Uglier Than A Christmas Sweater

If coffee is for closers, the Caps are caffeine free as they descend upon Vegas for the finale of their three-game road trip. Facing an Arizona team that was winless in its last seven games (0-6-1) and had won only seven of 35 games this season, the Caps let a third-period lead slip through their hands like desert sands, suffering a 3-2 overtime loss to the Coyotes.

For 58 minutes and 59 seconds of Friday's game between the Capitals and the Coyotes, the best thing you could say about the game was that it was moving along quickly. Arizona and Washington got down to the middle of the third period with the Caps nursing a 2-1 lead, and with both sides still owning fewer than 20 shots on net for the night. Scintillating offensive hockey, this was not.

When Arizona's Christian Dvorak was sent off for a hi-sticking minor at 9:58 of the third, the Caps had a chance to increase their lead and take a chokehold on the game. They did not do so.

Caps goalie Philipp Grubauer had to stop fellow countryman Tobias Rieder's shorthanded breakaway to preserve the slim Washington lead, and seconds later Caps captain Alex Ovechkin shot a 50-footer on net, the only shot on goal his team managed in four minutes worth of power play time.

That would be the last shot on net the Caps would manage during regulation against the Coyotes, who allow more shots on net per night than all but six other NHL clubs. Washington could muster only 17 of them on this night, and the Coyotes lapped the Caps 12-1 in shots on goal over the final 13 minutes and 37 minutes of hockey played on Friday.

The Capitals failed to generate any sort of consistent attack, and they were unable to nurse that one-goal lead to the final buzzer. Washington wasn't quite able to clear the puck from its own end late in the game's 59th minute, and Arizona's Christian Fischer made the Caps pay with the tying tally. It came with just 61 seconds left in regulation.

Washington chased the puck throughout overtime, and ended up getting what it deserved in the end.

"I look at it as losing a point," says Caps coach Barry Trotz. "We were up 2-1, we had an opportunity to get the puck out, and we didn't. We got underneath it and they were able to win a race to the net and push it in.

"You go to three-on-three or into those [overtime] situations, anything can happen. [The Coyotes] stayed with it, they were able to get a late goal and capitalize in overtime, so I look at it as we had it, we just have to close it out."

Grubauer Going Good - Grubauer has been excellent for the last month, and he was once again on Friday against the Coyotes. He had a relatively quiet night in net, but did need to make a couple big early stops, and a critical save on fellow German and friend Tobias Rieder while Washington was clinging to a 2-1 lead midway through the third.

"He is always lingering around there on the blueline [on the penalty kill]," says Grubauer of Rieder. "He's good. He has scored a bunch of penalty kill goals the last couple of years and he's a fast guy, so you can't make too many mistakes, otherwise he's going the other way. He's a good, fast player.

"Yeah, it feels good to stop him. I can rub it in his face a little bit, but that's all."

In his last four appearances (three starts), Grubauer is 2-0-1 with a 1.36 GAA and a .947 save pct.

Best Line -Evgeny Kuznetsov and linemates Jakub Vrana and T.J. Oshie combined to score both of Washington's goals in the game, and they were probably the Caps line that spent the most time in the attack zone. The trio accounted for five of the Caps' 17 shots on the night, and more than half of the grand total of eight shots on net produced by Washington forwards in this game.

Oshie got the Caps started with the game's first goal early in the second period, off a slick little backhand feed from Vrana.

"Just a great play by those two guys," says Oshie. "[Kuznetzov] looked at me first and kind of drew their defenders to me and then went to [Vrana] and I really wasn't expecting to get a pass there, but a great play and for the most part a pretty wide-open net if I got it up."

He did. After the Coyotes tied it on a power play early in the third, Kuznetsov tied it for Washington, putting back the rebound of a Christian Djoos right point shot.

With a dozen goals on the season, Kuznetsov ranks second on the team to Alex Ovechkin's 23. Oshie notched his 11th goal of the season in Friday's game.

Tough Town -Washington has now won only one of its last seven visits to Arizona, going 1-4-2 in those seven trips to the desert. The Caps' lone win over that span was a 2-1 overtime triumph with Eric Fehr supplying the game-winner a few years back. The Capitals have not won a game in regulation here since Jan. 16, 2006, the day Ovechkin scored "The Goal" in a 6-1 Washington win.

Quiet Time -Coffee sales must have spiked at Gila River Arena after Friday's scoreless first period. Scoreless periods are not rare, but periods in which the two teams combine for seven total shots and 25 total shot attempts are rare, thankfully. Let's hope we don't see another 20 minutes of hockey like that anytime soon.

Down On The Farm -The ECHL South Carolina Stingrays suffered a 4-3 home ice loss at the hands of the Atlanta Gladiators on Friday at North Charleston Coliseum. The Stingrays fell down a couple of goals early and were chasing for the rest of the night, but ultimately fell a goal short.

Steven Whitney, Tommy Hughes and Andrew Cherniwchan scored the South Carolina goals while Parker Milner made 18 saves in a losing effort in the nets for the Stingrays.

South Carolina takes to the road on Saturday, taking on the Swamp Rabbits in Greenville.

Up a level, the AHL Hershey Bears were idle on Friday but they will host the Binghamton Devils on Saturday night at Giant Center.

By The Numbers -John Carlson led the Caps with 29:26 in ice time … Brooks Orpik led Washington with seven hits … Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with three blocked shots … Lars Eller won six of eight face-offs (75%) on the night while Jay Beagle won eight of 12 (67%).