EMERGENCY: Washington Capitals’ SLUMP Continues as Charlie Lindgren UNDERPERFORMS Versus Wild

EMERGENCY: Washington Capitals’ SLUMP Continues as Charlie Lindgren UNDERPERFORMS Versus Wild

On today’s show, the Capitals didn’t lose to the Wild because they got outworked. They lost because they ignored every warning sign they said they fixed. You’re Locked on Capitals, your daily podcast on the Washington Capitals, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. your team every day. >> Well, hello and welcome into this edition of Locked On Capitals, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. My name is Dan Holy. I’ve covered the Capitals for the past four seasons for Locked On and various other outlets before that. I’m also the host of the weekly show called The Capitals Minute Cast, available wherever you find your podcasts. And as always, I want to thank you for making this your first listen of the day and for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. Today’s episode is brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. So, in this edition of Locked On Capitals, there were a lot of things that went wrong in the game tonight against the Minnesota Wild, but Lingren being left alone. Uh, that was a big thing. I think it’s easy to say Charlie Lingren was horrible in this game. Was that really the case? A bit later, we’ll talk about Alex Ovetkin and the minute management. Uh listen, the great eight is not necessarily in love with playing a smaller role or less minutes, but it’s kind of where he’s at in his career. Uh but just to get it going here, talking about the game tonight, the ugly game tonight. And uh if you’re an everydayer, I spoke about this in the last show that if you thought that the Minnesota Wild were going to be a soft landing for the Capitals, you better think again because if you think you were going to see a better performance than you saw against Winnipeg, not the case. Uh this team seems disjointed. It seems like a complete flip around from what we saw what a week or so ago where they were sitting on top of the Metro. They were sitting on top of the Eastern Conference. Well, I’m here to tell you things have changed. Uh the Capitals 40 points. Uh in third place in the Metro. Oh, but there’s more. The Flyers now 40 points. The Penguins 37 points. The Devils 37 points. There’s not enough separation. If the Capitals do not turn this around in a hurry, they’re going to be on the outside looking in. And who’s surprised? I’m not surprised. Chris Patrick did nothing in the off season to fix this team. And and surprise, surprise, this team is not playing some of his best hockey. And we cannot live on our former record. That we were on top of the Metro a week or two ago, on top of the Eastern Conference. We’re not right now. And that’s all that really matters because what we saw out on the ice tonight was rather disgusting. And uh there was never any point in this game that I thought the Capitals were going to get back into it. Um and it was just the offensive firepower and all of the injuries uh that the Minnesota Wild have and they still found a way to to play some really great hockey. It’s a team that if you take a look at their possession numbers, five on five, their shooting uh percentages, well, they’re ranked as one of the worst in the league. But that matters not if your team cannot find the back of the net and the final was 5 to nothing. Minnesota Wild and what went out as a whimper. And um you know, and I’ll talk about Chucky in the second segment here, but a bit of a headscratcher um that he was in this game. Uh you know, you think it’ have been Logan Thompson, the red-hot Minnesota Wild, right? That I would have almost rather put Chucky in versus Toronto. But I I I don’t want to make excuses. Um it’s just a part of a bigger problem. And if you think it was all Quinn Hughes, I mean, to be clear here, he played a huge role. The guy is for real. Um, but you get uh Teraraenko uh scoring in the game out there. Capri off. Terasenko again, Eurovv Baldi. And what did the Capitals put up? They put up a goose egg. This has me irritated and worried about this team. I don’t want to start pointing to Spencer Carberry, even though all roads lead through the head coach, right? But even more than that, it’s the GM of this team. Uh, so let’s break down the game tonight. And um, you know, the Capitals talked about resetting, but they didn’t play like a reset team, and that’s the part that should worry you. It’s one of those things where, you know, if you’re doing something at wrong and they’re like, “Try it this way next time.” You’re like, “Yeah, I got it, boss. I got it.” And you keep making the same mistake again and again. And uh Spencer Carberry was crystal clear before this game. Uh after getting smacked around in Winnipeg, he wanted a low event start. Nothing fancy, no chaos, just structure, details, and patience. Yeah, I guess you can forget about all of that as none of that was apparent in the game tonight. And what do we get? Minnesota scores 209 in the first period. And right away the train was off the tracks. Part of me in my mind, and I I’m not trying to be a glass half empty. I just I’ve seen this movie before. I almost felt like saying this game is over right now. And right away that tells you the message didn’t fully land. And um you know, I want to be fair here because this wasn’t a full-blown collapse. Washington um didn’t unravel. They didn’t panic. They didn’t turn into another Jets game for long stretches, especially after Teraraenko’s early goal. They actually carried play. They were faster. They had the puck. They created on man oddman rushes, but they couldn’t do the thing that’s the most important, score a goal. Um, but here’s the harsh reality about all of this. They never felt dangerous. it um didn’t appear that all of the things that Spencer Calberry said about playing a simple game, we didn’t see that. They had chances without conviction, rushes without finish, and possession without payoff. And uh to be clear here, when that arena gets rocking in Minnesota, it is one of the loudest I’ve ever been at. And when you know Terara Senko scores that goal and kind of takes the Capitals, the players out of the game uh right off the bat, I think that they were left reeling. Um and Du Hay did the thing that he tried to to get a fight to try to swing the momentum. But you know, I think that um uh John Hines was reading the ride act to his players saying don’t fall into their traps. We’re winning this game. Let’s not give them the advantage. And um you know, you take a look at it and when Minnesota decided to ramp it up, when Carrill Capri off gets the rebound on the power play midway through the second, the game was over. And that can’t be the case. A team that is going to make a deep push into the playoffs or dare I say a Stanley Cup, they have to be resilient. And that has been some of um one of the things that you could use to describe this team at various points is being resilient. Not the case here as of late. And I’m not really sure what’s behind it. Pier Luke Dubois has been out for a long time. I know that um when we take a look at the line combos, they’re still kind of getting mixed up. And I I think that it would be nice to gain chemistry, some cohesiveness between uh the line combos and the D pairings. I mean to be clear here, nothing too crazy. A player here, a player there. Um, but it’s not getting it done. Um, and that’s the difference, you know, when I was talking about after Capri off getting the rebound on that PP uh goal through the second, the game over aspect. That’s the difference. That’s the difference between a team that’s sharp and a team that’s surviving. The Wild capitalized, the caps hesitated. You have to have that, you know, sticking the boot down on your opponent and winning these games. And the Capitals did not have that. They’re mind games. Head games are what’s going on where you start gripping the stick too tight and you it’s not tape to tape passing. There was none of that. Zone entries. The whole ball of wax was a mess. And now it’s it’s spiraling out of control. The same people that said, “Don’t push the panic button. The Capitals are playing really great.” Not anymore. This is now their four losses in five games after a sixgame winning streak. You take that six-game winning streak and throw it in the garbage, it means nothing anymore. And that’s not noise anymore. That’s inconsistency creeping back in. Uh the ghosts of earlier this season have creeped in. And you take a look at they had a stat up during the game. Um that uh in October that the Minnesota Wild were just absolutely horrendous. Um that there was questions in net. There was a question about a coaching change and they turned it around, right? And that’s what resilient teams do. I’m not saying the Capitals are not resilient. Um, but I still think they need that Quinn levels um uh uh type of trade to happen here, right? That and and you know, you take a look at it and when you take a look at Quinn on Minnesota, it’s not just him. It’s a jolt. It is the confidence that this team is for real about winning. And you know, that’s the hard part. Chris Patrick didn’t do anything to say that we’re all in on winning and what could be Alex Ovetchkin’s last season in the league. What we saw here in the last few games here is not acceptable. This is not a team that has any plans of doing anything great if they can’t batten down the hatches and get back to playing some great Capitals hockey. So, that’s where we’re at right now. Another ugly loss. I was really hoping, even though in my mind I was very cautious about thinking that that was going to be the case, uh that the Capitals could have an about face and actually win this game. An ugly mess. an ugly mess that needs to get cleaned up before they take on the Maple Leafs. All right, so coming up here after the break that despite the final score, Lingren left alone. Uh well, that definitely did not help the Capitals in their case for trying to win this game. What’s the latest with Lingren and what does that tell us about the team and their confidence playing around Lingren? I’ll discuss straight ahead. The holidays are amazing, but they can also get overwhelming fast. Travel, gifts, parties, year-end expenses. It’s easy to lose track of your money this time of year. 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That’s 50% off your first year at monarch.com with the code locked on NHL. Thank you for making Locked on Capitals your first listen of the day and thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. Now take it to the next level and go adfree. Join the everydayer club at lockedon capitals with no interruptions, membersonly discord access and more. All for just $5 a month or $50 a year. If you’re a true diehard locked on Capitals fan, the everyday all access tier is built for you. You’ll get one-on-one text access with me, All Access episodes, an exclusive newsletter, and a 15% discount to the Locked Onch store. Head to the link in the show description to join the Everydayer Club and unlock all access. You can find more information in the show notes. All right, welcome back into this edition of Locked On Capitals, part of the Locked On Network. It is your team every day. You can find me on Twitter. It’s dancaps28. You can find the show on Twitter. It’s locked caps. So, in the second segment of today’s show, a bit of a headscratcher um to have Chucky in there coming off that upper body injury that you take a look at his record historically against the Wild and um it’s not too good. And I don’t know if he was hoping, you know, Spencer was hoping that, you know, he could get some hometown boost because Chucky’s for Minnesota. I don’t know what the case is because usually it’s analytics. Usually it’s history and well, his record at home or excuse me, his record against Minnesota is not that great. Um, so let’s dive into that here. and ultimately Lingren being left alone. I think that the numbers aren’t quite as bad as they look uh when it comes to Chucky. Um because you take a look at the scoreboard, five to nothing. What comes to your mind? The goalie sucked five to nothing. Well, okay, that’s part of the equation, right? Uh the other part of the equation is the zero part. The Capitals did not find the back of the net once. But Chucky, Charlie Lingren, the outlaw, Chucky sideburns deserved better and the team did not give him the lift. So, let’s start with some context. I think it’s always important to paint these pictures contextually. So, let’s start. His first start since December 5th, upper body injury, hometown game in Minnesota. career. Get this. 04 and one. What What gives? What were you guys ultimately thinking? The redhot Minnesota Wild and Quinn Hughes. They’re still in the honeymoon phase with all of that. And you put in Chucky, his first game back, 04 and one. I mean, I think that hometown thing is only going to go so far. But, um, that’s a lot. And Lingren still stops 27 shots. So despite the five to nothing, you know, saving 27, you know, that’s what it’s all about. This wasn’t a goalie getting shelled. This was a goalie getting slowly worn down by breakdowns, rebounds, and lost coverage. That in a game where it’s pointing fingers, it was you, it was you, it was you. Um, does Charlie deserve some of the blame? For sure. Uh, is he the only one to blame? Absolutely not. And um that’s something that needs to be quite, you know, made quite apparent here. Um because you take a look at it that Capri off power play goal, uh rebound chaos, uh the Euroff goal, defensive uh confusion, and the short-handed goal late. That’s a team pressing and cheating offense that when the Mojo was going for the Wild, there was no stopping them in this game. And that one hurt the most. The short-handed goal late. That was the fork in it. It’s all over. Um because when you’re down late and desperate, you cannot give up a shorty. That’s a confidence killer. That’s the hockey equivalent of a white flag. You got me. It’s all over. And let’s talk about the power play for a second because it keeps coming up that you know it’s Chucky, right? That Chucky, you know, didn’t play that great. It’s five to nothing again. hung out to dry. How many times have you heard that? But it’s even bigger picture stuff. The power play, the big elephant in the room that no one wants to look at, but we’ve been looking at it for seasons right now. It keeps coming up short. And uh if you have plans of doing great things, you need to fix this. And the Capitals have not done anything to fix it. Because the power play, the Capitals were 0 for two. Conversely, the Minnesota Wild were one for four. Wild outshooting the Capitals 32-25, not getting it done uh in any regard really in this game. And um you know, the power play is something that’s followed this team. And the Capitals had looks early. They moved the puck, they got entries, but there’s no deception, no quick strike mentality. Everything feels half a second slow. On the other side of the coin, uh, the Wild scores on their first power play and adds a shorthanded goal. That’s a twogoal swing purely on special teams. We could have been talking about a completely different game if the Capitals had converted on some of those opportunities. And you’re still saying that’s a pretty big disparity, five to nothing. But that doesn’t that doesn’t take into consideration momentum. What kind of momentum could the Capitals have uh achieved by scoring a power play goal or two? Um because the way that they’re not converting in these opportunities, you’re not winning games like that, period. It’s not really up for debate. And Terasenko uh in this game, you know, uh a guy that’s definitely on the back nine of his hockey career, you know, at one time a really great player. I mean, I will always remember back in his heyday in St. Louis. But um but when you but when those are your only goals and one of them comes off a faceoff play, it tells you the offense isn’t flowing. Um and and it’s a tough thing and we gifted the Wild a lot of opportunities. Uh the Caps weren’t awful despite the goose egg. They were ineffective and that in a lot of ways is worse. So, in the second segment here, we’re talking about Chucky, you know, airing him out to dry yet again. We’re talking about the ineptness of the Capital special teams, i.e. the power play and just giving a lot of the advantage to the Wild, um the breakaways, you know, that Chucky is supposed to stop all of those. You know, he’s doing what he can do that there is a lot to be cleaned up. I expect some big changes to happen soon. Um, I don’t know how they’re going to manifest. I think that Spencer is safe. I mean, I’m I’m 98% sure that Spencer Carberry is safe considering he won the Jack Adams last year. Um, and what he did here as of late, but it’s not so much a coaching thing, per se. It is, but I think that they’re missing uh the ingredient that’s going to take them to the next level. I’ve talked about it last summer, all this year. Um, going all the way back to last season’s out of town. He set this team up to succeed, but there hasn’t been any subsequent moves to help bolster this team. And I think that those are the moves that I would expect coming real real soon. And I just have a hunch, a premonition, a finger to the air that there is some change coming for this team. All right, so coming up here after the break, we’ll talk about O’s minutes and how he’s sometimes more effective in less amount of minutes. I’ll discuss straight ahead. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting from FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game live. You’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. Every drive, every momentum swing, every highlight moment. Live betting is best when it come when the game starts to shift, receiver gets hot, a defense tightens up, or the momentum flips after a turnover. FanDuel lets you jump into the moment. 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So, in the final segment of today’s show, we’re going to kind of put the garbage pile that is the Capitals in their play as of late to the side, and we’re going to talk about the man himself, the great eight, my captain, your captain, our captain, Alex Ovuchkin, um, who could be playing in his last season in the NHL and more specifically with the Capitals and how as of late, even though under um, you know, he um, that he doesn’t like it, right? That he he’s put up uh he’s made it quite apparent that he’s not super comfortable with playing less amount of minutes. But what we found um with Alex Ovuchkin is that sometimes less is more with him. Uh so let’s talk about the man himself here in the final segment of today’s show. Um because Spencer Carberry is handling Alex Ovuchkin correctly. I really believe it and fans need to stop confusing nostalgia with winning and where he’s at in his career because father time is coming for us all 40 years old and I know he’s putting up some goals this year, but I think that he has to remember not 27 years old anymore that um you know that there’s this is a young league. It’s a fast league and that’s where we’re at because let’s get into the OVI conversation because it always comes back here. As Alex Ovetchkin goes, so go the Capitals. And OVie um is averaging, what does it show here? About 1752 a night. And with that, no defensive zone starts, managed minutes, and clear communication about where he’s at. And like I said, Obie’s not in love with it. And um Carberry admitted that. He said, quote, “Sometimes he’s not going to go out there and not be happy about it,” unquote, but that’s the way that it is. And um has to be difficult for Obie um just considering who he is and who he has been for years to see a more limited role. And to be clear here, is he putting up the same kind of numbers that he did when he’s 27? No. But still, you know, putting up a solid contributor to this team, it’s got to be tough. Uh, but the good thing about Obie, the captain, uh, in hearing those, uh, words from Spencer Carberry, um, it has to be hard to hear sometimes. But, you know, Carberry doing the tough thing. That’s leadership. That’s honesty. That’s not trying to sugarcoat anything. And, um, you know, you take a look at it. It’s the results. And that’s ultimately what it’s all about. They back it up with Oie on the ice at five on five. The Capitals control nearly 54% of expected goals. Outscore opponents 27-13. Have their best five on five goal differential with any forward. That’s not decline. That is efficiency. Circle highlight underline boldface type efficiency. That this is not a step back. This is not casting dispersions um upon Alex Ovetkin. This is just understanding how he is the most effective. We have analytics nowadays, guys. It’s not just guessing. And now here’s where ties back to the wild loss. The Stro Ovetchkin line has cooled off. Um and December numbers down across the board. Shot share chances, high danger looks all trending the wrong way. And I think that um you know when you talk about the how the Capitals and why the Capitals are playing the way they are, it’s it’s those kind of things. Shot share chances, high danger looks, all going the wrong way. And Carberry is cognizant of it. He knows he didn’t dodge it either. He said, quote, “That’s been for our whole team.” Unquote. Exactly. This isn’t about Obie’s minutes. I think that’s the easy thing to concentrate on. It’s about the group around him not sustaining pressure because at the end of the day, Obie’s still producing point per game in December, one point behind Tom Wilson for the team lead. The issue the issue is is that when the c the caps stop controlling games, his line isn’t insulated the way it was earlier in the year. And um you know, that’s that’s the thing that they’re going to have to overcome. and to circle back why I think the Capitals need to make a big move to bolster a move or two to be honest with you to to make up for the move that wasn’t made last season um other than Boie right and that’s what the re why the reset needs to happen because Obie’s management isn’t the problem team execution is and um it’s all about getting it right like I said there is not a lot of time to dillydally to to to second guess it the Capitals are not playing some of their best hockey. And like I said, follow the bouncing ball this season. They’re good, they’re bad, they’re good, they’re bad, they’re good, they’re bad. That um you can get dizzy at the end of the day. Um but we’re hoping the Capitals can turn it around. Um but at the end of the day, it’s just lip service because we went into the game tonight thinking that we’re going to do all the right things, play a simple game, and do this. They did not do any of the things that Spencer Carberry said that they should do. And ultimately, that is why the Capitals walk away from this game with a loss. All right, once again, I want to thank you for joining me on this edition of Locked On Capitals, your only daily your own podcast covering the Capitals. And I want to thank all of you that listen on the audio side and watch this on YouTube. You are ultimately what makes this show successful. If you are in need of a lastminute holiday gift or someone keeps asking what you want, make it easy. Ask for the Everyday Club. Add free episodes of this show. You got to love it. The show goes goes by that much quicker. An exclusive Discord server access where we can all talk about Capitals together, where what kind of trade should they make, right? Um why are the Capitals playing so poorly? And these vibe checks that we talk about so much. Um and that’s where we’re at. Subscriptions can be gifted through the link um uh for the Capitals. Again, I’ll have more information in the show notes. For those of you now on the video, we send you to the first ever 247 National Locked on Capitals podcast feed on audio. Make sure and make your second listen NHL game night on Locked on NHL. All right. Once again, I want to thank you for joining me on this edition of Locked On Capitals, part of the Locked On podcast network. It is your team every day. My name is Dan Holy and I’ll talk to you again next time.

Washington Capitals spiral after a crushing 5-0 defeat to the Minnesota Wild—will GM Chris Patrick make a bold move to save the season? Despite Charlie Lindgren’s efforts in net, the Capitals displayed glaring issues in execution, special teams, and chemistry, raising fears their playoff hopes are slipping away.

DAN HOLMI breaks down why the loss wasn’t due to lack of effort but repeated neglect of fundamentals, questionable lineup decisions, and a stagnant power play. Key discussions include Alex Ovechkin’s reduced ice time, the team’s alarming lack of resilience, and the critical need for roster upgrades to spark an Eastern Conference turnaround. With the Metro Division tightening and matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs looming, the Capitals face a pivotal crossroads. Can Spencer Carberry push the right buttons, or will Patrick finally pull the trigger on a major trade?

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