Canes Clip Caps, 5-1

Four games into their 2018 preseason slate, the Caps are still seeking their first win. They headed down to Raleigh for a Friday night date with the Carolina Hurricanes, and dropped a 5-1 decision to their Metropolitan Division rivals, falling to 0-3-1 in exhibition play.

First periods have not been kind to the Capitals. For the second time in as many games in as many nights, the Caps yielded three goals in the first period of Friday's game.
The scoring started early. On the first shift of his first ever NHL preseason game, Caps winger Sergei Shumakov took a hi-sticking minor. Less than half a minute later, the Canes owned a 1-0 lead.

Valentin Zykov scored on the power play at 2:19 of the first to stake Carolina to a 1-0 advantage. Just past the midpoint of the first, the Canes doubled their advantage on a good bounce. Jaccob Slavin's centering feed from the left half wall hit Jordan Staal and bounded into the net for a 2-0 Carolina lead at 11:33.
The Caps got that one back quickly, halving the Canes' lead less than a minute later. Aaron Ness made a nice feed to Nicklas Backstrom from the slot, and the Caps center cranked a one-timer past Petr Mrazek on the short side to make it a 2-1 game at 12:21.

A mere 32 seconds after Backstrom's goal, the Caps went on the power play with a chance to tie the game. But instead, the Canes restored their two-goal cushion. Caps goalie Braden Holtby played the puck behind the Washington net and banked a pass off the boards in an attempt to start the breakout. But the angle wasn't right, and the pass went right to Carolina's Warren Foegele, who put a shot on net. Holtby stopped it, but Jordan Martinook was at the top of the paint and he had an easy tap-in on the rebound at 13:36, making it a 3-1 contest.
The Caps have been outscored 9-2 in the first period of their four preseason games to date.

"The starts every game have not been where we need them to be," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "Just breaking pucks out and stuff, we don't give ourselves a ton of chances to have success. And then once we do, when we start pushing our forwards out of the zone, we start to look like a fast team and how we want to play. The starts are definitely a concern through the start of the preseason."
Both sides were sloppy in the middle period, combining for a total of nine shots on net and just five at even strength. Through the first 40 minutes of play, Carolina had as many shorthanded shots on net (six) as the Caps had at five-on-five.
Carolina expanded its lead late in the third on a Slavin power-play goal with 2:44 remaining in the third, and then Martin Necas accounted for the 5-1 final with an empty-netter.
The Caps weren't able to generate much in the way of an attack in the third, either. It was nine minutes before they recorded their first shot on net, mostly because their collective timing and execution seems to be off. That's still not worrisome; the Caps have yet to ice a very representative roster in the preseason while the Hurricanes dressed a stronger lineup - particularly on the blueline - featuring more established NHL players, as is generally expected from the home team at this time of year.
After missing some time early in camp because of a lower body injury, Caps center Lars Eller saw his first action of the preseason on Friday against the Canes.

"Definitely there is some work [to be done], some things to improve," concedes Eller. "But it was good to get it out of the way. I expected to be one or two steps or a gear behind everyone. I think I felt a little better as the game went on, but [the Hurricanes] came out of the gates really hard."
With just three more games remaining on their exhibition slate and AHL Hershey set to open its training camp on Monday, the Capitals are certain to ice a much more representative lineup the rest of the way.
"We'll get closer and closer to our lineup now," says Reirden. "You can talk about nerves and first time [playing in the preseason] for some guys and second games, and on the road playing against good players. But that's part of the process. If you really want to be committed to developing young players, you have to see them. You can't just shelter them the whole time and go through training camp and say, 'Well, I think he can play.' We're finding out whether guys can play or they can't. And they're making the decisions for us so far."