Game #56 Recap: Caps 1 Los Angeles 4

The Capitals fell to the LA Kings by a score of 4-1. In their last home game before a 5-game road trip, the Caps came out strong and Alex Ovechkin scored just 66 seconds into the contest. Unfortunately that would be about the height of the good play. Instead of energizing the team the goal seemed to put them into a state of complacency that saw them give up the tying goal in the second and  3 more goals in the third. LA took the game to Washington and the Caps had no response. The Kings controlled the puck and won all the battles along the wall. The Caps constantly would enter the zone and after one play they were chasing the puck back up the ice. Semyon Varlamov held the Caps in it for about 30-minutes but it is too much to ask your goalie to win when you have absolutely no offensive punch. Washington looked completely out of sorts especially on the power play were they went 0 for 4 and the best pressure came when Bruce Boudreau put the fourth line forwards on the ice. The Capitals need to figure out if they want to be a contender soon because there are only 29 game remaining and the rest of the Eastern Conference is putting on there playoff pushes. The next week will be very telling as the Caps will take on Phoenix, Anaheim, San Jose and Buffalo. Each of those teams is gunning for a spot in the playoffs so we'll see if the real Capitals will show up.

Of Note:

• Alex Ovechkin scored the fastest goal by a Capital this season it was his 290th career goal.
• The Caps were dominated in the face-off dot winning only 17 of 44 draws.
• As a team the Capitals blocked 25 LA shots. John Carlson led the way with 5 followed by John Erskine with 4.
• Matt Hendricks continues to give an inspiring effort. In just under 15 minutes of ice time he compiled 4 shots on goal and 7 hits. The rest of the team needs to watch this guys level of effort in every game.
• Semyon Varlamov took the loss and stopped 24 of 28 shots he faced.
• DJ King got a jersey and in his 7:22 of ice time had 1 shot on goal, 1 takeaway, 4 hits and a fight. Now thats a good line.

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