POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Sabres 3, Caps 2 (SO)

Failure To Launch -After a 3-2 shootout loss to the Sabres in Buffalo on Monday night, the Caps are back to square one in trying to piece together even a modest winning streak.

Washington's frustration at being unable to gain any traction in the standings continues to mount, as it has for a month and a half now. The Caps came out of their midseason break with a Jan. 27 win over the Canadiens in Montreal, a victory that extended their winning streak to four games.
Over the first 50 games of the season, the Caps managed four separate winning streaks of at least four games in length, twice reeling off six straight victories. But in 19 games since that win over the Habs six weeks ago, Washington has managed to cobble together consecutive victories only once, on Feb. 23-25.
The Caps are an underwhelming 7-9-3 in those 19 games, and what was a 13-point bulge over sixth-place - at the time - Philadelphia has all but dissipated. Philly pulled even with the Caps last week, and now trails Washington by a point while holding a game in hand. Winners of nine straight, the Flyers entertain Boston on Tuesday night and can hop over the Caps in the Metro standings with a win over the B's.
The Flyers won three of four from the Caps in the season's series, and Washington's only win came in the shootout. Philadelphia is 25-5-4 at home this season - the best home record in the league - and a division crown in the highly competitive Metro Division is worth fighting for, because it guarantees home ice advantage for the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Monday's loss in Buffalo was frustrating because the Sabres came into the game reeling; they had lost six straight, hadn't scored a power play goal in seven straight and hadn't managed to scored more than two goals in their last seven. The Caps were coming in on the heels of one of their best 60-minute efforts of the second half, a convincing 5-2 win over the Penguins in Pittsburgh on Saturday afternoon.
Washington fell behind early in the first and yielded Buffalo's first power-play goal in eight games early in the second, and it trailed 2-0 heading into the final period. It took an Alex Ovechkin goal early in the third and a favorable bounce resulting in a Dmitry Orlov goal late in the period to force overtime, but the Caps couldn't put the Sabres away.

"The third period obviously is our best," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "I think our execution through the first 40 minutes wasn't great in terms of - particularly in the neutral zone - giving our team a chance to have success.
"In the third period, we simplified our game. We put pucks behind them, and we hung on to the puck and played in the offensive zone. They did a decent job in the first couple periods of not letting us do that, but it was also our own puck management that didn't allow us to have the 40 minutes we wanted to. We had some chances and number of different times to at least not allow it to get to overtime, as did they."
The Caps are now down to 13 games remaining with which to get their overall game to playoff ready mode. After roaring out to a 26-6-5 start in the season's first 37 games, they are now 15-14-3 in 32 games since.
"You've got to play every minute, every moment of the game," says Caps goalie Braden Holtby. "Tonight, we played parts of it and it's frustrating that way. We say adversity is something that can make you stronger, but it seems like it's taking some time to make us stronger.
"It's time now to get going. That goes for our leadership group on out. It's time to push forward."
For the second time in three games on the road trip, the Caps authored a third-period comeback that enabled them to earn a point, but for Holtby, it's not about the points at this juncture.
"We know right now the points are pretty irrelevant for what we want to accomplish," he says. "If you look at how we're playing, how we're setting up games, how we're starting, how we're finishing - if you look at the process that way, you're going to get a lot of points.
"Right now, we've just got to keep working, and keep pushing ourselves even harder."

Move On Up -Ovechkin's third-period goal was his 48th of the season and the 706th of his NHL career, moving him to within two goals of matching former Capitals great and Hockey Hall of Famer Mike Gartner (708) for seventh place on the NHL's all-time goals ledger.
The goal also ties Ovechkin with Boston's David Pastrnak in the chase for the 2019-20 Rocket Richard Trophy. Both players have 13 games remaining this season.
Special Teams Skewing - Monday's game marked the fifth time in the last 10 games that Washington has had exactly one power play in the game; the Caps are 2-for-23 (8.7 percent) with the extra man during that stretch.
On the other side of the special teams coin over the same 10-game span, Washington has faced down 36 opposition power plays, killing off 28 of them for a kill rate of 77.8 percent. The Caps have yielded at least one power-play goal against in five straight games now, their longest streak of the season. Previously in 2019-20, Washington had allowed power-play goals against in three straight games from Nov. 18-23.
By The Numbers -Orlov led the Caps with 26:40 in ice time. His goal was the first by a Washington defenseman in nearly a month, since John Carlson scored in a 5-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Feb. 10 … Ovechkin led the Caps with six shots on net and eight shot attempts … Orlov, Garnet Hathaway and Tom Wilson each had two hits to lead the Capitals … Ovechkin and Nic Dowd each blocked two shots to lead the Caps … Lars Eller won nine of 14 draws (64 percent).