VANCOUVER — After a summer of change that saw no fewer than five key players wave goodbye, the new-look Washington Capitals continue to search for their identity — whatever that is.
Winners of back-to-back Presidents' Trophies, the Capitals sit with a pedestrian 4-5-1 record, including a recent 1-3-1 run, as the first month of the season nears a close.
The latest setback came in Thursday's 6-2 road loss to the Vancouver Canucks where they trailed 3-0 after the first period against a rebuilding franchise that has surprised early on, but nonetheless was coming off a five-game road trip.
"We are not the same team," Washington head coach Barry Trotz said following the defeat at Rogers Arena. "There's a lot of people missing, so this group has to find what is going to work.
"Some of the things we do are things we did last year and the year before that we could probably get away with just based on our lineup."
That lineup was pinched by salary cap concerns during the off-season as Washington lost defencemen Kevin Shattenkirk and Karl Alzner, as well as forward Justin Williams in free agency, while forward Marcus Johansson was traded.
The Capitals were also left without a third key piece on the blue line when the Vegas Golden Knights selected Nate Schmidt in the expansion draft.
To compound the problem, Washington currently has long-term injury concerns with forward Andre Burakovsky (thumb) and defenceman Matt Niskanen (upper body), while centre Nicklas Backstrom sat out the game in Vancouver because of an illness.
That's a lot of talent missing from a roster that dressed rookie defenceman Madison Bowey and Christian Djoos, along with journeyman Taylor Chorney against the Canucks. Up front, there are names like Alex Chiasson, Jakub Vrana, Nathan Walker and Chandler Stephenson.
The Capitals still have star power in captain Alex Ovechkin, centre Evgeny Kutznetsov, defenceman John Carlson and goalie Braden Holtby, but the era of run-and-gun seems to be long gone.
"Enough talking about what happened last year, how good we were last year, it's over," said Ovechkin, who opened the season with seven goals in two games, but has just three since. "Let's talk about this year, we have different guys
"We have a different team, forget about last year."
After averaging the second- and third-most goals in the NHL the last two seasons before getting bounced from of the playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Capitals currently sit 20th.
Penalty killing has also been an issue. The unit sits 29th overall and has surrendered at least one goal against in seven of Washington's last eight games.
"It's just understand what we need to do, what we are," said Trotz. "If we are not going to score as much then we have to be really detailed, we can't take six penalties a night. We have to change our outlook.
"Maybe we have to grind it out instead of wanting to play the wide-open game. In the past we didn't mind that because we could come at you with four good groups. Now we don't have that so we maybe have to play a little differently."
The Capitals continue their three-game road trip on Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers before visiting the Calgary Flames on Sunday.
There's no sense of panic, but the players know it's time to start figuring things out in what has become their new reality.
"We've got some work to do," said Holtby, who allowed five goals on 22 shots in Vancouver. "We knew it wasn't going to come easy, it wasn't going to come quickly
"But we're far enough into the season now that we're not going to use the excuse of being young and different anymore. It's time to start performing."
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Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press