Recap: Canes Fall to Capitals

WASHINGTON - The Carolina Hurricanes suffered a 4-1 loss to the Washington Capitals in the first game of a home-and-home set between the two Metropolitan Division opponents.
Alex Ovechkin's 49th goal of the season was the difference in the third period, while Dougie Hamilton scored the lone goal for the Hurricanes.
Here are five takeaways from a Tuesday night in The District.

One
You can probably count on one hand - maybe even just a few fingers - the number of games in 2019 in which the Hurricanes haven't generated enough offense to be successful.
Tuesday was one of those nights.
The Canes never established their aggressive forecheck and didn't create enough chances to come out on top against a skilled team.
"We were kind of chasing the puck tonight. They're a good team. They don't give the puck away. They have a lot of good players who hold onto the puck and make plays," Hamilton said. "We had some looks, but we just kind of chased it around."
"They were good, and we were not. You put those two together, and we really had no chance in that game. It sort of felt like the whole way that we never got to our game. I give them credit. They played a tight-checking game and took advantage of their opportunities when we took a breath in the D-zone," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "We don't have a chance to play against those teams if we play like that. That's just not going to get it done."
Two
The good news: The Hurricanes took a 1-1 game into the second intermission on the road against the team currently leading the Metropolitan Division.
And, considering some recent third period and late-game heroics, there are worse positions in which to be.
"I thought they played better than us," Justin Williams said. "We just didn't have it tonight."
"We talked about how good we've been in the third being in those positions," Hamilton said. "We were fine with it, but we didn't show up, really."
Three
The bad news: The Caps broke a 1-1 deadlock open in the third period with a trio of unanswered goals.
The first felt like it had been building for 40-plus minutes. In transition, Alex Ovechkin connected on a one-timer from the op of the left circle to give the Caps a 2-1 lead.
Later, Dmitry Orlov found John Carlson with a slap pass that Carlson was able to smack in, despite the bouncing puck. That made it a 3-1 game with eight-and-change left in play in regulation, and Nicklas Backstrom sealed the victory with an empty-net goal late.
"Their high-end skill made a big play, and Ovi scored a goal like he does. We got behind, and they made another play," Williams said. "It certainly would have been nice to get out of this with some points."
"They did what they had to do to win," Brind'Amour said. "They were the better team."
Four
The Canes didn't get a proper chance on the power play tonight, but they did take advantage of a delayed penalty sequence in the second period. Sebastian Aho had drawn a penalty call on the Capitals, and with Petr Mrazek scampering to the bench for the extra attacker, the Canes reloaded, entered the offensive zone and established possession. Williams laid off a backhand pass to Hamilton at the point, and he drove a one-timer to the back of the net, through a screen provided by Jaccob Slavin in front.

"The puck was near the blue line, so I figured I'd take it out anyway. I picked my head up and I saw they all changed. I was able to almost find Slavin for a breakaway," Williams said. "We stayed with it, and it was a big goal at the time for us, but as you can see, it wasn't a turning point for us."
Underscoring the Canes' struggles offensively was the simple fact that they didn't get a chance on the power play. Typically, their aggressive forecheck will force the opposition into taking some sort of stick penalty in an effort to slow them down.
"It was zero aggressiveness. We just weren't moving our feet," Brind'Amour said. "It was weird. I don't know. It was one of those games for us we'll hope we don't see again. That's not the way we play."
On the other side of the special teams game, the Hurricanes were 2-for-2 on the penalty kill and held the Capitals without a shot on goal during their first power play of the game.
"We did a nice job there, but it's one of those games where they didn't need a power-play goal," Brind'Amour said.
Five
The big picture: The loss doesn't affect the Hurricanes' playoff positioning all that much, but wins by both Columbus and Montreal could begin to muddy the picture in the wild card race.
"I'm assuming everybody is winning. That's really what you have to do," Williams said. "You can't look for help. That's not the way you do it. You take care of your own business. If someone loses, great, but you go into everything assuming you need to win."
Just win is the bottom line, and the Canes will have a chance to bounce back on Thursday against this same team.
"We can throw that game out," Brind'Amour said. "We didn't come out with the urgency we needed. We're the desperate team. We've been pushing these guys for so long and hard. You could just see that for whatever reason tonight we didn't have it. We just didn't make any plays. We were firing pucks around and doing things we haven't been doing all year. It wasn't like we gave up a ton, but we didn't get anything going."
Up Next
The Hurricanes and Capitals will rematch on Thursday night in Raleigh to close out their four-game season series.
"Nothing is going to be handed to anybody," Williams said. "We've got to go out, take care of business and win our games."