Another 82-game joyride-slash-slog begins for Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night, and in so many ways the veil that hangs over it all isn’t how the season starts against the Boston Bruins but how it ends in the playoffs. Four straight first-round exits will color a lot.
As D.C. teams tear down and start over, the Capitals never go away
Part of the narrative, though, needs to be that the Capitals have been as reliable of a regular season machine as there is in the NHL for longer than some of those fans who rock the red have been alive. That doesn’t make up for the 0-for-4 showing in the playoffs since the pinnacle that was the 2018 Stanley Cup. But it does put the Caps and their more-familiar-than-anyone-in-town core back in a position they were in during Ovechkin’s early days: closer to contending for a title than any other D.C. team.
That’s not saying, before the first puck is dropped, that this group is going to win Cup No. 2. They’re not at the level of Colorado, the defending champ, or Tampa Bay, which has been to the finals three straight times and won two — among others.
But as the Commanders are crumbling (again), the Nationals are overhauling, the Wizards are searching for relevance, United is flailing, the Spirit (NWSL champs in 2021) is coming off a dreadful encore, and the Mystics haven’t won a playoff series since their own 2019 title, the Caps are here, constantly cranking it up. They tweak and touch up rather than tear down and start over. Cast their experience against everyone else in town, and where is your money best spent for a reliable result?
“With what’s gone on here for way longer than I’ve been here,” said Peter Laviolette, entering his third season as coach, “this team has done a good job of putting itself in position to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.”
There’s an idea that, in hockey, everybody makes the playoffs. It’s not the case. Check the numbers. Since Ovechkin’s first appearance in the playoffs — which came in 2008, when he was 22, not 37 — the Capitals have qualified for the postseason 14 times in 15 years. Only Pittsburgh has more postseason appearances in that stretch. No team has accumulated more regular season points over that period than the Caps, and only the Penguins have won more games and scored more goals.
And now, as they go into the breach again, it’s worth asking how this happens — and appreciating that it continues — without obsessing about what will happen in the April playoffs when it’s October.
“We’ve done a good job of identifying and addressing our issues,” General Manager Brian MacLellan said.
On this year’s roster, that’s most noticeable in net, which MacLellan basically blew up. Out is the young combination of Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek, because each was given a bazillion chances to take the job and make it his own and each returned every one of those chances. In is Darcy Kuemper, who was last seen stopping 22 of 23 shots by the Lightning in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals, then hoisting the chalice with his Avalanche teammates afterward. Kuemper is a clear No. 1, something the Caps haven’t had since Braden Holtby’s departure — and frankly didn’t always have when Holtby was around.
But there are other tinkers, too. Former Maple Leaf and Senator Connor Brown will immediately fill in for injured mainstay Tom Wilson on the opposite wing from Ovechkin on the top line, centered by Evgeny Kuznetsov. Former Coyote and Blackhawk Dylan Strome will take the place of injured mainstay Nicklas Backstrom as the second-line center.
The core is still the group that hoisted the Cup together — Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Backstrom, Carlson, Wilson, T.J. Oshie, Dmitry Orlov and Lars Eller. The new pieces show both the fan base and the players that management is trying to improve on past regular seasons rather than just rolling out the same group and hoping for different results.
“It’s really kind of fun to learn and create new chemistry on and off the ice with guys who could maybe bring something to our team that we don’t already have,” Oshie said. “Keeping it fresh is super important, I think, when you have a core group that’s been together for so long.”
Backstrom, whose future is decidedly TBD after offseason hip surgery, has been teammates with Ovechkin since 2007-08. Carlson joined them in 2009-10. Orlov arrived in 2011-12. Wilson and Kuznetsov first appeared in 2013-14. Oshie came via trade in 2015-16, Eller by trade the following offseason. That’s a lot of years together. It also means a lot of years — period.
So the Capitals can’t handle themselves as if they’re the old Young Guns. Shoot, Alexander Semin and Mike Green are retired. The rest of the core has to figure out a way to endure and thrive in yet another regular season that could seem endless.
“If you look at it as 82 games, especially as an older team,” Oshie said, “the season can get really long.”
“If you start thinking about way down here,” said Laviolette, holding his hand away from him before sliding it toward his chest, “you’re going to lose right here where we are with Game 1 coming up here. We need to make sure that we’re ready to play Game 1.”
Game 1, in which the Capitals will have a new face in net and new faces up and down the lineup, is Wednesday night. The expectation will be the same: Win.
They haven’t won a playoff series since they won the Cup. That can’t be solved on opening night five seasons later. The Capitals have established a regular season standard that is not just among the best in the sport. It’s absolutely the best in town.
Source: WP
