Charlie Lindgren Postgame WASHINGTON — The Washington Capitals were on the wrong side of a result once again on Tuesday, falling 6-3 to the Colorado Avalanche for their eighth loss in nine games. And for head coach Spencer Carbery, he's seen a pattern that's become evident after days off. Carbery had strong words for his team's performance coming off mandatory off days per the NHL and NHLPA's Collective Bargaining Agreement, noting that their puck management takes a significant hit when they don't practice the day before a game. "This has been a bit of an issue for us all year long coming off of days off where we go back to back and it’s a scheduled day off per the union, and us coming off of where we didn’t skate the previous day, I find our puck touches are just a real struggle," Carbery said. "A lot of situations where we get into where you think something’s gonna happen… it’s just not polished. it’s in someone’s skates, it’s on their backhand, it’s a grenade into the corner, it’s a missed pass.” The first-year head coach cited the team's rocky start against the Avalanche that resulted in an early 2-0 deficit and an odd-man rush given up on one of the very first shifts against. While D.C. clawed back into the game and had chances, two poor reads in the second set the stage for yet another regulation loss. "We're in those types of situations where our players and our guys, for the most part, are a lot better with those pucks where we just make head-scratching plays and decisions and execution’s just not polished," Carbery said. "I thought that (against Colorado), we were fighting it big time." Washington sits six points out of a Wild Card spot with just over three weeks to go until the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline and 30 games left to play in the regular season. The players understand the urgency of the situation, and agreed that now is the time to figure things out or suffer the consequences. "We're tired of losing hockey games. I think we got a team in here that's certainly capable of winning hockey games... We got guys that compete extremely hard and got a lot of high-character guys in this room, but yeah, it sucks losing," Charlie Lindgren said. "We need to start stringing together wins. We really got zero choice, so it's win now, or we make our own bed." When it comes to what needs to change, the Capitals are confident that they are trending in the right direction, especially with the way they've been able to play against top opponents over this last stretch. Now, it's just a matter of puck luck and picking up points. "Just improving, I think every day in practice, we're going to look at these games and we're going to look at those exact moments where the breakdowns are happening. What can we do to address them and change them, and just continue to work on it," Beck Malenstyn said. "Everybody 9in this room is committed to that, and I don't think it's that far away. We've had some really good chunks of hockey here in the last couple of days... if we can iron out some small details, I think we'll come out on the right side of things."
