Despite Alex Ovechkin's best efforts, Saturday just wasn't the Washington Capitals' night.

Ovechkin had two goals and one of his strongest individual games of the year, but beyond that, Washington was just off and a step behind in an ugly 6-2 loss to the Canadiens.

Here are the takeaways as D.C.'s three-game winning streak comes to an end.

The Capitals didn't get off to the start they were looking for by any means, as a turnover off a failed shot led to a breakaway and goal for Cole Caufield just 30 seconds into action on Saturday.

From there, Washington was just off over the course of the night, and it led to a handful of miscues that led to three unanswered goals and the eventual loss.

Shortly after Alex Ovechkin tied the game at 1 later in the frame, a failed rim from Charlie Lindgren led to Montreal maintaining zone time. From there, Caufield snuck to the backdoor and went uncovered before tapping in his second of the night on a lay-up.

In the second, the same mistakes would lead to two more tallies that gave the Canadiens a commanding 4-1 lead that was hard to come back from.

Washington gave too much time and space to Montreal to work with, which allowed Mike Matheson to walk in and score on Lindgren before Kirby Dach got everything on a one-timer to add to the onslaught.

Beyond the defensive mistakes, which put Lindgren in a tough spot all night long as he did what he could, the Capitals couldn't really finish on their chances for a majority of the night. All the while, their passes and touches were just a touch off, while players seemed to be a step behind over the course of the game.

Still, Ovechkin would do what he could to try and spark his team.

On a more positive note, Alex Ovechkin was locked in and had one of his stronger games of late, and he was the one who pulled D.C. into the fight on Saturday.

Ovechkin got to the front and buried a feed from Anthony Beauvillier to get Washington on the board and end a seven-game goal drought.

Then, in the third, with the Capitals needing some kind of life, Ovechkin got to the front of the net and buried a picture-perfect feed from Dylan Strome to make it a 4-2 game.

Ovechkin is now up to 24 goals on the season and 921 in his career, and he was able to give the team some much-needed momentum. He also led the team with six shots.

Ultimately, though, it wasn't enough, as D.C. couldn't ride the momentum to complete the rally with Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans burying an empty netters late in regulation to seal the deal and stop any kind of comeback.

Of course, the glaring issue that remains for Washington has been the power play, and Saturday was no different.

The Capitals didn't make any changes to their personnel and had a couple of looks, but there was nothing significant that came of either of their three power-play chances that could have turned the tide and flipped the momentum in D.C.'s favor.

Not only was Dobes strong in the net for the Habs, but Washington struggled when it came to zone entries or quality scoring chances.

The Capitals went 0-for-4 and is now 0-for-10 since returning from the break, which gives Washington the second-worst power play in the league.

While Ovechkin's line, along with the second line, stayed together, Spencer Carbery did shake things up and reworked the bottom-6 for the third period.

Connor McMichael moved to center between Ryan Leonard and Ethen Frank, while Justin Sourdif shifted back to the fourth-line wing to work with Nic Dowd and Brandon Duhaime.