These Capitals might not be a dynasty, but they remain a juggernaut

Those are the stories specific to this season, and they matter in telling what these Capitals have overcome and how and why these Capitals are succeeding. But the step-back picture — looking at more than a dozen seasons — is kind of stunning.

At some point almost annually dating back to when Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom first pushed this franchise to the playoffs, there was a time to write about the red-hot Capitals shooting to the top of the division while eyeing the playoffs. That was true 10 years ago, five years ago, three years ago, whenever.

Now, it’s not that they’re doing it under Coach Peter Laviolette, who has restored a sense of accountability and installed a responsible team defensive philosophy in his first season in Washington. Rather, it’s that they’re always doing it — regardless of the coach, regardless of who’s injured, regardless of whom they lost over the summer, regardless of who stepped in as replacements.

“Every year, you’re trying to address something that’s gone on that you need to improve on,” Brian MacLellan, in his seventh year as general manager, said by phone this week. “ ‘What do we need this year? How do we fill that hole? What do we have to work with?’ Constantly, every year, you’re trying to maximize your lineup.

“I want Nick and Ovi, every year, to be like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a good team; let’s get it going.’ I think it’s our job to do that.”

It’s amazing how consistently MacLellan and his top charges — and before that, George McPhee and his staff, which included MacLellan as an assistant — have put this team in position to contend. It hasn’t always worked out. There have been plenty of painful springs. Still, check out the numbers.

In their first 32 years of existence, the Capitals won three division titles. Since 2007-08, they have won 10. That’s not just a new standard for the franchise. That’s the standard for the league. Runner-up for most division championships in that same 13-season span: Boston, Vancouver and Anaheim — with five apiece.

Tick off the boxes. In those 13 seasons, only Pittsburgh has made more playoff appearances — all 13 years, as opposed to 12 for the Caps, who missed in 2014, a development that led to the dismissal of McPhee and then-coach Adam Oates; the elevation of MacLellan in the front office; and the hiring of Barry Trotz behind the bench. Go down the list. Most wins, including this year, through Friday: Pittsburgh with 619, Washington with 618. Most points: Washington 1,355, Pittsburgh 1,340. Fewest regulation losses: Washington 315, Boston 320.

/Point out, if you must, that for six of those seasons Washington played in the (generally weak) Southeast Division. Still, the schedule’s not that unbalanced, and 13-plus seasons is hardly a small sample size.

I have to admit: There were a couple of times — maybe more than a couple — when I didn’t believe this kind of success was sustainable. Think about that devastating 2017 loss to Pittsburgh in Game 7 of the second round of the playoffs, when you knew they couldn’t afford to keep everyone — and they lost Justin Williams via free agency, Nate Schmidt through the expansion draft and Marcus Johansson by trade. Or even last summer, when Trotz — who won the 2018 Stanley Cup here, then left for the Islanders — ran circles around his successor, Todd Reirden, in a five-game first-round loss, the second time in Reirden’s two years they were booted in the first round.

It felt like their time as contenders had ended. Instead, it has been extended.

“It’s challenging,” MacLellan said, and he had to make the difficult decisions. The splashiest, and most obvious, offseason pivot: firing Reirden and hiring Laviolette, who had taken three franchises to the Stanley Cup finals, winning with Carolina in 2006. The veteran coach entered a situation that needed a restoration, not an overhaul.

“Not the playoffs that they were looking for the last couple years,” Laviolette said by phone this week, “and so you know you’re coming into a situation where you know you’ve got a team that has been successful in the regular season, some success in the playoffs and wants to get back to that. To me, that’s a really exciting opportunity, and I felt fortunate to be offered the job.”

Think about that: An established, championship-level coach felt fortunate to be offered Washington’s job. This isn’t the choking-dog franchise of the 1980s and ’90s, nor is it the outfit that — five consecutive times this century — handed its roster to first-time coaches. It’s a potential juggernaut that has stumbled in more playoffs than it has succeeded in — but has the ability to push through in any given year.

So, then, why not a deep run this year? After a start that produced both lots of wins and inconsistent play, Laviolette has the Capitals playing a durable style of defense and a structured offense that is sustainable in the postseason. No team averages more goals in five-on-five play, which feels so different from those Caps teams earlier in this era, which relied so heavily on the power play. Plus, the new coach was able to install both his system and some confidence even when newly signed goalie Henrik Lundqvist announced he would miss the season with a heart ailment, even when Ovechkin and three teammates had to enter the covid quarantine protocols, even when stalwart right winger Tom Wilson was suspended for seven games.

What Laviolette has found: The leadership core — loosely defined as Ovechkin, Backstrom, Wilson, forward T.J. Oshie and defenseman John Carlson — might be getting older, but that doesn’t mean they are so dug in on their methods that they’re intractable.

“Those guys have been extremely open and receptive,” Laviolette said. “There’s no pushback. There’s no ‘We used to do it this way and we had success.’ There’s been none of that. They’re extremely open to a plan, to an idea. Those guys have been on the front of the rope making sure we’re trying our best to play to that identity.”

The Capitals’ identity, now more than a decade in the making: a regular season powerhouse. Just when you think that period might be winding down, a new version of it is just winding up.