Spencer Carbery and the Capitals were blunt after a lackluster showing up north.
The Washington Capitals saw things go south quickly up north, as a decent first period turned into a 6-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. And with his team now 1-2 to open the year, head coach Spencer Carbery and his players are desperate to stop the bleeding — and fast.
Carbery stressed the need for urgency and for his top contributors to find their game quickly following the defeat, where the Capitals failed to execute offensively, struggled on defense and lacked speed and overall identity.
"It's more demoralizing the fact that we're really struggling right now from a standpoint that we got a lot of guys that are looking to find their game early in the season and aren't there yet... we have more [players] than you would call normal trying to find their game. And what's compounding the issue is now when we make a mistake, it's in the back of the net," Carbery told reporters after the game on Wednesday.
The first-year bench boss also emphasized that it's not from a lack of trying but more from a lack of chemistry and extra time it's taking to adapt to the new systems.
"I don’t think it’s a lack of effort. We’re turning over some pucks ... we’re struggling right now, we’re not executing well offensively, we’re not clicking like a well-oiled machine offensively, power play, finishing chances, 2-on-1s, odd-man rushes, it’s not clicking," he added. "They’re not ending up in the back of the net. Defensively, you have to tighten tighten tighten tighten if you want to survive games, and that’s what we’re not doing."
His players agreed, as Evgeny Kuznetsov acknowledged that the team's errors and missed assignments resulted in goals for Ottawa, while Dylan Strome also felt that the Capitals let Darcy Kuemper down.
"We're leaving Kuemps out there to dry. We're 1-2, could easily be 0-3 if not for Kuemps," Strome noted.
Washington will have off Thursday before heading to Montreal, where the team will face off against the Canadiens on Saturday. And while it's still early, the Capitals know that the start is still important and that they need to find a solution quickly.
"We just gotta get on the same page and keep working. It's too early in the year to panic too much. It’s just a learning experience and we gotta take from it what we did wrong and improve on it," Trevor van Riemsdyk said. "We can’t just chalk it up as unlucky bounces or whatever it may be. I think we gotta learn from it and grow from it."