Live From The Locker Room: Capitals Reflect On Being Swept By Rangers & 'Crappy' End To Season, Ovechkin On What Went Wrong

WASHINGTON — John Carlson didn't have a lot to say as he and the Washington Capitals saw their season come to an end at the hands of the New York Rangers, who finished the sweep with a 4-2 win on Sunday.

After all, his Capitals had fought so hard to get to this point, grinding out two huge points down the stretch to sneak into the dance, even when everyone counted them out. So to lose four straight, and not even steal a win and to be outplayed packs a punch.

"It stings no matter what," Carlson said. "Especially with how hard we battled down the stretch, to finish the year like this, it's really frustrating."

But is it enough that at least they battled to make it to the dance?

"No. Not right now," Carlson said.

View the original article to see embedded media.

For Dylan Strome, who wanted to make the playoffs just as much as any other player in that room, Sunday marked a "crappy" end to the year, but there was still a lot to be proud of.

"I think this team just never gave up. We started the season, we went 3-for-50 on the power play, can't score a goal. If we won, it was again very lucky and we just found a way to turn it around kind of in November and found a way to just grind throughout the rest of the season. We were never really in a playoff spot for the most part, I don't know many days we were in the playoff post, but it didn't feel like a lot," Strome said. "So you know, when you're playing catchup and you're playing every single game, you know, basically since December, that really mattered. This team fights for every inch and we fought to the very end. We put our lives on the line in this series and obviously came up short."

And they did put their lives on the line. T.J. Oshie played with a broken hand, according to Strome, and everyone was battling despite being out of gas. Charlie Lindgren, who has carried the biggest workload in the NHL since Jan. 26, started each game and gave his team a chance to win.

Related: Strome Says Oshie Played Game 4 With Broken Hand, Capitals Praise Alternate Captain As Future Remains Unclear: 'He's A Warrior'

"I’m proud of this group of guys. We’ve been through lots of injuries, trade deadline, but we stick together and it showed the character of this group and that experience that the boys have this year, it’s going to help," Alex Ovechkin said.

Ovechkin, who was held scoreless for the first time in a playoff series in his monumental career, added that he was healthy, but that his play wasn't good enough.

“It’s always tough to lose a series, especially we have pretty good chances. We just didn’t score. Our line didn’t score lots of goals and me, I didn’t play well, so it’s kind of sucks that we played bad," Ovechkin said.

Washington will hold its final media availability of the season on Tuesday.

Here's what else the Capitals had to say live from the locker room:

Alex Ovechkin

On what made the series hard for him personally: “I don’t know. I don’t have that kind of touches. I try to find a different way to put the puck in. But we just finished the game, so I have to think about it and see what’s happening and think about what happened.”

Dylan Strome

On T.J. Oshie: "He's a warrior, no other way to describe it. He's one of the best teammates I've ever had over these two years. Just the things he needs to do to get his body ready for a hockey game, you guys would be stunned if you saw it. If it is his last game, he's a hell of a warrior, hell of a guy. Everything you can ask for in a teammate. Guy puts his heart and soul on the line each shift. Played today with a broken hand."

Hendrix Lapierre

On building off this year: " I think you can always grow. For me, the start of the year was about consistency. I feel like I was better about that at the end of the year. Now, it's about working on my two-way game, being stronger, winning more faceoffs so I can be put in good situations. Just being a tough player to play against. I think there's a ton of growth I can still get. I'll work really hard this summer every single day and I'll be ready to go next year."

John Carlson

On the future and younger players stepping up: “Yeah, I think you saw that. I think you saw that down the stretch in meaningful big games. We obviously didn’t have any success in the playoffs, but I think you saw guys fill big roles and do well with that sort of responsibility and whatnot. But it’s not a good feeling.”