The Capitals Have Been On The Brink Time Many A Time This Season. With Their Backs Against The Wall Again, They're Hungry To 'Turn This Freaking Thing Around'

WASHINGTON — Charlie Lindgren was blunt when asked what it was like for his Washington Capitals to have their backs against the wall going into Sunday's Game 4 against the New York Rangers.

Washington is trailing 3-0 in its first-round series against New York, one where the Capitals have found themselves outmatched and outplayed as they find themselves on the brink of a sweep.

"Yeah, it's frustrating, but it's reality," Lindgren said bluntly.

But despite the somber locker room on Friday, an unsettling feeling inside of Capital One Arena with D.C. about to fumble the chance it worked so hard to get in the first place, the faith the group has in itself is still there.

Fading? Maybe. But still there.

"We're not gonna give up," Lindgren added.

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The Capitals have been pushed around this series by the high-flying Presidents' Trophy winners, plain and simple. While the team has been satisfied for the most part with its 5-on-5 play, Washington has fallen apart when it comes to special teams. The Capitals have come up empty on multiple power-play chances while giving up a couple of brutal shorthanded goals, and all the while, New York has muscled its way to a 3-0 series lead.

"We're not going to pretend to not know the situation or scenario without there being a tomorrow," head coach Spencer Carbery said bluntly on Saturday.

All the while, Washington's banged-up blue line is left picking up the pieces and throwing first-timers into the fire, with Rasmus Sandin and Nick Jensen sidelined and Vincent Iorio and Trevor van Riemsdyk knocked out of the series on big hits.

“We’ve just got to keep keeping our head up and keep battling," John Carlson put it simply.

This is nothing new for the underdog Capitals, though; it's a team that lost several key names this season, including Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, and despite the odds stacking up against them, still managed to sneak into the playoffs on the wing and prayer that Charlie Lindgren and his teammates sang about in their rendition of Eric Church's "Talladega" back when they clinched in Philadelphia.

“I think we’ve been in this situation last two months," Alex Ovechkin pointed out. "We just have to stick together and still believe in it and how I said, play as hard as we can.”

But what's the key to rallying back? For Hendrix Lapierre, it boils down to Washington getting back to its identity that won so many critical games down the stretch.

"I think at the end of the year when we were winning those big games, it was always really defensive and maybe they have a little more talent than us, so I think it makes sense that we want to play a defensive game, want to play a low-risk game, a low-event game," Lapierre said. "I think that's our identity. I think that's how we play and we haven't done that so far, but we're gonna stick with it."

It's a marathon, though, and not a sprint. The Capitals want to take things one game at a time, not looking to win a series but to just win Game 4 and go from there.

Of course, belief also plays a role. Washington has managed to keep faith alive in the room even during the darkest moments, especially at different points throughout the 2023-24 campaign where it felt like the season was over. Now, it's just a matter of showing that belief again.

"We were down on the mat plenty of times this year," Carlson said. I love this group and we’re going to give it our all and freaking turn this thing around next game.”

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The Capitals recharged on Saturday with a lightly attended optional practice, as several members of the group took the day to hit reset and reflect.

On Sunday, the plan will be to seize the day with that same grit and resilience that the gritty group has shown time and time again, and use it to avoid its first-ever opening round sweep in franchise history. The last time Washington lost a series 0-4 was in 2011 in the second round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It'll take one win to keep a wild year alive, and it starts with the locker room.

"We got a great group. We got a great group of guys in here," Lindgren reiterated. "We fought all year long, so we gotta go out and win the next game.