Caps Crumble Late in Game 1 Loss

Playoff hockey is a real rollercoaster ride of momentum swings where details can make or break a team, and it bears little resemblance to round-robin hockey, as the Caps were rudely reminded on Wednesday in a 4-2 loss to the Islanders in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Series between the two Metropolitan Division rivals.

After working diligently to forge a 2-0 lead in the second period and then nursing that lead into the final minutes of the frame, the Caps watched it all unravel on four unanswered goals in a span of less than 13 minutes of playing time, the type of goals against that will drive coaches mad: one in the last 63 seconds of a period, one in the first minute of a period, and a shorthanded strike from Josh Bailey that stands as the game-winner.

"In the third period, we can't start like that," laments Caps captain Alex Ovechkin. "We've got the lead, we've just got to play our game. We stopped playing, and you can see the result."

Early in the contest, the Caps were sitting pretty with three power play chances in the first half of the first period. But the first of those early man-advantages may ultimately prove to be costly for Washington.

Islanders captain Anders Lee delivered a blind-sided hit to Caps center Nicklas Backstrom, putting the Caps a man to the good at 2:27 of the first. Backstrom stayed on for that power play and skated several more shifts - logging 7:21 of first-period ice time - before retiring for the remainder of the afternoon with an injury that Caps coach Todd Reirden says "absolutely" came as a result of the Lee hit.

"We'll update you more [Thursday]," says Reirden of Backstrom's status. "He is continuing to get looked at obviously; he couldn't finish the game. It was a late hit on an [unsuspecting] player that is in a spot that he was extremely vulnerable.

"Those are some things we saw there. It's as simple as that. Like I said, late hit, player wasn't expecting it, and it's predatory."

The Caps took Lee to task for the hit; John Carlson confronted him immediately and also was penalized, and Tom Wilson gave Lee a quick drubbing late in the frame.

"We knew it was going to be a physical game, physical night, physical series," says Lee. "I don't think my intentions were to try to throw the brakes on there. I caught him and the end result after that, a penalty and a couple fights. So it was settled, and the game continued on."

And although the Caps weren't able to make the Islanders pay for any of those first-period transgressions, they did take their 2-0 lead on a pair of T.J. Oshie power-play goals in the second.

With Matt Martin off for interference early in the second, Oshie took a favorable bounce of the back wall and - while straddling the goal line to the left of the Isles' cage - whipped a wrist shot into a yawning net from a tight angle at 5:27 to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.

Isles defenseman Scott Mayfield was banished to the box for tripping just ahead of the midpoint of the period, and the Caps simply outnumbered the Isles on a goalmouth scramble just above the paint, allowing Oshie to jam home a third opportunity to double the Caps' lead at 11:18.

With nearly half of the game remaining at that juncture, and playing without two of their top three centers (Lars Eller didn't dress after returning home for the birth of his second child late last week), the Caps still had a lot of work ahead of them. But playing meaningful hockey for arguably the first time in five months, they weren't up to the task.

With 63 seconds left in the second, Jordan Eberle put a shot past Braden Holtby's glove hand, making it a 2-1 game and changing the complexion of the contest going into the third.

"The first goal obviously can't go in," says Holtby. "I haven't seen a replay of it yet, so I can't really tell you too much. I just know it's a bad goal, a bad part of the game. That's on me. That changes the momentum of the game right there."

Before the third period was a minute old, Lee tied the game with a put-back of a rebound from a Ryan Pulock point shot, making it a 2-2 contest.

Washington didn't have much jam at even strength for much of the afternoon, and the Caps have managed only four even-strength markers in as many games since arriving in the Toronto bubble, but a Leo Komarov hi-sticking infraction gave them yet another look on the power play - their seventh of the afternoon - and a chance to retake the lead at 5:51 of the third.

But a series of mistakes were made on a seemingly innocent Brock Nelson dump-in while the Caps were up a man, and those mistakes were Washington's undoing. With benefit of hindsight, Holtby admitted he should have clamped it for a face-off. But he instead shoveled it to the corner for Alex Ovechkin, who was feeling forechecking heat from Nelson. And no one picked up Josh Bailey as he hopped onto the ice and drifted to the slot. Nelson fed Bailey, and he buried it for a 3-2 lead at 6:52.

"It was more of a miscommunication," explains Holtby. "I think I was fighting for it in the ceiling, and then I didn't realize that there wasn't much time there. I should have just held onto it. I thought we had more time."

"I tried to get just like a high flip," recounts Nelson. "I didn't want it to go on Holtby, but he ended up playing it. I just wanted to put a little bit of pressure on it. I found a loose puck, and then Bailey is coming right down the slot. He's wide open, good finish."

Five minutes later, Anthony Beauvillier tucked home a rebound of a Bailey shot as the Caps were soft in net-front coverage, making it a 4-2 game.

From that point on, the Caps had to know how hard it would be to erase a two-goal lead in the final 10 minutes of a playoff game against a Barry Trotz-coached team. They couldn't do it, and they're down a game with Game 2 slated for Friday night.

"I think we weren't as mentally sharp there," says Oshie. "There were two bad changes by me, and both ended up in goals 10-15 seconds later. We had one where one of our guys probably could have backchecked a little harder, and unfortunately it's a tough reminder walking away with a loss after being up after two [periods] that playoff hockey is here, and we have to be ready to play for the full 60, and as you've seen, maybe for an hour or so more after.

"Just a terrible, terrible third. Not our style of hockey, and hopefully a good learning lesson for us."