The Capitals didn't have much to show in Vegas on Saturday.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the Washington Capitals put on a dominant performance against the Vegas Golden Knights. On Saturday, though, the tables were turned, and Washington paid the price and fell flat in a 4-1 loss.
Tom Wilson got the lone goal in the final minutes of Washington. Wilson's goal was his eighth of the season and fourth in the last two games as he followed up his hat trick to end Logan Thompson's shutout streak.
For the rest of the night, though, the Capitals lacked chemistry, energy and grit, and by the end of the second period, they were being outshot 27-9. It also took a forward until the second period to finally record a shot on goal.
Ultimately, the lackluster effort lost them and led head coach Spencer Carbery to change things up.
Connor McMichael was moved up to the top line, while Dylan Strome went to work with Aliasksei Protas and Anthony Mantha. Hendrix Lapierre operated with Nic Dowd and Sonny Milano, and to close out the game, Evgeny Kuznetsov was demoted to the fourth line to work with Beck Malenstyn and Nicolas Aube-Kubel before being benched.
Kuznetsov, who has led all forwards in ice time this season, did not play the final 5:54 minutes of regulation and was not on the ice when Darcy Kuemper, who kept his team in it and has 32 saves on 35 shots, was pulled for an extra attacker. The Russian took a roughing penalty and finished with a season-low 15:20 minutes of ice time.
Those changes led D.C. to outshoot the Knights in the third 13-8, but the attempt at a comeback was too little, too late.
Vegas got goals from Jonathan Marchessault (2), Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. Washignton's penalty kill, which had been flawless the last two games, surrendered an early power-play goal. The Capitals went 0-for-1 on the man advantage after having ended a 13-game drought without a PPG back on Thursday.
Charlie Lindgren did not play due to body maintenance, and Hunter Shepard is now up with the team and backed up despite arriving late from Hershey.