The Washington Capitals suffered another frustrating loss on Thursday, a 6-3 failing to the reigning back-to-back champion Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n
The Capitals have struggled all year to finish on offense, and the game against the Panthers was another head-scratcher despite secondary scorers finding the net three different times. The Caps dominated in possession \u2014 the process stats \u2014 but led in the game for only 28 seconds.<\/p>\n
WSH\/FLA notable stats<\/p>\n
Shots: 40-28 WSH
Shot Attempts (5v5): 71-41 WSH
Scoring chances (5v5): 30-25 WSH
High-danger chances (5v5): 14-13 WSH
Expected goals (5v5): 3.05-2.37 WSH
Goals (5v5): 3-3 tie<\/p>\n
What ultimately made the difference was special teams: the Panthers went 2-for-5 on the man advantage, while the Capitals went 0-for-2. Eetu Luostarinen then scored an empty-netter, and that was that.<\/p>\n
After the game, Spencer Carbery was asked whether it was hard to continue trusting the process<\/a> with the team sitting second-to-last in the Eastern Conference with 17 standings points (8-8-1 record).<\/p>\n Spencer Carbery: Yeah, I mean, it\u2019s not going to change. I mean, I know the results. Obviously, everybody wants the results to come. Of course you do. You want guys to score goals. You want guys to have big years.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, if we\u2019re putting ourselves in good spots and we aren\u2019t finishing\u2026 we\u2019re going to continue to work, nothing\u2019s going to change with that. We\u2019re going to continue to problem-solve. We\u2019re going to continue to try to find ways to score more goals. We\u2019re going to continue to try to find line combinations that have chemistry. We\u2019re going to continue to try different players, Ryan Leonard, whoever it might be, in those spots.<\/p>\n So that\u2019s \u2013 the process isn\u2019t going to change just because we\u2019re not scoring goals. Like, that\u2019s just not how it works. We\u2019re going to continue to do things because eventually, you know, pucks should go in and players will get here that can shoot the puck in the net, and that\u2019s all you can trust in.<\/p>\n At five-on-five this season, the Capitals have the second-best expected goals percentage (57.2%) and the third-best five-on-five shot attempt percentage (55.2%) in the league, per Natural Stat Trick. They have also generated the third-most high-danger chances (185). These are the numbers of an elite hockey team.<\/p>\n But with centerman Pierre-Luc Dubois out longterm due to injury<\/a> and the group of Alex Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, Aliaksei Protas, and Connor McMichael not producing on a nightly basis, the team has struggled to score in big moments and in general, too, potting only 49 goals in 17 games.<\/p>\n