It was an opportunity missed. The Capitals entered play Monday four points back of Florida in the Southeast Division. They left it still four points back and won’t have a chance to gain ground again until they face the Panthers on Friday night – the start of five road games in six. Washington is 28-23-5 with 61 standings points and sits in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. They are one point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs (28-22-6, 62 points) and the two teams have played 56 games each. They are three points behind the Ottawa Senators (28-22-8, 64 points) with two games still in hand there. They are three points up on the No. 10 Winnipeg Jets (26-25-6, 58 points) with one game in hand.
“It hurts,” defenseman Jeff Schultz said. “We got to build off a few things tonight and be that much more hungry coming into next game because the points are starting to dwindle away and each game is becoming that much more important.”
It was the most shots on goal for the Caps (42) in a game since they had 44 on Dec. 7 in a win at Ottawa. It was only the fifth time under Dale Hunter they had posted more than 30 in a single game. Washington was 0-for-4 on the power play. But too many of those shots were outside the scoring zone. San Jose – with 35 shots – did a much better job of holding its position in front of the net and forcing goalie Braden Holtby to stop one deflection after another.
Schultz actually scored a goal – his first of the season. The one smile he had postgame was when he admitted he faked out Sharks goalie Thomas Greiss. And defenseman Roman Hamrlik scored, too. That was his second of the season. Neither tally was pretty at all. But it at least got the Caps within striking distance down 5-1 midway through the third period and the crowd noise rivaling a night with the woeful Wizards or a non-conference Georgetown hoops game.
Dmitry Orlov did rebound from a rough game Sunday with a goal 0.8 seconds before the end of the second period. It was Washington’s first goal of the game and made it 3-1. There was life in the building. Unfortunately, they didn’t do enough to build on it early in the third. San Jose’s goal from defenseman Brent Burns made it 4-1 and basically put the game out of reach with 15:24 left to play. A third power-play goal a few minutes later – credited to Patrick Marleau, taken away and then given back after the game – officially sealed it. Schultz and Hamrlik’s goals were just for show.
“Well, of course we know the situation. Every point right now for us is very important, but I don’t think we concentrated,” forward Alex Ovechkin said. “I think the thing for us is we have to win when we have to win. I can’t say nobody’s trying, nobody played 100 percent. You can see it. But when we’re 4-on-5, we have to win the special teams and you know, they have opportunity to score goals and they score it. We have the opportunity to score it, but we don’t score.”
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