Time for three straight wins for the Washington Capitals if they want to keep their season alive.
After tough overtime losses in Games 2 and 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series to the Boston Bruins, the Caps delivered an ugly effort in a 4-1 Game 4 loss. Now, Washington is one loss away from its season ending.
The first two losses, the Capitals had something to hang their hat on. They were bad in a number of ways in Game 4.
"Lots of emotions, just didn't think we really brought it today," Capitals center Lars Eller said over Zoom after the loss.
Added head coach Peter Laviolette. "Well, we've got to play a better game than we did. The first three games were relatively close and we went to overtime, this one we just weren't good enough we weren't fast enough, we didn't execute well enough.
This Capitals team is a seasoned group, one that has a number of holdovers from the squad that won the Stanley Cup in 2018. In other words, many are familiar with having their backs against the wall.
Sometimes, the end result has been a loss and the season is over. Other times, they've lived to see another day.
Because of that, they have hope.
"Tough situation. Tough spot," Caps alternate captain Nicklas Backstrom said. "But it's something we've been through before. I feel like we've been down like this before, so I think you've got to take it one shift at a time, one game at a time, that kind of scenario from now on. It's a tough situation, but we've got to believe in the locker room. We need to regroup here and go from there."
Eller agrees.
"We were off (Friday) and now we've got 48 hours to regroup here and I want to see a different team in Game 5 at home. I believe we can do that, I've seen it before."
Game 5 of Bruins-Capitals will be played Sunday at Capital One Arena. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET on NESN, with pregame coverage beginning at 6.
