The Capitals are urging better play across the board as they sit three points out of a playoff spot at a critical point in the season.

The Washington Capitals are in the throes of their most important road trip of the season, but the score of their last two games wouldn't indicate that the team is living up to the challenge.

After being shut out 3-0 back on Saturday in St. Louis, Washington found themselves falling into a 3-0 hole to the Minnesota Wild early on Tuesday and ultimately falling 5-3 as a third-period comeback effort proved too little, too late.

And now, as they touch down in Colorado for a critical meeting with the Avalanche on Wednesday, head coach Spencer Carbery and the team are urging a better performance across the board.

"We're in playoff mode right now, and this is our season and how tight and all that stuff, if we're being realistic about playing into April and May, like, this is going to be the chunk that decides our season," Carbery told reporters in Minnesota.

Washington is 22-17-6 and has 50 points through 45 games, and sits three points out of a Wild Card spot, with their opponents also fighting for their playoff lives. This road trip features a difficult slate of opponents, from the high-flying Avalanche to the top teams in the East and West in the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, 

The biggest issue continues to be a lack of 5-on-5 offense throughout the game. Anthony Mantha was able to pick up two goals on Wednesday, but besides that, the rest of the lines struggled to get any sustained pressure or momentum going. And when they did on Tuesday, it was too late in the game and too big a deficit to overcome.

“I don’t think we’re playing the hockey we should be right now, and we’re kind of trying to create plays that aren’t really there, creating too many turnovers against and it’s costing us right now," Mantha explained. "We knew we had to step up (in Minnesota) and unfortunately, we didn't really do it."

The defensive coverage was also spotty, with the pairings failing to pick up on high-danger threats and also leaving Darcy Kuemper out to dry on a couple of key plays.

"We kind of fell on our heels right away," Nick Jensen added.

Still, there's hope that the leadership group, consisting of Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson and John Carlson, as well as Nicklas Backstrom, who is not playing but is on the road trip, can come together to help lead D.C. stop the bleeding — and fast.

"Our group, I genuinely believe in our leadership... they're challenging games against real good hockey teams," Carbery said, adding, "That's where we have to prove that we belong and we're capable of playing past the regular season."