ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Washington Capitals believe they’re ready to respond to by far the biggest test to their resilience they’ve faced in a season that was going smoothly from the start.
The Capitals have no other choice, trailing the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 in the Eastern Conference Second Round heading into Game 5 of the best-of-7 series at Capital One Arena on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS). After losing the past two games on the road, Washington returns home on the brink of elimination.
“You have to have confidence, and I think we have confidence in our team and our ability against these guys and we feel comfortable at home against them tomorrow night,” Capitals defenseman John Carlson said Wednesday. “So that’s our mindset. But I think you rely on everything. You rely on your teammates, the experiences, the ups and downs that we’ve gone through away from each other and together.
“It’s never going to be easy, so this is a big challenge for us and we’re ready to face it.”
Washington didn’t face much adversity this season before this series. It went 13-4-1 in its first 18 games, never lost more than three in a row, was the first team in the NHL to clinch a Stanley Cup Playoff berth, and mostly coasted after doing so March 20 to finish first in the Eastern Conference with 111 points (51-22-9).
The Capitals then won the first two games against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs on the way to winning that series in five games. But it’s been an uphill climb against the Hurricanes, beginning with a 2-1 overtime loss at home in Game 1.
They rebounded to win 3-1 in Game 2 but scored only two goals -- both in a 5-2 loss in Game 4 on Monday -- in the two games in Raleigh, North Carolina, leaving them no margin for error for the remainder of this series.
“Of course, at this point in the year, if you lose two in a row it’s usually not a good thing,” Washington center Dylan Strome said. “We did a great job all year finding ways not to let one loss pile into two and three and, obviously, we need that now.
“Our backs are against the wall, of course, but [we’ve] got a lot of belief in this team and what’s to come. So we’re excited.”
Teams often learn the most about themselves when pushed. There are examples the Capitals can point to from the regular season, such as their League-leading 25 comeback wins, going 10-5-1 when captain Alex Ovechkin missed 16 games because of a fractured left fibula from Nov. 21-Dec. 23, and avoiding any extended skids by bouncing back after disappointing losses.
For the most part, though, they always had the safety net of a comfortable lead in the East to fall back on. They had a 10-point lead in the Metropolitan Division and nine-point advantage in the conference by the time they reached the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off on Feb. 9 and weren’t really challenged after that.
“There were some things we learned about each other as a group of digging in when we needed to,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “I think our team has been pretty mentally tough all year long in all different situations, even though if you're going to point to a six-game losing streak, it didn't happen, if you're using that as the only criteria that we have.
“But I look at a bunch of different things and I look at it as speed bumps, as adversity we get through as a group.”
The Capitals are facing more than a speed bump against the Hurricanes. They’ve struggled to handle Carolina’s incessant forecheck pressure, which has led to extended shifts in their end and less time to create offensively. And when they have generated scoring chances, they haven’t converted enough of them against Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen.
Washington has scored only three 5-on-5 goals in the series, one each in Games 1, 2 and 4. Although the high-danger shots on goal are 24-24 in the series, according to NHL EDGE Advanced Stats, the Capitals haven’t scored on any of them. Carolina has scored four goals off its high-danger shots.
The Capitals likely will need to change that in Game 5 to have their best chance to force Game 6 at Carolina on Saturday.
“I think in really close games if we get a goal at certain times, in a timely manner, we can capitalize on our chances, it will change the momentum a little bit more in our favor,” Washington forward Tom Wilson said. “I think finding the back of the net, working to do that, we’re going to use the energy in our building to get us going and we’ll start with the first period and go from there.”
The Capitals have come back from a 3-1 series deficit twice in their history -- in the 1988 Patrick Division Semifinals against the Philadelphia Flyers and the 2009 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the New York Rangers. Ovechkin, who is in his 20th NHL season, is Washington’s lone player remaining from that 2009 series.
So a different challenge has been presented to this group.
“We know what this team can do,” Wilson said. “We’ve been one of the best teams in the League all year. It starts with one game. We won one game plenty of times. … Everybody in here, when we’re playing the same way and the right way, it’s a tough team to beat. So we’re confident in the group.
“We’ve had resiliency all year and we love each other in here and we just want to go out there and leave it all out there and start to slowly try to push them out of the series.”
