The Washington Capitals entered the current NHL season with many doubting they could thrive in the wake of serious injuries to star forwards Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson. Those doubts have been proven to be well-founded, with the Caps posting a 9-11-3 record through their first 23 games.
Washington now sits sixth in the Metropolitan Division, and since Oct. 29, they’ve gone 4-7-3, including dropping five of their past seven games. It’s as bad as some projected, and it could get much worse.
But why? Injuries have been a problem for most teams, and they’ve fared much better than the Capitals. However, Washington’s lack of depth has been exposed, particularly after in-season injuries to first-year Caps forward Connor Brown, longtime Caps defenseman Dmitry Orlov and star winger T.J. Oshie.
The Capitals’ offense was always going to take a hit with the absences of Wilson and Backstrom, but without Brown and Oshie (who missed 11 games, but now is back in the lineup), the dropoff in production is even harsher than Caps fans feared: they’re averaging just 2.70 goals-for per game, and that’s the sixth-worst total in the entire league.
Once again, star forward Alex Ovechkin leads the way with 11 goals, but no other Caps player has more than seven goals.
You need to see more offensive support from the group, but it hasn’t been there, putting all sorts of pressure on the defense. And what we’re seeing from Washington’s defense is not encouraging.
Losing Orlov also has exposed the Caps’ depth issues on the back end. Star D-man John Carlson has missed seven games, but when he has been in the lineup, he generated six goals and 12 points. Veteran blueliner Nick Jensen also is in double-digits in points with 10 in 23 games, but otherwise, Washington’s D-men have been producing offense at a subpar rate.
More importantly, the Capitals’ defense – and for that matter, their entire group of skaters – are old and creaky. Five of their six current defensemen (and six of seven, if you include Orlov) are at least 30 years old, and eight of their current top 12 forwards are 30 or older. They began the season as the NHL’s second-oldest group, and the wear on them is apparent.
Some might look to Washington’s goaltending situation as a contributing problem and point to the free-agency departure of Vitek Vanecek and the signing of veteran Darcy Kuemper as mistakes. However, Kuemper’s numbers this year aren’t awful – he’s got a goals-against average of 2.60 and a save percentage of .914 in 17 games – and the truth is he hasn’t had the goal support to win more games than he loses.
Another of the problems for the Capitals – they’re one of the league’s worst road teams (2-7-2). Only Columbus (1-7-1) has fewer road wins than Washington. Nearly every team they’ve faced away from home has humbled them.
They also don’t lose many close games: nine of their 11 losses have been by two goals or more, and seven of their losses have been by three goals or more. That’s not all on the goalies. That’s an all-around failure.
Capitals coach Peter Laviolette may not be sacrificed right away, but he can’t score goals or teach offense to this group.
Ultimately, GM Brian MacLellan is approaching a major crossroads with his lineup. He’s got assets who, at the moment, don’t have great value on the trade market, and it makes no sense for him to deal away Washington’s first-round draft picks in an attempt to jump-start the team and contend for a playoff spot.
MacLellan also knows full well that 10 current Caps players will be unrestricted free agents come summertime. This could be a drastically-different team this time next year.
The change ought to be drastic. The glory years for Washington seem far, far away now. There’s no new generation of elite players on the horizon for them. A rebuild makes much more sense than a retool on the fly. All franchises eventually come to this point – the point when they’re at the bottom end of the competitive cycle.
It’s going to be extremely difficult for the Capitals to recover from this start to the year. The best thing for them almost assuredly is to begin looking ahead and starting fresh next season.
