Capitals' confidence admittedly low after late-season slide originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin clapped in front of the officials as he skated off the ice following a penalty call on him late in the third period on Sunday. Seconds later, Tom Wilson tried to fight Rangers winger Barclay Goodrow. Simultaneously, Martin Fehervary and Niko Mikkola dropped the gloves.
Frustration was on display from the Capitals, as Ovechkin, Wilson and Fehervary all were sent to the locker room early during the New York Rangers' 5-2 victory over Washington at Capital One Arena. The loss was Washington's seventh in their last eight games and one that likely was the dagger in the Capitals' already slim playoff hopes.
"It was probably to be expected," Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said on his team's late-game frustrations.
For many Capitals players, the team's current position is unfamiliar territory. Washington has been among the NHL's elite teams annually for the past decade. The Capitals have made the postseason for eight consecutive seasons and in 14 of the past 15 years. April is usually the month the organization shifts its focus to making another run at the Stanley Cup.
Throughout the Capitals' recent rough stretch, the players have kept a constant hopeful outlook on the remainder of the season, even as the team's postseason chances have dwindled by the game. But following Washington's defeat on Sunday, defenseman John Carlson -- one of the team's six remaining players from the 2018 Cup squad -- was honest about the current state of the team.
"It's difficult. Nobody wanted this, no one expected this," Carlson said. "I think everything weighs on you a lot more. I think swings of a normal game when things are going good are a lot easier to deal with and move through and navigate and I think when stuff clearly hasn't gone our way this year, it's a lot difficult on everybody."
The Capitals' No. 1 defenseman admitted that the team is lacking overall confidence right now, something that's easily understandable considering the team's recent rough patch.
"When you're not winning many games, confidence is a tough thing to just say and wake up with 'I'm gonna be real confident with the puck today and everybody else is gonna be working for me,'" Carlson said. "You got to work through the bad moments to get to those points."
He later added that he felt the energy and effort from his teammates was there against the Rangers, but the overall execution was "poor."
Carlson, himself, has dealt with a ton of personal adversity this season. On Dec. 23, he was struck in the face by a slapshot from former teammate Brenden Dillon, an injury that kept him out for three months. When Carlson was initially injured, the Capitals were in the middle of a hot stretch and firmly in the playoff picture. When he returned in late March, the club's postseason percentage chances were in the single digits.
The 33-year-old was also quick to remind everyone that almost every season is tolling, even those when the Capitals were putting together Presidents Trophy-winning seasons. For the Capitals -- a team used to being in playoff contention every season -- the unfamiliar territory of where the team is in the standings has made the normal ebbs and flows of every season even more taxing.
"It's difficult mentally, it's really difficult," Carlson said. "It's a grind and when you're not getting the results that you wanted, it's even harder. ... Confidence is harder when things aren't going well. Morale, you try your best to make sure the team's in a good spot that you give yourself the best chance to win every night and build from it."
Although the Capitals are not accustomed to being this low in the standings this late in the season, neither Laviolette nor any of his players made excuses for the team's recent performances.
“It’s certainly not where we want to be, but the bottom line is we had a game today and we needed to do better," Laviolette said. "The same thing we’ll go through when we wake up and go to practice the next day and play the next game. We have a responsibility to do our job and do it well. Today we didn’t do it well enough."
"It's time to look in the mirror right now, for everybody, and realize we've got to play more consistent, we've got to play a full 60 [minutes]," Aliaksei Protas added. "The history of the club, for the last 10 years, [has] been like nothing but at least playoffs and fight for the Cup. That's the expectation in this organization ... We've got to be more consistent if we want to fight for the playoffs and for the Cup."
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