Hawks Humble Caps, 7-1

The Capitals' Jekyll and Hyde persona was on display again on Saturday night in Chicago. Two nights after authoring a convincing 5-2 road win over the Minnesota Wild - which had been the league's hottest team on home ice for the previous month and a half - the Caps came into Chicago to face a last-place Blackhawks team saddled with an eight-game losing streak (0-7-1) and a seven-game slide (0-6-1) on home ice.

The Hawks got well at Washington's expense on Saturday night at United Center, both individually and as a group, trouncing the Caps by a 7-1 score with a group of Caps players' fathers and mentors looking on from a suite.

"Well it certainly feels 100 times better than coming in and trying to explain why we had a lead and were unable to sustain it," says Hawks coach Joel Quenneville. "But I thought the complete 60 minutes, [we played] three periods the right way, and you know, I thought it's consistency in our game, way more pace than we've seen recently, a lot more composure with the puck, with our shooting and around the net."

Even in losing each of their last six games in regulation, the Hawks averaged nearly 40 shots a night. They came out shooting on Saturday night and didn't stop.

Through the first two games of their current four-game road trip, the Caps played a fairly consistent and strong brand of hockey, aside from the last few minutes of the trip opener in Winnipeg. Against the struggling Hawks, the Caps turned in a stinker of a first period and never recovered.

Chicago jumped out in front on a Jonathan Toews goal at 6:19 of the first. The Hawks gained the zone on the rush, but lost control of the puck in the left wing corner, Caps defenseman Christian Djoos briefly had it on his blade, but his backhand clearing bid landed right on Toews' tape. From the bottom of the left circle, Toews just flung a shot on net, and it bounded through the pads of Caps goalie Braden Holtby for a 1-0 Chicago lead.

"Obviously that's not a performance we'd like to have," says Holtby. "It starts with me on that first goal. It's never a very good way to start off a new team, and it's just one of those things that I need to be better at."

The Caps got that one back midway through the first period. From the right point, Matt Niskanen put a shot toward the Blackhawks net. Parked in the slot, Washington winger Tom Wilson adroitly tipped the puck past Hawks goalie Anton Forsberg to square the score at 1-1 at 10:03.

That was as good as it would get for the Capitals on this night.

The Hawks restored their one-goal lead on another rush at 12:47. Three white-sweatered Caps surrounded Chicago's Brandon Saad, the puck carrier, as he skated through the inside of the right circle. Meanwhile, Hawks forward Vinnie Hinostroza slipped behind them all, and Saad was able to get the puck to him. Holtby stopped Hinostroza's shot, but the rebound went right to Saad and he parked it into a yawning cage to make it 2-1.

In the final minute of the first, the Hawks put more heat on the Caps in the Washington end of the ice. With a second and a half left, they made it 3-1. Lars Eller blocked Carl Dahlstrom's shot from the left half wall, but the puck kicked right to Hawks center Nick Schmaltz, who had an empty net and didn't miss.

At period's end, the Caps were down 3-1 on the board, 21-6 in shots on net and 28-9 in shot attempts.

Washington didn't play any better in the second, but they managed to keep the Hawks from lighting the lamp for the first 16 minutes of the stanza. Alas, the Hawks struck three times in a span of just 127 seconds in the final four minutes of the second to carry a commanding 6-1 lead into the third period.

Brooks Orpik's turnover at the Washington let left Holtby facing a two-on-none with Toews carrying the puck and Patrick Kane riding shotgun. Holtby stopped Toews, but Kane buried the rebound to make it 4-1 at 16:22 of the second.

"I passed it across the ice and he knocked it out the air and got a two-on-none," recounts Orpik. "Those two guys on a two-on-oh, they're going to score more times than not."

Seventy seconds later, Ryan Hartman skated right down the middle of the ice and into the Washington zone with speed, and virtually untouched. Dmitry Orlov managed a late and perfunctory slash that caused the official's arm to go up, signaling a delayed penalty, but it wasn't enough to halt Hartman from lifting a nifty backhander to the shelf, making it a 5-1 game at 17:32.

The rain came down even harder on the Caps nine seconds later when Djoos was sent off for sailing the puck over the glass. That infraction resulted in an Artem Anisimov power-play goal on a wrist shot from the left circle at 18:29, extending the Hawks' lead to 6-1.

Philipp Grubauer came on in relief of Holtby to start the third, and the Hawks didn't let up, outshooting, out-possessing and outplaying the Caps for the third straight stanza. Grubauer was nicked for one goal on 11 shots, an Alex DeBrincat rush goal at 8:22 of the third period that accounted for the 7-1 final count.

"We got outplayed in every aspect of the game right from the start," says Orpik. "One through 20, I don't think any of us played very well I think it's one of those ones where obviously we've got a lot of games this month, so we'll try to turn the page as quick as possible and bounce back on Monday [in Buffalo]."

Caps coach Barry Trotz coached his 1,500th game on Saturday, and it obviously wasn't a memorable one.

"Obviously it doesn't sit well," says Trotz. "This group is much better than it showed tonight. This game is probably going to go in the garbage can, and I expect a really good response from this group.

"We weren't good. We got beat in every aspect of the game tonight, and that falls on the group, myself, my coaching staff, and everybody. We were not good. Chicago beat us in every aspect of the game today."