Isles Upend Caps, 3-1

Washington's four-game winning streak came to a halt on Monday night in Brooklyn, where the Capitals suffered a 3-1 loss to the New York Islanders. The Caps came into the game with a four-game winning streak - compiled entirely on home ice - while the Isles were returning home for the first time after a disappointing (1-2-1) four-game road trip.

The Isles took an early 1-0 lead in the first, and they tacked on two more in the first two minutes of the second period to chase Braden Holtby from the nets. Holtby made nine stops on a dozen shots before yielding to backup Philipp Grubauer after New York captain John Tavares made it a 3-0 game at 1:34 of the second period.

Caps coach Barry Trotz sometimes pulls his goaltenders for poor performance, and sometimes he pulls them because he's seeking to light a fire under the other 18 guys. Tonight, he did so for the latter reason.

"We talked about trying to clean up some of the stuff that we gave up in the first period, between periods," says Trotz. "We came out to start the second, and [the Isles] came out and capitalized on two chances. We weren't sharp around Holts, so I figured at 3-0, I'd change the mojo and see if we could generate something. Grubi came in and did a real good job."

All of New York's goals came from high danger areas of the ice, and the coverage in front of Holtby wasn't up to par on any of the three tallies.

"There are always people in the high danger scoring areas," says Caps center Lars Eller. "But the problem was today that we weren't there to cover them most of the time. Usually there is a man on them - there should be a man on them all the time - but our coverage wasn't very good tonight.

"Sloppy coverage in the zone, coming back into the zone off the rushes, things that should be easily correctable going forward."

Brock Nelson jumped off the bench and beat Holtby on the rebound of a Cal Clutterbuck shot at 2:36 of the first period, staking the Isles to that early 1-0 lead. It was the first time the Capitals trailed at any point in a span of five games.

Late in the first, Anders Lee jammed a puck home from under Holtby's pad, but officials ruled that Lee had pushed Holtby and the puck into the cage, and they waved off the goal for goaltender interference. Islanders coach Doug Weight issued a coach's challenge, alleging that the goal should have counted, but the original call was upheld and the Caps entered the second period down just one goal instead of two.

New York blueliner Calvin de Haan made a nifty backhand pass to feed Andrew Ladd for an easy back door tap-in off the rush just 36 seconds into the middle period, and just 58 seconds later New York notched its third goal.

Lee and Josh Bailey combined to set up Tavares for another back door strike, the big pivot firing the puck into a yawning cage as Holtby desperately dove and tried in vain to get a piece of the shot with his paddle.

New York played an extremely sound game in every facet, and Washington had difficulty getting to the middle of the ice to create chances. Early in the game when the score was still close, the Caps have a few good looks at the New York net, but they missed high and/or wide on each of those opportunities.

The Caps weren't able to establish a consistent forecheck either, and Trotz juggled his line combinations during the second half of the game as he tried rubbing some sticks together to create any kind of an offensive spark.

Washington didn't test Isles goaltender Jaroslav Halak very thoroughly on this night, but it finally managed to at least spoil his shutout bid just ahead of the midpoint of the third period.

Jay Beagle bumped the puck to linemate Chandler Stephenson along the left wing wall in neutral ice, sending Stephenson into the New York zone with speed. Dmitry Orlov jumped up late to join the rush on the backside, and Stephenson fed him perfectly. Orlov's one-time blast beat Halak to account for the 3-1 final score.

"It was a good breakout, and I saw I needed to jump into the rush," recounts Orlov. "We were down. So needed to do something offensively. Steve-O made a great play; he had a good deception. I just needed to hit the net. It didn't help us, so it doesn't matter right now."

With Monday's loss, the Capitals have dropped four of their last five road games, and six of their last nine away from the District.

"You look at all the [Islanders'] goals, and they came early in the periods," says Trotz. "I think the first one was two and a half minutes in, and then they got two goals in a minute and a half to start the second.

"I thought they came out a little bit better than us. I thought they were just a little quicker early, and I thought we started getting our legs, but we didn't get many high quality looks, and when we did, we didn't finish.

"We dug ourselves a hole to start the second. We had some good looks, but couldn't find the back of the net. We got the one, and we had a little push, but it was not enough. They were just a little bit better than us tonight, a little sharper on the puck. Full credit to them."