Fresh off a dominant Friday night win against Minnesota, the Washington Capitals came out Sunday afternoon against the Vancouver Canucks looking for their fifth-straight win.

One can only surmise that they woke up late or something, because it did not appear they were ready for the 12:30 p.m. puck drop.

From the opening faceoff, the Capitals just seemed...off. They were slow to the puck, disorganized and didn't seem like the same team that dominated the Minnesota Wild less than 48 hours prior. It took Vancouver 59 seconds to open the scoring and Washington was never able to fully recover from there.

To their credit, they did dominate the second and third periods. But hockey games are 60 minutes, and a dominant second half alone won't usually cut it.

A tale of two teams

It was obvious things would be tough from the opening face-off.

Elias Pettersson scored for Vancouver just 59 seconds into the game on a defensive breakdown and turnover by Aliaksai Protas, giving Vancouver an early lead. This trend of breakdowns continued through the rest of the period, and Vancouver took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.

One bit of controversy towards the end of the period came from Vancouver's second goal, which led to a failed challenge by the Capitals.

On the play, the puck gets repeatedly knocked free from Caps goalie Charlie Lindgren before it pops out to Tyler Myers, who puts it in for the 2-0 lead. Spencer Carbury mentioned in his post-game presser that the challenge came from the belief that Evander Kane's stick dislodged the puck from Lindgren's glove before it was knocked loose to Myers. Carbury also mentioned that they didn't get an explanation on why the goal was allowed after review.

After watching numerous replays, I'm torn. On one hand, you can see the puck get dislodged quickly from Lindgren and he never really seems to gain control of it. On the other hand, referees have blown plays like this dead many, many times before. To the referee's credit, he was on top of the play, and the game does move fast. In any case, the goal was allowed and Washington was given a penalty for a failed challenge (a rule I utterly despise), which led to Vancouver's third goal on the ensuing powerplay.

Even in spite of being down 3-0 to end the period, the Capitals still led in possession-related stats. And they dominated in this area throughout the remainder of the game.

The fact that Washington dominated both the second and third periods and still ended up losing is a testament to how important a good start is. As Carbury said after the game, "the first basically determines the game..." and he's spot on with that assessment.

Special teams continue to be an issue

We'll start with the power play unit, which ranks at 25th in the league currently at 15 percent.

Spencer Carbery knows that the power play unit is not where it needs to be. To the credit of him and the rest of the coaching staff, this is an issue that they've been working through for some time. But after watching the power play more closely during the last couple of games, the complete lack of organization became more apparent to me.

Sure, they managed to convert on one opportunity on Sunday (Ryan Leonard's tally in the second period), but it when they do convert, it feels more like luck. Even Leonard's goal came on his own rebound from Canucks' goalie Thatcher Demko making a great save on the cross-slot pass.

Look at the previous two games, both against teams that don't have the most effective PK units in the league (Vancouver sits near the middle at 18th while Minnesota is closer to the bottom at 26th).

Scoring on just one opportunity in each of these games after being gifted nine chances on the man-advantage between the two games isn't going to cut it as the season progresses. Especially for a team like Washington who was consistently at the top of the league in 5-on-5 scoring last season.

Another issue however that is an early-season question mark is the PK unit. Last season this wasn't the case as the Capitals were consistently near the top of the league in penalty killing. So far this season however, D.C. sits at a poultry 29th... killing 66.7 percent of penalties.

Again, Carbery in the staff know these are issues that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Carbery himself is a stickler for the details and I can all-but guarantee the reigning Jack Adams Award-winning coach will figure this puzzle out at some point. But the Caps do need to get this act together fast if they hope to be taken seriously when the league's playoff picture begins to materialize.

Let's talk about THAT hit

If you watched the game, you already know what hit I'm referring to. For the rest of you, Tom Wilson delivered a brutal open-ice hit that caused

Vancouver forward Filip Chytil to leave the game. Wilson was initially given a major-penalty, but it was later deemed to be a "good hockey hit" by the officials after review. The hit was reviewed by NHL Department of Player Safety, and no supplemental discipline will be assessed.

Naturally, Capitals fans came to Wilson's defense while virtually everyone else wants his head. So I'd like to take an objectively unbiased look at that hit.

Chytil takes a pass and comes across the blue line, dishing it off before taking the hit from Wilson. A solid second or so goes by before Wilson levels him, his elbow tucked as to not make Chytil's head the point of contact. The whiplash from the blow is probably what did the damage as Chytil before Chytil hits the ice.

It’s no secrets that Wilson has a reputation, but as Wilson's playing career has progressed, he has done a lot to clean up his game and become the power forward that the Capitals needed.

After watching this over and over again, my only criticism is that it is another full-speed hit that came perhaps a bit late. The head is not the principal point of contact (Chytil's head isn't a point of contact at all, in fact), and it was not a hit from behind. The NHL DPS (for better or worse) has never really set a standard on what they determine to be a late hit, but this obviously didn't meet whatever that standard is.

Whether or not you want to argue that hitting a player at such high speeds who are perhaps admiring their pass a bit is another topic entirely. While Chytil is clearly in a vulnerable state when Wilson hits him, this is something the league seems to have enabled for years now.

The game has gotten much faster in the past 20 years, and it's led to hits like this: high-speed plays that risk a player's safety. It's not a practice I am a fan of...I love good hockey hits as much as anyone, but some of them cross the line.

Whether or not this particular hit crosses that line is a matter of opinion I suppose...an opinion that will likely depend on whether or not you're a Caps fan. As for me? I am not a fan of hits like this as a common practice. But by the standards the NHL DPS has set over the last roughly 10 years or so, this is a "good hockey hit."

Whether or not you feel the same way is a matter of personal opinion, I suppose.