Spencer Carbery was not notably upset when speaking to the media– yet. “I don’t mind our process tonight at all against a really good team,” he said. “I thought we did enough to win the game, obviously power play, we needed more out of tonight, but I felt like we had some good looks at 1-0.” Boy, would Spencer Carbery’s demeanor change post-game against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chicago Blackhawks

After Monday night’s game, the Washington Capitals were set to travel to Chicago on a back-to-back roadie. However, a mechanical issue on their charter kept them grounded in Dallas, not allowing the team to arrive in Chicago until Tuesday afternoon– just hours before they would take the ice at United Center. This was a less-than-ideal situation for the team, leaving them without proper rest and warmup time. Another hard fight was in the books for Washington.

The team’s 2-0 lead in the first period turned out to be nothing but fools’ gold in the end, disappointing Capitals fans and the team alike. The second period was where the Capitals’ fatigue really began to show, and their play became slow and sloppy. Washington went 15 minutes and 38 seconds without a single shot on goal, largely due to taking three minor penalties in a span of 5 minutes and 59 seconds–sloppy, uncharacteristic play from the Caps. The first two infractions were bench minors for too many men on the ice; coming just over two minutes apart. Spencer Carbery became visibly upset after the second bench minor, dropping an animated “f-bomb” on screen. The team really fell apart in the third period and the Blackhawks capitalized on it, scoring three unanswered goals, with Teuvo Teravainen being the difference maker and assisting on all three.

The Capitals’ players and coaches alike noted that they were off of their usual game while speaking to the media. “I think even with the lead we were [lacking],” said Caps defenseman John Carlson. “We had two really, really good individual plays, and the rest was just sloppy. From the whole game outlook, I don’t think we played very well. It seemed like we were a little disjointed, a little disoriented, and we weren’t our usual selves.” Head coach Spencer Carbery, normally composed and smiling, was visibly disappointed and short in his responses. “I just didn’t think we had it from the start of the game right to the finish,” Carbery said. “We had nothing.”

Fatigue, sloppy play, and home-ice advantage were the themes of this short Capitals road trip. Luckily for the team, they will not play again until Friday, when the Carolina Hurricanes will visit Capital One Arena. A day of rest and their familiar stomping grounds should, hockey gods willing, prove advantageous for the Capitals and set them back on the path to success.