The Washington Capitals’ even-strength play has been good enough to win games, but the special teams play has been poor.
The Metropolitan Division club, just treading water to start the season, will have to be better on the power-play and penalty-kill units when it plays at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Winners of half of their 14 games and earning points in eight, the Capitals were victimized by the same culprit in Thursday night’s 5-3 loss at the rival Pittsburgh Penguins.
The scoresheet read that Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby did the damage, but it was how he scored his two goals that sank the Capitals.
“It’s kind of the story of our season so far,” Washington forward Dylan Strome said after seeing Crosby net twice on the man advantage. “We’ve been great at 5-on-5 for the most part. Obviously, give up the two (to Crosby) on the kill … and can’t capitalize in the third on the power play, and they do.”
Pittsburgh was 3-for-5 on the power play as Bryan Rust chipped in another, but the Capitals went 0-for-3.
Strome tallied a goal and two assists. However, his outing was not enough to get the two points as Washington slipped to 1-4-1 in its last six contests.
“We’re a great team on 5-on-5. Right now, our special teams (aren’t) good,” he said.
Strome is third on the club with four markers — Tom Wilson has notched nine, Aliaksei Protas five — but Strome tops Washington with 10 assists. Four players, including Wilson, are second with seven helpers.
After going 2-1-0 on a road trip to the West, the Lightning return to the Sunshine State feeling like one of those billboards in Florida featuring a large, smiling sun looming over a beach.
Tampa Bay, which was in last place in the Eastern Conference on Oct. 25 with a 2-4-2 mark, opened and closed the swing with wins over the Utah Mammoth and Vegas Golden Knights, respectively, but lost the middle game to the Colorado Avalanche.
Brandon Hagel and Nikita Kucherov dominated in a four-goal third period against Vegas on Thursday, with each hitting the net twice, but Hagel said the play of the Gage Goncalves-Dominic James-Oliver Bjorkstrand line to knot the game at 2 in the second after trailing 2-0 was key.
“They’ve been great, James has been great,” Hagel said after seeing the 23-year-old center, a free-agent signing by the Lightning in 2025, score his first NHL goal for a 2-all tie. “Those three were great (Thursday). We needed them. They pulled up big and brought everyone into the fight. You’re going to need guys like that every night.
“They played unreal. We were lucky to build off their momentum.”
The Lightning swept both games in the season series against the Golden Knights in a 12-day span.
In three-point performances, Kucherov (108th career three-point game) and Hagel (17th ever) helped lift the Lightning to 6-2-0 against the Western Conference and 3-0-0 against the Pacific.
This weekend will feature the first of two Saturday meetings this month between the Eastern Conference foes, who play Nov. 22 in Washington.
