The Capitals moved three points behind the Flyers and are continuously making the race for the top seed in the East Conference more and more difficult. On Tuesday night they lost against the Hurricanes 3-2 in shootout. Even though they did not put any points on the board when they were up one on one against the goalie they lost the game during regular time. According to Alex Ovechkin, who had just returned from an undisclosed injury, the team is cruising and was not putting in the appropriate effort to go up against a team that was treating the game as a play-off one. Defenseman John Carlson further supported this point by explaining that his team has to play strong for the entirety of the game and give it their all. “We gotta be able to compete and beat any team that’s gonna come hard, ‘cause everyone’s gonna be fighting for their lives in the playoffs,” he said. “I feel like at some points in the game we were just kinda coasting a little bit instead of pushing the envelope.”
Coach Bruce Boudreau let his team get off the hook by blaming the six penalties for the team’s inability to close out the game without letting the Hurricanes back in. On the other hand he agrees with his players and explains “we’re not my any stretch of the means taking a vacation until the playoffs. We wanna play hard and win every game.”
