Just as the Washington Capitals thought to have fixed their scoring woes, with two straight multi-goal wins, they were back to square one following their 3-0 loss against the St. Louis Blues. It was yet another lackluster offensive effort from start to finish and the same issues that have haunted the Capitals all year continued.
However, one of Spencer Carbery’s postgame comments stood out.
“We have to find ways to generate just as simply a shot,” Carbery said bluntly after the game. “And I know that sounds pretty elementary, but that’s the point of our five-on-five scoring. We have to change it from trying to score, to just try to register a shot [and] try to get some activity towards the net because it’s a serious issue.”
The famous Wayne Gretzky phrase, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” was Washington’s Achilles’ heel on Saturday. The Caps mustered just 18 shots on goal on Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington, which was the third-fewest this season. 13 of those came at five-on-five which is a new season-low.
So it was once again back to the drawing board for Carbery and his staff during Monday’s practice in St. Paul. The lines were shuffled up once again and it was an overall solid practice at TRIA Rink. The Capitals’ bench boss said that he liked the competitiveness at practice.
“There’s a lot of things that we failed to do in that St. Louis game that we need to do a way better job of offensively. And so we addressed those, we talked about them and hopefully we’ll implement those and see those come to life tomorrow night,” Carbery said following practice. “I felt like there was great energy coming off a day off. [It was a] very important skate for our group to get us prepared for tomorrow night. I thought there was a real purpose to things that guys were doing. They were engaged and talking and holding each other accountable.”
The Capitals have averaged 27.2 shots per game, which is the fourth fewest in the NHL. Washington has also struggled on connecting on second and third chance opportunities because of the lack of traffic in front of opposing goaltenders. T.J. Oshie believes that the Caps thought that because the offense was starting to find its groove, they took their foot off the gas.
“Scoring goals in this league is hard. And sometimes when you get a couple wins or it looks like we’re scoring on the scoreboard, even though there’s some power-play goals in there the game before and stuff like that, sometimes you can think that maybe the offense is going to come easier,” Oshie said.
“We’re a phenomenal team when we don’t have the puck, for the most part, of playing our systems, playing hard. No matter what, I know guys on this team are gonna block shots and they’re gonna put their body on the line,” Oshie added. “We need that same mentality on offense now and it starts with simplicity. Getting pucks to the net, getting bodies there and then the higher-end more highlight reel plays that everyone likes seeing on social media, those [will] come after the work.”
The Capitals will look to play a simpler game and find their offensive game in another critical matchup against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday.
By Jacob Cheris
