Williams: Capitals must 'take deep breath'

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Forward Justin Williams provided perspective to the Washington Capitals after an optional practice Saturday.
As a veteran of 1,000 regular-season NHL games, 120 Stanley Cup Playoff games and three Stanley Cup championship runs, Williams speaks from experience. The Capitals believed they did everything right in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Philadelphia Flyers but ultimately lost 2-0 at Verizon Center. Washington outshot the Flyers 44-11, but Philadelphia goalie Michal Neuvirth kept them from scoring.

The Capitals lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 but have missed two opportunities to close out the Flyers and advance to the second round. Game 6 will be at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday (noon ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports).
"You don't expect to have any team go away quietly, and they're doing what they can to stay alive," Williams said of the Flyers. "You look at the big picture, we're up 3-2, so that's what we're doing. If we're frustrated we need to take a deep breath and relax, and realize the task at hand is winning one game and nothing more than that."

After leading the series 3-0, the Capitals have lost two straight in regulation. In the regular season, the Capitals were the only NHL team without consecutive regulation losses.
"We know in the long run, if we play the way that we can, like we did [Friday] for the most part, something right is going to go in our direction and we can't get frustrated if it doesn't," Williams said. "You either go down swinging or you go down quietly. No team in this League is going to go down without a fight."
If there is any frustration on the Capitals' end, it may be that their top six have struggled to produce. Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov have scored, but Williams hasn't. Williams has two assists through five games but wants to make more of an impact.

Since the Flyers turned to Neuvirth in net over Steve Mason in Game 4, Neuvirth has made 75 saves on 76 shots faced.
"We've had a lot of looks, a lot of zone time, a lot of possession time but it hasn't resulted in goals," Williams said. "That can be frustrating, but we're going to simplify and play the way we know how. We need to be successful for us to move forward. We know that. We need to put the onus on ourselves and we have."
Capitals coach Barry Trotz said defenseman Brooks Orpik, who's day-to-day with an upper-body injury after he was injured in Game 3, will travel to Philadelphia. Orpik has not skated since the injury but has been working out. Trotz would not give an update on Orpik's availability for the rest of the series.