Caps see pros and cons to being NHL’s 2nd-oldest team originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
WASHINGTON — Four games into the season, the Capitals are already experiencing both ends of what it means to have a roster stocked with veterans.
Washington entered the year with several older players managing injuries. Center Nicklas Backstrom and winger Carl Hagelin, both 34 years old, each underwent separate hip surgeries to address chronic pain in the joint. Winger T.J. Oshie, 35, eased into training camp as part of his recovery from an offseason core surgery that he’s still managing.
Though Oshie has suited up for all four of the Capitals’ games, the injuries to Backstrom, Hagelin and winger Tom Wilson (torn ACL) prompted them to bring in a few new pieces last offseason to plug those holes. They were dealt a blow Wednesday, when one of those additions Connor Brown landed on IR with a lower-body injury expected to sideline him for a while.
The Capitals’ opening night active roster was second oldest in the NHL — a number that didn’t even factor in Backstrom or Hagelin, according to CapFriendly. A veteran-heavy team like the Capitals is a sure bet to experience a fair share of injuries, which makes long-term losses of younger players like Brown hurt that much more.
“Any time you hear somebody’s out long term it’s not good,” head coach Peter Laviolette said in his press conference at practice Wednesday. “We were really excited to have him here and be part of our organization. Disappointing for us, disappointing for him. It’s unfortunate.”
Those losses present a series of hurdles the Capitals will have to overcome this season, but Monday’s comeback win over the Vancouver Canucks showed how it can help to have more experienced players in the locker room.
Washington went into the second intermission trailing 4-2 in a game that had seen plenty of fluky pucks bounce the Canucks’ way. Oshie, the alternate captain, addressed the team with an impassioned speech about not letting their frustration take over. Alex Ovechkin, 37, and John Carlson, 32, two other holdovers from the Capitals’ 2018 Stanley Cup-winning team, spoke as well.
“We seemed visually frustrated on the bench and on the ice,” Oshie said. “It’s just not a good look for anyone, especially a team as mature as we are. So that was just my message. It was Game 4 and there’s nothing to be frustrated about.”
The Capitals then came out and scored four unanswered goals, erasing the deficit and pulling their record on the young season up to 2-2 rather than let it slip to 1-3. They dominated puck possession and only allowed the Canucks to get four shots on goal off the rest of the game.
Vancouver head coach Bruce Boudreau, coaching a team that carried the NHL’s sixth-youngest roster and had just blown its third-straight multi-goal lead in as many games, spoke about his players’ mental breakdowns in the third period.
“I thought we had a great second period, and I think the game plan for the third period was fine,” Boudreau said in his postgame press conference. “But it did look like we started to collapse and were afraid to win. They came at us pretty good and we just didn’t handle it very well.
“I think right now mentally weak would be a good assessment. When you’re on a roll, you’re waiting for good things to happen. When you’re in something like this, you’re waiting for something bad to happen. That’s the natural portion of it.”
Despite the Capitals trailing by two with a wide margin in shots on goal that favored the visiting team, they remained collected enough to stay in the game and pull off the comeback. It was a feat that younger teams with less experience in those situations might have had a harder time pulling off.
“You can’t replace that experience with anything,” goalie Darcy Kuemper, 32, said. “Just having the moments where you’ve gone through situations like that to know what you have to do turn it around and go get the win.”
Washington certainly isn’t the only team hoping that it can make a Stanley Cup run behind a group of veterans. The only team with an opening night roster older than the Capitals’ was the Pittsburgh Penguins, who decided this summer to retain their aging stars such as center Evgeni Malkin, 36, and defenseman Kris Letang, 35, with hopes of fending off a rebuild while the 35-year-old Sidney Crosby is still playing like a future Hall of Famer.
Those Penguins are one of the very teams standing in between the Capitals and a potential playoff berth, testing each of their abilities to fend off the aging curve another year. Even in a competitive Metropolitan Division that includes four of the 10 youngest teams in the NHL, at least one of those two playoff regulars is likely to make it back.
“Whether you’re a young team or you’re an old team, it’s always gonna have its advantages and disadvantages,” Oshie said. “So we have the advantage of being more mature, the ability to maybe be a little more cool and calm in tougher situations because we do have a little more experience in those situations. The ups and downs of the season, a lot of these guys have been through hundreds of them.
“I personally like it. Sometimes, it’s easier to go to work when [most of your teammates] is kind of on the same page as far as having kids. We’re not necessarily meeting at a sports bar, but we’re meeting to have playdates and hang out. So it’s great in that regard, too.”
