Coming into this road trip, the Caps had won five of their previous six games. Now, they're coming off a pair of consecutive ugly losses the likes of which they haven't seen in more than a dozen years.
Thursday's loss to the Avs came on the heels of a 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Predators in Nashville two nights earlier. This marks the first time the Capitals have dropped back-to-back regulation games while permitting six or more goals in both since Oct. 7-8, 2005, the second and third games of Caps captain Alex Ovechkin's career.
More than 59 minutes remained after Landeskog's first goal, but the Caps weren't able to climb back into this one at any point of the contest.
Washington and Colorado played a fairly even 18 minutes between the first and final minutes of the game's initial period, with the Caps getting a late power play opportunity, the only one of the frame. But the Caps didn't cash in on the man advantage, and Colorado added another goal in the waning seconds of the first.
It would be the first of three times the Avs would score a goal within a minute of successfully snuffing out a Washington power play.
Avs rookie blueliner Sam Girard gained the Washington zone and put on the brakes. He fed Nathan MacKinnon, and the Colorado center cut right and fired a shot past Caps goalie Philipp Grubauer with 6.2 seconds left in the first period.
Washington got another extra-man opportunity just before the midpoint of the second period, but once again was not able to take advantage of the situation. Less than a minute after completing that penalty kill, the Avalanche added to its lead.
Colin Wilson collected the rebound of a MacKinnon shot and tucked it into the Caps' cage at 12:25 of the second, putting Washington into a three-goal ditch.