Lars Eller speaks following the Capitals' 3-2 overtime loss to the Canadiens. WASHINGTON — The going's gotten rough for the Washington Capitals. Washington has dropped three of the last five games, and over the last 13 overall, the team is 6-4-3 as its hot start to the season has all but evaporated. "We're nowhere near where we need to be," goaltender Logan Thompson said. While the Capitals have struggled, they've still managed to pick up points in six straight outings. "Good teams find ways to get points when they're maybe not playing at their best, but you also have to be aware that there's some things that aren't good enough that points can mask that a little bit," Lars Eller pointed out. "You can't fall into that trap." The most significant drop-off has been 5-on-5 scoring. Since Nov. 21, when Alex Ovechkin missed his first game with a broken leg, Washington has averaged just 2.14 goals per 60 at 5-on-5, the fifth-lowest total in the league and a far cry from the four-plus goals the Capitals managed at the start of the year. All the while, players like Connor McMichael, who started the year on a scoring streak, have been held off the scoresheet, and all four lines are struggling to get much chemistry going. "Anytime you get points in this league, it's positive and it's really, really difficult to get points, especially when you're playing the way that we are right now," coach Spencer Carbery said. "But like I've said over the last week, it's getting to a point where our players, it's a struggle and we got to get some guys going again." Washington still sits atop the Eastern Conference thanks to its strong start to the year, and that's the level of play that the team is eager to get back to while showing that the start of the year wasn't a fluke and that it can contend down the stretch. "We got to get some guys getting their seasons turned around. It's not like a three-game slump, this is turning into like 10, 12, 14 games for some guys right now and that's a large portion of your season. You got to be careful," Carbery said. "We're getting into that territory of this is who you are as a player as a team, so we got to get this thing turned around." The Capitals will get a chance to get things going in the right direction on Saturday against the Nashville Predators, who are also dealing with their own woes this season.
