Caps Come Up Empty Against Isles

For the first 40 minutes of Thursday's game between the Capitals and the New York Islanders, the two sides played scoreless and largely mistake-free - if somewhat boring - hockey. Neither team scored a special teams goal in Thursday's game, but the Islanders won the special teams battle and the game, blanking the Capitals 3-0 behind 38 saves from ex-Cap/nemesis Jaroslav Halak.

"The story of the game is our power play wasn't very good," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "Their penalty kill won them the game. At five-on-five, we probably played well enough to be in the game, which we were. But when you get that many chances on the power play, you should win the game. That one's on us, I think."

Washington's power play had a chance to put the Caps on top early in the third when Isles defenseman Johnny Boychuk sailed a puck over the glass. Alas, the Caps' extra-man outfit did everything but score during those two minutes, but New York survived the barrage.

The Islanders then capitalized on a series of Washington mistakes to score three goals in a span of four minutes and 28 seconds before the final period was halfway over, sending the Caps to their second shutout loss on home ice in less than a month, a span of seven home games.

With the win, the Islanders forged their first three-game winning streak of the season, taking their third game in a span of four nights from a Capitals team that had been idle for the previous four nights.

"Our goalies need to play big," says Islanders coach Jack Capuano. "Early on, they've struggled. Look around the league and the teams that are winning are getting real good goaltending. We were going through a tough stretch for a little while there.

"Overall, our team played really well in front of our goalie tonight. He made some big saves when he had to - especially [Justin] Williams on the power play there - but I thought we were solid."

Washington launched 87 pucks in Halak's direction during Thursday's game, while the Isles managed 47 shot attempts of their own. But while New York was able to get 29 on net, the Caps had 21 tries blocked and they missed the net altogether on 28 attempts.

The Caps' power play that had recently shown signs of emerging from a season-long doldrums regressed on Thursday. The Caps scored with the extra man in three straight games last week, doing so for the first time all season. Entering Thursday's game with the Islanders, Washington was a modest - but improved - 5-for-22 on the power play in its previous six games.

Facing an Islanders team that played an 8 p.m. home game on Wednesday night, the Caps drew six power play opportunities to just two for the Islanders in the game. The last four of those power plays came in succession, with two coming in the latter half of the middle period and two coming in the final frame.

The Caps appeared to take a 1-0 lead at the tail end of the first period when Williams scored from the back door on a nice feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov while the Caps were a man to the good. But replays showed the puck crossed the goal line just a split second after time expired in the first period.

Washington's first four power plays produced nine shot attempts, but only two of those shots went on goal. Three shot tries were blocked and four more missed the net altogether. The Islanders managed two shorthanded shots on goal during those first eight minutes of Washington power play time.

Boychuk went to the box just 37 seconds into the third period. Washington pumped nine pucks toward Halak during those two minutes, but only three went on goal. The other six all missed the mark, including an Alex Ovechkin one-timer that rang the post and a Williams tip attempt that went just wide.

Less than a minute after Boychuk was released, New York center Casey Cizikas stripped Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov of the puck, and Cizikas sprung Shane Prince on a breakaway. Prince beat Caps goalie Braden Holtby to give the Islanders all the offense they would require on this night.

Roughly three and a half minutes later, Orlov committed another miscue when he threw the puck toward the front of his own net from the right wing corner. Holtby halted John Tavares from point blank range, but Brock Nelson deposited the rebound for a 2-0 New York lead at 6:43 of the third.

"It was my mistake, and the same thing on the second goal," says Orlov. "I tried to make a pass through the middle, but their guy was there so I need to make a simple play and don't try to do too much at that moment, especially that game that was 0-0 after two periods and we were playing hard and working hard as a team. I did two bad mistakes and it cost us the game; we lost the game."

Exactly a minute after Nelson's goal, ex-Caps winger Jason Chimera finished the scoring, beating Holtby with a short side backhand roof shot.

The Caps had plenty of time left, and one more power play opportunity as well. Once again though, hitting the net proved to be a difficult task. Washington fired seven times on its sixth power play chance of the night. One shot got through to Halak.

For the night, the Caps had 25 shot attempts in their 12 minutes of power play time. Six were on net, seven were blocked and a dozen missed the mark.

"Give credit to the Islanders," says Trotz. "They get in the lanes and do a good job of getting into the lanes. They've got a big commitment to do that. If the lane opens up once it's in your hands, you've got to deliver it. How do you get them on net? You've just got to get them through the lanes when there are people there. When they get blocked, they come down the other way.

"We'll just keep trying. We'll maybe look for some tip plays. We'll look for that type of thing if they're going to get in the lanes. We're going to have to adjust, no question."
Power Outage - Washington went 0-for-6 on the power play in Thursday's 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders, and the first five of the Caps' power play chances in that game came when the game was still scoreless.

Of the 25 shots the Capitals pumped toward New York netminder Jaroslav Halak during those half dozen power play chances, only six required the Isles' goalie to make a save. Islanders penalty killers blocked seven of those shot attempts and a dozen of them missed the mark altogether.

"We're firing it," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen, "but whether they're getting blocked or going over the net or wide [they're not going on net]. Sometimes I think when you don't have the results that you're looking for and you're used to having good success, which this group is, maybe you start trying to pick the corner a little bit too much rather than shooting for the second opportunity. We've been talking about a few things and we'll keep at it here, but tonight it could have made a huge difference in the game, I think."

Washington has dipped to a three-way tie for 24th in the league with a 14.3% power play success rate this season. Only four teams have a worse power play efficiency rate than the Capitals. Is that lack of success becoming a source of frustration?

"Maybe a little bit," allows Niskanen. "And I think the other team gets momentum off that many kills, too. That's a big night for them. It seems like we had a lot of [offensive] zone time today, and we were firing it. We're just not getting good looks and good second opportunities. We've just got to do better."

Doubled Down -Last season, the Caps became the first team in 40 years to get through an NHL regular season without suffering consecutive regulation losses. With Thursday's loss to the Islanders, the Caps have now done so twice in the first 22 games of the 2016-17 season.

The Caps travel to Tampa to take on the Lightning on Saturday night. Washington will be seeking to avoid its first three-game stretch without earning at least a standings point since Feb. 22-27, 2015.

Vrana Debuts - Jakub Vrana, Washington's first-round choice (13th overall) in the 2014 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut on Thursday against the Islanders.

"It was a new experience and I had a great feeling out there," says Vrana. "I had a few shots, just they missed and it kind of hurts that it ends up a game like this."

Skating on a line with Andre Burakovsky and Evgeny Kuznetsov, Vrana skated just 10:10 on the night - all of it at even strength - in a game that was littered with a combined total of eight power plays.

"You've just got to keep your body in good heat," says Vrana, of the excess of power play time. "Obviously we have great players here for the power play, so it was fun to watch them and learn something. Just keep focusing on my game."

Vrana managed four shots on net in that span, and he created a couple of good scoring opportunities.

On his first shift of the game, Halak was forced to make a stop on Vrana's blind backhand bid from the left circle. In the second period of the game, he had a strong chance right off of a Kuznetsov face-off win in the New York zone.

"I thought he was fine," says Caps coach Barry Trotz of Vrana's debut. "Obviously with all the power play and penalty killing in that game, the five-on-five ice time with us didn't really roll. But I thought he was fine. He had the first shot on net of the game, and I thought he had a couple of real good wall plays. He's a real good skater."

With Vrana on the roster and in the lineup, Washington has a total of 15 former first-round draft choices on the team this season, most in the league. Winnipeg is second with 14. The Capitals have nine first rounders on the roster who were Washington draft choices, a total that also leads the league. Once again, Winnipeg is second with eight.

Biting the Hand That Once Fed Him - Veteran New York winger Jason Chimera was a member of the Caps from 2009-16. He signed a two-year deal to join the Islanders last July, and on Thursday he scored his third goal of the season against Caps goalie Holtby and his former Washington teammates.

"It's never easy to score goals, especially against a Vezina Trophy winner," says Chimera. "You've got to make perfect shots. [Holtby is] one of my good friends and he's tough to beat. The one was a rebound - Brock [Nelson]'s goal was just a rebound and mine was just kind of a perfect shot. [Shane] Prince's was on a breakaway, and it's tough to stop those. He's a great goalie."

Thursday's goal was Chimera's second against Washington in his NHL career, and his first since Feb. 5, 2008 when he beat Brent Johnson in a game at Columbus.

Biting The Hand That Once Fed Him, Part Deux - Halak spent the tail end of the 2013-14 season as a member of the Capitals, and on Thursday night he became the first ex-Caps goaltender to spin a shutout against Washington in more than 15 years.

The last ex-Caps goalie to blank Washington was Byron Dafoe, who turned the trick as a member of the Boston Bruins on Oct. 8, 2001 in a 4-0 loss to the B's in Beantown.

By The Numbers - Matt Niskanen led the Caps with 26:41 in ice time, the highest single-game figure for any Washington skater thus far this season … Niskanen (7:37), Kuznetsov (8:03), Nicklas Backstrom (8:33), Justin Williams (8:46) and Alex Ovechkin (9:29) all logged more than seven and a half minutes worth of power play time in Thursday's game … Williams led the Caps with seven shots on net and Niskanen led the way with 14 shot attempts … Washington had nearly as many missed shots (28) as New York had shots on net (29) … Tom Wilson led the Caps with five hits … Niskanen and Karl Alzner led Washington with three blocked shots each … Jay Beagle won eight of 13 draws (62%).