The shock has passed for the Washington Capitals. Now the onus is on them to regroup and make a playoff push, beginning with Monday’s home clash with the Calgary Flames.
The Capitals dealt away a couple of key players in lynchpin defenseman John Carlson and forward Nic Dowd prior to the trade deadline and responded with a 3-1 loss at the hands of the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
Washington is now on a three-game losing skid after winning six of seven games, but still has a shot at a playoff berth, even though the Boston loss put them a half-dozen points behind the Bruins for the final Eastern Conference wild-card position.
“I also have a lot of confidence in the leadership group that’s still here and the rest of our group of understanding we have a job to do, and we are still in this fight,” coach Spencer Carbery said. “Yeah, we lost two great people, two great players, two big parts of our team, but we also have a lot of really good players on this roster.”
Prior to the deadline, Washington acquired forward David Kampf from the Vancouver Canucks and defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the San Jose Sharks for draft picks, hardly signs of throwing in the towel. Both are expected to play against Calgary.
The Capitals were in the fight against Boston. The game was tied going into the third period and sealed with a final-minute empty-net goal.
“The effort’s there,” goaltender Logan Thompson said. “The one thing us as players can control is our work ethic, so down the stretch we need to keep working hard, find ways to get better every game, every practice and hopefully we start to get some better results.”
The Flames are mathematically still alive, sitting 10 points outside of a playoff spot, but showed the direction they are headed as an organization by trading away two key players in center Nazem Kadri and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar in the final push to the deadline.
To their credit, the Flames responded with a 5-4 upset of the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at home to snap a four-game losing skid before embarking on a five-game Eastern road swing.
“We’re a resilient group,” goaltender Dustin Wolf said. “We just haven’t had a whole lot of puck luck. It feels nice to get that one.”
On top of a litany of draft picks and prospects netted in their deals, the Flames acquired veterans to help in the transition during the rebuild. In turn, center Ryan Strome scored once in a two-point game against Carolina, while defenseman Olli Maatta netted an assist and played nearly 24 minutes. Forward Victor Olofsson is expected to make his debut with the club on the trip.
“You need guys that are hungry,” coach Ryan Huska said. “Oftentimes, we talk about the middle group of younger guys, 25- or 26-year-olds that have to be that way, but there’s older guys, too, that we often forget but who still feel they have a lot to prove and they can still contribute to a team.”
Defenseman Zach Whitecloud was injured against the Hurricanes and is listed as day-to-day. The Flames summoned defenseman Hunter Brzustewicz and forward Matvei Gridin from the minors.
