Isles Drop Caps, 4-1

Over the course of an 82-game season, even the best of teams will put forth a handful of flat performances. But if timing is everything, teams don't want to deliver such performances within a week of the start of the playoffs.

Unfortunately for the Caps, they interrupted a recent stretch of consistently strong hockey with a clunker of an outing on Thursday night against the New York Islanders, falling 4-1 in the home ice finale at Capital One Arena.
Washington started out okay, successfully wiping away an early New York goal via the coach's challenge and taking a 1-0 lead soon after. But that was as good as it would get for the Capitals on this night; the Isles scored four unanswered goals to put a halt to a five-game slide (0-4-1).
Asked where Tuesday's game got away from his team, an understandably terse Caps coach Peter Laviolette responded: "From the beginning. It wasn't good."
Coach's challenges have been frequent occurrences in recent Caps' games, and we witnessed another one in the front half of the first frame on Tuesday. New York's Kyle Palmieri scored at 8:37, but Washington quickly issued a coach's challenge, alleging that Zach Parise interfered with Caps netminder Ilya Samsonov, preventing him from having a chance to make the save. The review was quick, and it confirmed the Washington point of view, taking the goal off the board and keeping the game scoreless.
Less than two minutes later, the Caps jumped out in front with a legitimate goal of their own. Washington moved the puck around the offensive zone adroitly, with bodies moving as well. When the puck came to Marcus Johansson at center point, he let a clapper fly and Conor Sheary deflected it home to lift Washington to a 1-0 lead at 10:24 of the first.
New York got even later in the first on its first power play of the night when Ryan Pulock delivered a drive from center point cleanly to the back of the cage at 16:18 of the period.
The second period was quiet all around, and the game had all the appeal of an early preseason tilt. Washington had a pair of power play opportunities in the middle frame, but it squandered each of its two chances to nudge ahead of New York, and the two divisional rivals headed to the third period all even.
Things went in a southerly direction for Washington early in the third when Tom Wilson was sent off for holding Mat Barzal in the second minute of the period; the Isles took their first lead of the night on the ensuing power play, going up 2-1 on a favorable bounce when Noah Dobson's shot bounded off the shin pad of Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk and in at 2:56.
Less than five minutes later, Nick Jensen drew a tripping call to give Washington an extra-man opportunity with which to pull even, but instead the Caps' hole got deeper when Casey Cizikas scored a bizarre shorthanded goal to make it a 3-1 contest at 7:56. Cizikas made a good play behind the Caps' net to interrupt an exchange between Dmitry Orlov and Samsonov, lifting Orlov's stick from behind to prevent the handoff. Both Orlov and Cizikas then lost their footing, and Samsonov lost his way back to the net. From a prone position, Cizikas choked up on his stick and shoveled a backhander at the net, just as the late arriving Samsonov was returning to the crease.
Another fruitless Washington power play followed, and Isles captain Anders Lee closed out the scoring with New York's only even-strength goal of the game, firing a one-timer to the net from just above the left circle with 4:43 remaining.
The listless performance leaves Washington with a 19-16-6 record on home ice this season, the team's worst mark at home since it went 17-17-7 here in 2006-07.
Special teams were the difference in the game, but very little went right for Washington on this night after Sheary's first-period goal. New York was 2-for-2 on the power play, and the Isles ended a five-game stretch in which they had given up at least one power-play goal in every game, killing off all four Washington power plays while netting the ninth shorthanded goal the Caps have yielded this season.
Playing without captain Alex Ovechkin (upper body), Washington's power play didn't mesh and had difficulty gaining the zone and getting set up throughout the evening.
"Special teams are big in any game," says Wilson. "Our special teams have been pretty good. We've had confidence in them, and they've been getting the job done for the most part as of late. A couple of bad bounces on the [penalty kill]. And you hope the power play can get you one, but guys were in some new spots and stuff.
"But that being said, no excuses. We've got to find a way to capitalize when we've got an extra man out there."