{"id":394702,"date":"2026-01-08T07:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394702\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T07:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T07:19:09","slug":"no-energy-not-many-goals-and-no-win-stars-beat-capitals-4-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/394702\/","title":{"rendered":"No energy, not many goals, and no win: Stars beat Capitals 4-1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Capitals
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ud83d\udcf8: kurly from #crashers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Washington Capitals looked to continue their winning ways against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. The Caps hosted the Stars, winless in their last six games, at Capital One Arena in their final home game before they set off on their annual Mentors\u2019 Trip to end the week.<\/p>\n

Radek Faksa opened the scoring shorthanded, burying a rebound past Logan Thompson. Sam Steel doubled the Dallas lead with a tip-in from the crease. Wyatt Johnston added a third late in regulation. Alex Ovechkin grabbed a consolation marker with Thompson pulled for an extra attacker. Roope Hintz with the empty netter.<\/p>\n

Stars beat Capitals 4-1.<\/p>\n

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Without the lackadaisical power play and gaffe from Logan Thompson, the first period felt very even between the Capitals and Stars. I thought Dallas did a very good job in their own end, stifling the Caps, keeping them to just one shot at the most per shift. Tough to leave that frame down a goal, but one of their better starts of late.
\nTNT\u2019s national broadcast opened the first period tonight with Eddie Olczyk absolutely losing his mind over Justin Sourdif and Connor McMichael complaining about a linesman kicking them out of the faceoff circle. It continued with Kenny Albert calling Beck Malenstyn\u2019s name twice in succession, even though Malenstyn was definitely not on the ice, in the city, or in the state, as he has played for the Buffalo Sabres this season and last.
\nWild to see Brett Leason back in a Capitals sweater after he spent three seasons away with the Anaheim Ducks. Peter Laviolette was the head coach, and Ilya Samsonov was the number-one netminder, the last time Leason suited up for the Caps before tonight.<\/p>\n

The second period was one of the most lifeless slogs that I\u2019ve had to sit through with this year\u2019s Capitals. Just zero bounce, jump, energy, whatever you want to call it. It was topped off with a power play that could be best described as just some dudes skating around. Holy schmoley, not good.
\nJohn Carlson can\u2019t be getting beaten by Sam Steel at the back post on that second goal. However, I do think Brian Boucher had a point: Thompson likely had the chance to stop that pass from ever reaching Steel in the first place. I do understand him wanting to stay square to the shooter, though, as he\u2019s not exactly in the best run of form right now.
\nBrandon Duhaime tried to get his team and the arena into the game by fighting Ilya Lyubushkin. He won the fight, but didn\u2019t get much from his teammates afterward. Still, gotta appreciate the attitude.
\nI have to keep reminding myself that the team\u2019s entire first line is out of the lineup right now. It\u2019s not like they were exactly lighting the world on fire with Tom Wilson and Aliaksei Protas healthy either, but those guys are legitimate difference-makers, and this Caps team doesn\u2019t have a ton of them.<\/p>\n

Yeah, not much better in the third period. I\u2019ve been pretty up front with my belief that this team needs to make a trade or two. Honestly, it might be three now. We\u2019re now less than two months away from the trade deadline. I imagine there is also some activity ahead of the NHL\u2019s Olympic break.
\nDylan McIlrath seems like a lovely guy, but the Capitals consistently just play shorthanded when he\u2019s in the lineup. I can somewhat understand why forwards like Hendrix Lapierre and Sonny Milano don\u2019t play much, given the injuries and depth issues up front. However, the Caps purposefully sit two defensemen who are better than McIlrath whenever he gets a sweater, and then he plays less than 10 minutes. Someone explain that logic to me.
\nThe third Stars goal was a great summary of tonight\u2019s effort. Just a grenade pass to no one back into the defensive zone for no reason. Roy gets beat by the hustle of Steel, and then Johnston is just wide open right in Thompson\u2019s lap.<\/p>\n

The Capitals will practice on Thursday before heading out to Chicago and Nashville to end the week. Two bad teams. Need two wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcf8: kurly from #crashers The Washington Capitals looked to continue their winning ways against the Dallas Stars on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-394702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}