2023-24 season: 40-31-11, 4th in Metropolitan Division, 8th in Eastern Conference, 17th in league, swept in 1st Round by NY Rangers 4-0.
The Washington Capitals were far from impressive this season, often lacking in the most important areas, but on the strength of a lot of coin toss kind of wins, they made it to the playoffs with a -37 goal differential. Of their 40 wins this year, 19 came by just 1 goal, and it wasn't the usual suspects leading the team. They did have Alex Ovechkin scoring more goals down the stretch, but Dylan Strome emerged as an unlikely hero, and Charlie Lindgren picked up the slack where Darcy Kuemper struggled, finishing with 6 shutouts and a .911 save percentage. They lacked depth, had only 3 20-goal scorers, traded off some of their better players, and were rather inconsistent throughout the season, but still made it to the playoffs despite the Flyers and Red Wings holding on for most of the season. Their weakness showed, however, when they went up against a Rangers team that could win a special teams battle against almost anyone. They were 2/17 on the power play and allowed 2 shorthanded goals, and they went 10/16 on the PK, and it stemmed from a lack of leadership from the veteran players.
Much of the talk around the Capitals has been about Alex Ovechkin catching Wayne Gretzky's NHL goal total of 894. What they are ignoring, however, is Gretzky's 46 goals in the WHA, which merged with the NHL and was an equally talented league, which would bring his total up to 940. Gordie Howe also had 174 goals in the WHA, bringing his total up to 975. So if he really wants the record, he'll have to chase a lot further than they're telling you. I should also add that if Gretzky and Howe played as selfishly as him and just stood in one spot the entire game they could score more goals than him, but they wouldn't have been as valuable to their teams. It should also be noted that he is capable of doing more, because I have seen him dominate, but he will never get the real record if he can only try every 4th game. The fact that he also asked Brian McLellan to build a team for him to score goals, rather than to rebuild for the good of the team shows that his leadership is as piss poor as Mark Messier's. I will eventually write about how Messier's leadership skills are overrated, but for now I will stick to talking about how Ovechkin is too one-dimensional to be a captain.
Due to Ovechkin's abilities being exclusive to the slot on left wing, I envision a large drop-off for Washington. They are honestly lucky they didn't finish in last place, because their season could've so easily taken that direction. They were the worst playoff team, statistically speaking, since the Hartford Whalers and Vancouver Canucks in 1990-91, and Lindgren won't make as many saves as he did this year. The false narrative of Ovechkin becoming a record breaker next season will also most likely become a distraction. I do believe that individual achievements are important to the team and are good to rally around, but when all you're doing is passing the puck to a winger that does nothing but stand still all game, that isn't an achievement that makes the team better for trying to get to.
Their defense got better, but that doesn't change the direction in which I think this team is trending. Besides, it isn't like we haven't seen this kind of drop-off before with the Caps. One year they were Stanley Cup Finalists in 1998, and missed the playoffs the year after by 22 points. This year I wouldn't be surprised to see them contend for the 1st overall pick, because their forward group remains amongst the worst in the league, and they don't have a legitimate no.1 center. The reason why they always lost to the Penguins in the past is because they had center depth; at one time they were so great they had Sid and Geno, and right behind them was Jordan Staal, and decades before they had Mario Lemieux and Ron Francis going up against Michal Pivonka and Dale Hunter. Their 2nd best center was better than Washington's best, and still is. In today's game, and at almost any point in history, every great team had a Hall Of Fame worthy centerman. I mean no disrespect to those guys, or to Dylan Strome, because they are good, but they just aren't capable of leading the charge offensively.
My prediction for this upcoming season is that the Capitals will finish with a record of 25-46-11, 7th in the Metropolitan Division, 14th in the Eastern Conference, and 28th in the league.
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