Capitals visit Flames with season 'hanging in the balance'

The Washington Capitals head into Friday's road game against the Calgary Flames hopeful that their struggles finally have hit rock bottom.

Thanks to a dispiriting 4-3 loss to the last-place Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, Washington has dropped four consecutive games in regulation for the first time since coach Spencer Carbery took the reins at the start of the 2023-24 season.

Washington's plummet has been staggering. The Capitals started the season with an 18-9-3 record and sat atop the Eastern Conference on the morning of Dec. 11. Since that time, they have managed only six wins (6-12-3) and would not be part of the Stanley Cup field if the postseason started today.

"Our season is hanging in the balance here," Carbery said. "We're going to have to dig in and give everything we possibly have and play like we're in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I hate using that in the regular season, and you never want to drum that up in January and say it's like a playoff game, but we are getting very, very close to teetering on if we don't get results soon."

Making the Vancouver loss even worse is how they lost.

Washington took a two-goal lead before the halfway point of the first period thanks to a pair of power-play goals, only to give up four straight goals to a Canucks team that entered the game having lost a franchise-record 11 consecutive games.

"It seems like a tough league to hold a lead," said Capitals forward Tom Wilson. "I think maybe you take the foot off the pedal for a minute, and they jump. They got a couple bounces, and they jump right back in it. So those first two (goals) for them, it's frustrating."

The Flames also come into the matchup feeling frustrated.

Calgary lost 4-1 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday in a game where the Flames fell behind early and never really threatened a comeback, even when they made it a 2-1 deficit in the final seconds of the second period.

"We got a big goal at the end of the period and then they score at the beginning of the third and I feel like after that, all the energy goes away," Flames captain Mikael Backlund said. "I didn't like our effort in the third."

Calgary has scored just one goal in back-to-back games and has been limited to one goal or less in 16 of 50 games this season.

These offensive struggles have reached a breaking point for a team that has won only three times in 10 games (3-6-1) since the calendar turned to 2026.

Coach Ryan Huska has not tried to cloud the issue. He says the group of forwards lacks enough push to score goals.

"We talk about generating offense, and if you don't have a lot of fire to your game or if you're playing the game with a lack of emotion, you're not as engaged as you need to be," Huska said. "That means you're going to be away from the net. That means you're going to try something our team isn't expecting you to do and you look disconnected."

The Flames do expect struggling but talented forward Jonathan Huberdeau to return to the lineup after missing the last game due to a lower-body injury.

Forward Blake Coleman, who led the Flames with 13 goals before getting hurt, will miss his fifth consecutive game. He might return to the lineup on the weekend.

--Field Level Media