The Capitals’ opening night loss was a bad omen for D.C. sports

At just the appropriate moment Friday night, after Sidney Crosby’s slap shot shushed the fans in red in the second period, the crew handling game operations at Capital One Arena had the perfect song queued up. Wasting no time, they got to the good part of the Bob Marley and the Wailers classic “Three Little Birds” so that the chorus of optimism would cut through the silence.

Don’t worry about a thing. ’Cause every little thing gonna be all right.

The lyrics were probably meant as a salve for the capacity crowd at the Washington Capitals’ season opener, fans who had shown up hopeful that a new season and a new coach would reverse the aberration of missing the postseason. Ready to embrace a roster that combines an aging core with inexperienced upstarts, the fans were expecting a fresh start. Many showed up early in the afternoon for the red carpet arrival of players, and from the first puck drop, their chants of “Let’s Go, Caps!”serenaded the Alex Ovechkin-Nicklas Backstrom-T.J. Oshie line, just like old times.

Then the collapse happened. The hated rivals from Pittsburgh scored three times in a nearly eight-minute stretch in the second period. Crosby tallied twice. Washington’s deficit eventually became a 4-0 loss. And all the game ops folks could do was play the chorus on repeat.

Don’t worry about a thing …

But maybe worry a little? About the Capitals’ power play. Also about their penalty kill. And while we’re at it, their scoring chances at even strength.

There are a lot of little things to worry about after the Capitals suffered the first season-opening shutout in the franchise’s 49 years of existence. A lot of concerns, which had been buried since the end of last year and now boil up again at the top of a new season. And the biggest worry? These Caps might have high expectations to make the playoffs after a down year, but Friday night could have been a prelude of more gloom to come.

“It’s probably, if you chalk it up, it’s the worst scripted start we possibly could have had. In terms of just being disappointed. Home ice. Trying to generate some momentum from a season standpoint and that certainly did not happen,” said Coach Spencer Carbery, who probably didn’t pump feel-good jamsin the home dressing room after this one.

Before the action, ESPN cameras captured Carbery firing up his players. He spoke evenly but colorfully while pointing to the side of the room that features the team’s 2023-24 slogan.

“Last thing I got for ya. Right there,” Carbery said, highlighting the “Something to Prove”signage. “We’ve been waiting a long f---ing time, a long time for this night to come.”

After the Capitals missing the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons, this opener was supposed to feel like a return to normal. The one consistently functional franchise in the city was starting anew and shouldering what little hope remains for a major postseason appearance in 2023-24. The odds are against the Capitals making a run to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but here, in a city suddenly starving for postseason success, they still may be the District’s best bet.

It’s an almost silly concern — and borderline egregious — to fret over a playoff drought. There are far more serious matters happening in the world to bemoan than the fact the Commanders, Nationals, Wizards and Capitals have not advanced past the first round of the playoffs in four years. Yet if the sports we love serve a civic good in uniting a city and provide a necessary diversion from real-life worries, then the District could use a little help.

Look around the sports landscape in this city and survey the struggle. Absent the Washington Spirit in the 12-team National Women’s Soccer League, is there a playoff team left around here?

The Commanders (2-3) began the season fueled by good vibes from the new adults in the room. But Josh Harris is too busy in the owner’s suite to patrol the secondary, and the early optimism is gone. Ahead of the Commanders’ meeting with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, the team has an 11 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to one estimate.

The Nationals, too, want new owners — and another trip to the postseason. Since winning the World Series in 2019, the Nats have ended every season short of the playoffs. The Mystics, who also won a championship in 2019, never got their parade and haven’t won a postseason game since the pre-covid days.

D.C. United, winless in the playoffs since 2015, is back at square one, searching for a leader. And the Wizards will be under construction for the next several years; don’t expect them to finish in the top 10 in the Eastern Conference anytime soon.

So no pressure at all, Caps. But the city needs you.

“I think a lot of us are really excited to be back. We’re disappointed about last year. We also don’t want to miss playoffs; that’s not acceptable,” Backstromsaid during media day. “I think I see a lot of fire in guys in the locker room and how we approach this season. I think it’s going to be an important year. We need to get off to a good start.”

But Friday wasn’t that start, and it’s never a good sign when the highlight for Ovechkin — who is 73 goals from overtaking Wayne Gretzky as the greatest scorer in NHL history — came when he propelled his 38-year-old body into Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson. Ovechkin leveled himself as much as his target, though he still led with four of the Caps’ 19 shots on goal. Pittsburgh far exceeded Washington with 35.

“We just move on, obviously,” Ovechkin said after the loss. “We didn’t get the result. The boys [were] ready, but we’ll watch the video, and we’re going to play better next game, right?”

No one besides Crosby won more faceoffs Friday night than Backstrom (11), but the welcome sight of one of the city’s longest-tenured athletes back on the ice is always tempered with the fear of another injury. Backstrom, 35 and in his 17th season with the Caps, has appeared in fewer than 50 games in each of the past two campaigns. There’s also equal parts delight and dread with Oshie — again, great seeing the 36-year-old forward log so many shifts in the opener, yet how long until his back becomes a problem?

For a night, however, the veterans withstood the rigors and renewed a rivalry against the classic duo on the other end, Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. And still, the night’s soundtrack was not a victory cry but rather a reggae song that attempted to assuage any panic in the announced crowd of 18,573.

Though Washington’s hockey team has plenty to prove and little faith from oddsmakers, among its D.C. peers, it still represents the city’s only postseason hope. And that should be enough to worry any local sports fan.