Capitals Locker Room: Wilson Tired Of ‘Could’ves,’ Oshie Talks Bad Ice

WASHINGTON — Over the last three games, T.J. Oshie has seen the Washington Capitals fall into a similar pattern: bad starts followed by big pushes that are sometimes enough, and sometimes not enough. On Thursday, it was the latter in a 3-2 shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils and for Oshie and the team, that won't cut it as the standings get tighter.

Oshie dug into the team's performance, where despite escaping with a point, a sluggish start, a lopsided second and not enough shots led to the ultimate defeat. 

"That's three bad starts in a row here, so we gotta start better and try to build some momentum off the hop instead of momentum-wise getting behind the eight ball," Oshie explained.

READ MORE ON WHN: Takeaways From Washington Capitals' Loss To New Jersey Devils

He also pointed out that, at this point in time with spring approaching and temperatures changing, the ice at Capital One Arena isn't exactly ideal, and in turn, the Capitals need to adapt.

"We were just pretty sloppy early, I thought. ot making tape-to-tape plays doesn't help. Our ice isn't the best usually, especially this time of year, so we gotta be a little cleaner with our plays, a little simpler earlier.

"I mean, both teams gotta play on it. So it's not really an excuse for anyone, but sometimes it's frustrating," he said. "Happens at other barns every once in a while, too."

Looking at the game as a whole, Tom Wilson was also less than thrilled with the start but said that the team was able to turn things around and push at different times. Still, he was adamant that the team needs to play a full 60, and that a couple of strong minutes doesn't make much of a difference.

"It needs to be a little bit more consistent," Wilson said. "We had our looks, we could've won the game in overtime, we could've won it a few times. But 'could've' is the word. We gotta get it done."