from Katie Carrera of the Washington Post,

The prescription for the Washington Capitals’ destruction is becoming familiar. Combine bad penalties with some sloppy decisions in the defensive zone, mix in a few neutral zone turnovers, sprinkle in a meager offense — and the recipe is all but complete.

That formula led to a 2-1 defeat Friday night to the New Jersey Devils, the Capitals’ seventh straight loss. They’ve scored more than one goal in one of those seven setbacks and have now dropped 14 of their past 18 games.

This particular failure saw another opportunity for Washington to pull itself out of its funk against a Metropolitan Division foe go to waste as the sixth-place Devils now sit three points ahead of the seventh-place Capitals.

“We’ve just gotta find a way to win a game. Gotta find some goals. It seems like we have to get a shutout to win a game. We’ve got to find a way to do it,” Jason Chimera said. “If desperation doesn’t set in then we’re in trouble, that’s for sure.”

continued