The end is fast approaching for this Capitals team. With the regular season coming to a close, the Washington Capitals find themselves outside of the playoff cutoff as the grasp of rebuilding tears at their aging core’s skates.
I’m not going to write off the Capitals yet, but their chances of making the playoffs are not looking good if they don’t make some changes.
The Capitals are currently in the midst of a four-game losing streak and have been without their captain and franchise icon, Alex Ovechkin, for the that entire stretch due to the tragic death of his father. Thus, from holding the 8th and final playoff spot a fortnight ago, the Capitals are now drifting away in 11th place on 62 points and have played three more games than their wildcard rival Pittsburgh Penguins (9th; 63 PTS).
Yeah, it’s not looking good for the Capitals.
Now, I know losing Alex Ovechkin (32 G, 22 A, 54 PTS), who’s the Capitals leading goal scorer and points scorer, was always going to be difficult for this team as they rely so heavily on the Great 8 to produce practically everything on offense, but to lose against bad teams, such as the San Jose Sharks (7th in Pacific), and playoff rivals, such as like the Detroit Red Wings (5th in Atlantic), is unacceptable for a team that wants to sneak into the playoffs.
I mean, they only scored 8 goals in 4 games and conceded 20. That’s not good enough!
The Capitals just simply can’t score without Ovechkin in the lineup, and they are a below average scoring team when he is playing.
Not only is Ovechkin the only Capitals player to have over 50 points on the season (even though there are 66 50-point scorers this season), but he is also only the second Capitals player (Evgeny Kuznetsov) to have breached 40 points too (there are 109 40-point scorers).
Moreover, the Capitals are currently the 13th worst goalscoring team in the NHL as they’ve only put the puck in the back of the net 175 times, while they have conceded 171 goals to make their GD margin a measly +4.
See why this team is in serious trouble? A 37-year-old is the team’s best scorer, the lineup can’t score or win without him, the Capitals are a below average scoring team even when Ovechkin is in the lineup, and the defense isn’t keeping the puck out of their own net enough to supplement such a poor offense.
Though, a 30+ year-old being the team’s leading scorer shouldn’t really come as a surprise as there are 17 players over 30 years of age currently in the Capitals lineup/on the fringes.
Key players like Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie (11 G, 9 A, 20 PTS), Evgeny Kuznetsov (9 G, 36 A, 45 PTS), Conor Sheary (12 G, 18 A, 30 PTS), John Carlson (8 G, 13 A, 21 PTS), Dimitry Orlov (3 G, 16 A, 19 PTS), Lars Eller (7 G, 9 A, 16 PTS) Darcy Kuemper 16 W, .913%, 2.68 GA, 5 SO) are all over 30, while Tom Wilson (4 G, 1 A, 5 PTS) and Anthony Mantha (9 G, 15 A, 26 PTS) are 28 years old.
Aside from Dylan Strome (12 G, 25 A, 37 PTS), every single impactful player on the Capitals roster is nearing the twilight of their careers. Even if the Capitals were flying at the top of the league and beating teams 5-0 every night, a rebuild would still be just behind the corner for them as these players are simply too old to win with anymore.
A team can only be dominate for so long, and the Capitals know that better than most as they’ve only missed the playoffs once (2014) in the last 15 seasons, they won the 2018 Stanely Cup, they won three President Trophies (2010, 2016, 2017), and have at least made the 2nd Round in seven of those seasons.
Though, I’d be remissed not to mention that the Caps have also lost in the 1st round in each of the last four seasons.
Anyway, we’ll have to see if Washington can rebound and make one last playoff push with this decrepit core, but this is surely the last hurray for 70% of this team.
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