Third Straight Loss Puts Caps on Precipice

Saturday night's Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final series against the Tampa Bay Lightning was not the optimal time for the Capitals to turn in their worst period of the playoffs to date, but that's how it went down. Washington sleepwalked its way through the first 20 minutes of its most important game of the season to date, and got a predictable result, a 3-2 loss, its third in succession.

The Caps now trail the series 3-2 and are facing elimination for the first time in the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs. Game 6 will be played in the District on Monday night.

Only one of the games scheduled thus far in the ECF series with the Lightning has not carried an 8 p.m. start time, and it was Saturday's Game 5. The Lightning showed up on time for the 7:15 start, but Washington did not. The Capitals' late start for the early game cost them dearly; the Lightning took the lead for good in the game's first minute, and it was up two goals before the first frame was half over.

For the third straight game, the Caps spent th night chasing the Lightning. And for the third straight game, they couldn't quite catch up to them.

"I can't," says Caps coach Barry Trotz, when asked to explain his team's slow start. "We were probably looking at an 8 o'clock start, and not a 7:15. I just thought that we didn't get going."

The Caps stumbled out of the gates, falling down on the scoreboard on the game's very first shift. Neutral-zone play has been a positive for Washington throughout much of its postseason run, but it wasn't a strong suit early in Game 5. The Caps mismanaged a couple of loose puck situations in neutral ice, giving the Lightning numbers and sudden possession, and Ryan Callahan made a play to get the puck to the middle of the ice. From the slot. Cedric Paquette beat Caps goalie Braden Holtby to the glove side just 19 seconds after the opening puck drop.

"Well, it's pinballing around in the neutral zone there," says Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen. "I stepped up, didn't get the man or the puck, they get a two-on-one out of it, and scored."

It didn't get any better.

Just ahead of the midpoint of the first, the Lightning doubled its lead. Steven Stamkos stripped Dmitry Orlov of the puck in neutral ice - arguably tripping him at the same time - and Nikita Kucherov drove by and collected the puck. He fed Ondrej Palat, who wristed a shot from the high slot and past Holtby on the blocker side at 9:04 to make it a 2-0 game.

The lone highlight of the period for Washington was a successful kill of a Brett Connolly holding minor, an infraction committed in the offensive zone. By period's end, the Caps were down 2-0 on the board and 29-8 in terms of shot attempts, including 25-8 at five-on-five. Washington also had the same number of icings (four) as it had shots on net.

"Obviously they scored the first goal in the first minute," says Trotz, "and you're a little bit on your heels right off the bat. And then I thought we were going on the power play on the second one, and they score right away. We ended up on our heels, not executing, not playing quick, and we dug ourselves a hole.

The chasm got deeper in the first minute of the second period when Callahan batted a loose puck over a prone Holtby just 33 seconds into the frame, extending the Bolts' lead to 3-0.

"The first three goals are all my fault," says Niskanen. "I had a tough first 20 minutes and 30 seconds, so I've got to be better next game."

Neither Trotz nor Niskanen's teammates were having any of that.

"He is a straight up guy," says Trotz of Niskanen. "But we win and lose as a team. It's not one guy. I appreciate the thought, but there are 20 guys and myself and the coaching staff who are all responsible for losing. We'll take the blame together."

"I think that's Matt just being a real professional and a real leader for our team," says Holtby, who went on in some detail to defend his teammate.

Washington was better for the remainder of the game, but it was only able to shave the lead by a single goal in the middle period. Seconds after a Lightning icing violation, Niskanen put a shot toward the Tampa Bay cage, and Evgeny Kuznetsov deftly deflected it behind Bolts goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy to make it a 3-1 game at 4:21.

The Caps had some chances thereafter. Vasilievskiy made one of his best stops on John Carlson a minute or so after Kuznetsov's goal. Devante Smith-Pelly deflected a Christian Djoos point shot off the pipe, and Vasilevskiy made another great stop on Carlson from in tight in the waning minutes of the second period.

There was more of the same in the third. The Lightning bent but did not break, and the Caps were close on occasion, but never quite close enough.

Washington was only able to pull to within a goal late, after Holtby was pulled for an extra attacker. With 1:36 remaining, Alex Ovechkin one-timed a shot past Vasilevskiy on the short side to make it 3-2. But there would be no late miracle, and the Caps' first three-game losing streak since Jan. 18-21 (0-1-2) has them looking at summertime if they don't follow up the way hey started this series, with consecutive victories.

"I thought in the second and third we were really good," says Trotz. "We started skating and playing quick, we had lots of opportunities, but we just couldn't get it close enough. We pulled Holts, and we had a real good look to get it tied up. But we lost a lot in the first. I think we gave up more chances than we did in some of our [entire] games."