Caps Fall 4-1 to Coyotes in Homestand Finale

Several times a season in the NHL, the schedule throws you a favorable match-up. Such was the case for the Capitals on Sunday afternoon when the Arizona Coyotes came to town, playing their second game in as many nights and third game in four nights against a rested Washington team seeking to finish a five-game homestand on a high note.

The Caps couldn't take advantage, never getting started in a lackluster 4-1 loss to the Coyotes. For the second straight game, the Caps never led and for the second straight game, they were dented for a pair of power-play goals, an ongoing theme through the first fifth of the season.
"Obviously you pay attention to what's going on throughout the league," says Caps coach Todd Reirden, "and you know different situations that set up better for your team, and we weren't able to take advantage of that and get the two points tonight. So that's disappointing for our team, especially being here at home before going out on a difficult road trip."

Arizona ended a three-game slide (0-2-1), taking its first win of the road trip a night after a 4-0 loss in Pittsburgh.
"A big bounce-back game, a big win for us," says Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper, who made 38 saves to earn his third win of the season. "We're back on track now, and that's what we needed."
Generally speaking, the recipe for success in such situations is to make the opponent feel the body early, make it play in its own end of the ice, make it chase the game and the puck. The Caps did none of those things, and got the result they deserved.
Dmitry Orlov went to the penalty box just 75 seconds into the contest. That's never good when your penalty-killing outfit is struggling like the Caps' unit is right now, but it's worse when it happens early in the game, before all of your skaters have taken a shift.
Washington survived that first penalty, but just barely. They spent virtually the entire two minutes hemmed in their own end, either dodging or chasing rubber.
Toward the end of the first period, the Caps put together an offensive-zone push, but it came to a halt when Matt Niskanen was sent off for tripping in the offensive zone. This time the Coyotes took advantage and took the game's first lead.
Washington was actually much more adept on the second kill, and it was seconds away from a successful mission when it took off on an ill-fated up-ice foray, one that failed to bear fruit while springing the Coyotes on a three-on-one rush rush of their own in transition. Arizona made good on a tic-tac-toe play off the rush, Vinnie Hinostroza supplying the finish from down low on the left side, staking the Coyotes to a 1-0 lead at 16:56 of the first.

Midway through the second, the Coyotes doubled their lead on a similar sequence, albeit at five-on-five. With both teams' fourth lines on the ice, the Caps attacked in the offensive zone, only to turn the puck over when Travis Boyd made one pass too many. Coyotes winger Richard Panik took off on a resulting two-on-one, called his own number and beat Caps goalie Braden Holtby off the iron on the short side, making it 2-0 at 11:57 of the middle period.
Just 44 seconds later, the Caps got that one back. Madison Bowey's breakout pass sprung Alex Ovechkin up the left side and into Arizona ice. Ovechkin fed Backstrom on the right side, and the silky center buried it to make it a one-goal game once again.
Rather than draw momentum from that occurrence, the Caps continued making the unforced errors that have been their undoing. Less than a minute after Backstrom's lamplighter, Evgeny Kuznetsov took another offensive-zone penalty, this one for hi-sticking. And Arizona quickly restored its two-goal cushion with a second-effort goal from Alex Galchenyuk on the power play at 14:38.
Washington went on its second - and what would turn out to be its final - power play of the game less than a minute later. But the Caps couldn't get anything done, and they moved into the third period of a home game looking up at a two-goal deficit, the first time this season they've been in that situation.

"Getting a couple of power-play goals helped," says Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet. "I thought we skated pretty well. They came on in the second, and I think we withstood that pressure by them. We were a little more relaxed in the third, but in the second they were all over us a little bit and we hung on."
Just 58 seconds into the third, T.J. Oshie took the team's third offensive-zone penalty - a double-minor for hi-sticking - effectively wiping out nearly a quarter of the time they had with which to try to erase their deficit. A late Derek Stepan empty-netter accounted for the 4-1 final, sending the Caps out onto a weeklong road trip against formidable foes after a middling 2-2-1 homestand.
Credit should go to the Coyotes, too, who came in on short rest and outplayed the Caps over the full 60 minutes, making Washington look like the low-energy team.
"Overall, this wasn't our best effort," says Backstrom. "I feel like we can get better everywhere, too. We've just got to start playing like we have been in the past. Right now, if we keep playing like this, we're not going to get enough points."