Offensive woes cripple Capitals

When only one team has fewer goals and only two have been worse on the power play, there isn’t a positive way to spin the situation.

The Washington Capitals must find more offense.

After dropping their fourth straight game Saturday night, the Caps have 14 goals in seven games — fewer than 28 teams in the NHL. This is after an offseason in which Washington added four offensive-minded players — three veterans via free agency and one dynamic 19-year-old rookie — to juice up its below-average offense from last season.

“We have to bear down on our chances,” Caps captain Chris Clark said. “If we weren’t getting the chances and the shots like a couple of games ago, then we would have to address things, but we are getting the chances, and they are just not going in.”

It begins with but is not limited to the sputtering power play. Washington is 4-for-35 with the man advantage. Coach Glen Hanlon moved several players around for yesterday’s practice, and those personnel changes included a couple of tweaks to the power-play groups.

Mike Green moved from the second group to the first to pair with Tom Poti on the points with Alex Ovechkin, Viktor Kozlov and Clark up front. The second unit has Michael Nylander, Nicklas Backstrom and Matt Pettinger together with defenseman Brian Pothier and forward Alexander Semin, who returned to full practice mode yesterday, manning the points.

“To me it is all about special teams. That is the game nowadays,” goaltender Olie Kolzig said. “The power play is an area where we have an advantage and we don’t take advantage.”

The power-play units mirrored some of Hanlon’s other changes. Clark, who spent the past two seasons on Ovechkin’s line and has seen spot duty there this year, spent the two-hour workout with the top group.

Clark has scored 50 goals over the past two seasons but is still in search of his first tally this year. His current streak of 10 games without a point dating to last season is the longest in his tenure in Washington. Playing with a pair of offense-first linemates could jump-start Clark.

“Clark is so good in front of the net, Alex and I have to focus more on getting the puck to the net and shooting more so he can tip it or get the rebounds,” Kozlov said.

Semin’s possible return tomorrow when Washington plays host to division rival Tampa Bay also could help ignite the team’s stagnant offense. Slotting him in with Nylander and Backstrom allows some of the other players who have rotated as fill-ins to return to their normal roles. And with 38 goals last season, Semin scored more than all but 12 players in the NHL.

Hanlon said they will continue to monitor Semin’s progress, but if it is just a conditioning concern and not his ankle, the 23-year old Russian could play against the Lightning on the power play and in a reduced 5-on-5 role.

“Once Semin went down, we loaded up on one side [of the power play], and it looked like a lot of skill and not enough net presence and puck pursuit, and that cost us,” Hanlon said. “Then we kept rotating people in and out of Semin’s spot, and the longer it went, it seemed like Michael and Nicklas were having the chemistry and the third guy was kind of just the third wheel on the date.”

While the top two lines are expected to carry most of the scoring burden, the Caps” third line has generated only one goal in seven games (an unassisted tally by defenseman John Erskine), and the fourth group has none. Brooks Laich, who centered the fourth unit yesterday with Dave Steckel taking Clark’s place on the third line, has a goal to his credit, but it came while he filled in for Semin.

“That is the whole role of the third and fourth lines is to make sure when [the top lines] aren’t clicking that you create energy and something for them to build off of,” Steckel said. “I think we’ve done a good job cycling the puck and getting it to the net, but we just haven’t buried any yet. It is kind of the story for the whole team so far.”

Notes — Hanlon said Kolzig will start in net tomorrow night. Brent Johnson said he expects Kolzig to play against Tampa Bay and Vancouver, and he would get the nod against his former team in St. Louis. …

Joe Motzko was recalled from Hershey and spent practice with Laich and Donald Brashear on the fourth line. Motzko was sent down after the game Saturday night.