{"id":398585,"date":"2025-11-23T06:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398585\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T06:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T06:44:11","slug":"capitals-power-play-not-even-close-to-good-enough-in-loss-to-lightning-its-costing-us-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/398585\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals\u2019 power play \u2018not even close to good enough\u2019 in loss to Lightning: \u2018It\u2019s costing us games\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC \u2014<\/strong> After struggling on the power play for much of the season, the Capitals seemed to take a positive step earlier this week, potting a pair of goals on the man advantage against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday. Despite that success, however, head coach Spencer Carbery wasn\u2019t convinced by what he saw in that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be honest with you, (the power play) wasn\u2019t great the other night,\u201d Carbery said Saturday morning. \u201cAnd I know we get two, so you\u2019re like, \u2018Everything is fixed.\u2019 So that\u2019s just the facts. When you watch the film, the four-on-three was not good. Had a full almost two minutes, and I\u2019m not sure we registered a shot. So it continues to be a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carbery\u2019s words proved prophetic when his team faced the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. Washington earned a season-high six power-play opportunities in the game, but failed to convert on any of them. The only goal scored on a Capitals power play, in fact, came from the Lightning.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s power play problems<\/a> aren\u2019t new<\/a>. They arguably didn\u2019t even start this year, with the team going through weeks-long droughts in each of the<\/a> last two seasons<\/a>. But once again, the power play cost the 2025-26 Capitals a game they otherwise should have won<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not making plays,\u201d Tom Wilson said. \u201cWe\u2019re not making simple plays. We\u2019re not moving. It\u2019s a little bit too predictable, probably. At the end of the day, it comes down to us, all 10 guys. You\u2019ve just got to make better plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have the puck, you\u2019ve got to get it to the next guy\u2019s tape. Can\u2019t pass on the problem. And all of us seem to just kind of be throwing it around right now. Just got to play with a little more confidence and find a way to put them in the back of the net. I mean, it\u2019s costing us games. So it\u2019s not good enough, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The power play\u2019s low point came on Hagel\u2019s goal early in the first period. After JJ Moser took the first penalty of the night, the Washington was in the offensive zone for just seconds before Erik Cernak lobbed the puck out to Anthony Cirelli at center ice. Cirelli deftly avoided Jakob Chychrun before passing to Hagel, who scored through two Caps defenders in front of him.<\/p>\n

Hagel scored just 15 seconds into Moser\u2019s penalty. The Capitals never touched the puck on the play, and they would not hold the lead for the remainder of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it\u2019s not good enough,\u201d Wilson said of the shorthanded goal sequence. \u201cAt this level, it just can\u2019t happen. It might cost us the game on a night like tonight. So it was a bit of a weird one, but at the end of the day, it can\u2019t happen. So every guy on the ice has to just be a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Caps certainly weren\u2019t off to a good start, Carbery noted that early play wasn\u2019t enough to doom the game. Instead, he pointed to the team\u2019s continuing missteps as the night continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think (the shorthanded goal was) the end of the world,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, do you lose momentum? For sure you do. Is it a lapse in judgment of those five guys? We get a little bit casual, and now all of a sudden Hagel\u2019s stepping into an opportunity, but we\u2019re still in a fine spot. But then as it progressively went \u2014 you guys saw how it went. And that\u2019s not even close to good enough from what we need from our power play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagel\u2019s goal stands out as the most obvious error, but the Capitals\u2019 failure to convert on a five-on-three in the third period was almost as big of a missed opportunity. After a tripping penalty from Anthony Cirelli, a slashing call on Emil Lilleberg gave the Caps more than a full minute on a two-man advantage.<\/p>\n

The moment could have proven a turning point for the Capitals, who were then only down by one. But despite several good chances, Washington couldn\u2019t beat Jonas Johansson, and Jakob Chychrun took an interference call to negate what would have been close to a minute of play at five-on-four.<\/p>\n

Washington now ranks sixth-worst in the league with a power play percentage of just 14.7%, an 8.8% decrease from 2024-25. Carbery has thus far been resistant to taking players off the power play, even as he\u2019s looked to make other adjustments to try and break the team\u2019s slump. He defended the decision<\/a> earlier this month, though he noted that he was nearing the end of his rope.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs my patience wearing thin? Yes,\u201d he said then. \u201cBut we are going to see if it works and hope that they can get this thing on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s performance against Tampa may have been the final straw. Asked after Saturday\u2019s loss if he still felt the same way about his power-play personnel, the normally-talkative coach had a simple answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, DC \u2014 After struggling on the power play for much of the season, the Capitals seemed to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":398586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-398585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115597663648932856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}