The Capitals' Present and Future Looking Dim
The Washington Capitals were once consistent Stanley Cup contenders, but this season is showing that their time has passed and unfortunately their future doesn't look much brighter, writes Adam Proteau.
Full disclosure: prior to the start of the current season, we didn’t have much faith in the Washington Capitals. We didn’t see them as a Stanley Cup playoff team, never mind a genuine Cup front-runner – and as we’ve seen thus far this year, that skepticism is well-founded.
Indeed, when you look at Washington’s latest stretch of games, you see a franchise that is in decline. Since Dec. 21, the Caps have gone 5-9-2, and they currently sit five standings points behind Detroit for the second and final wild card berth in the Eastern Conference. Five points aren’t all that much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s the fact there are four teams ahead of them in the wild card race that makes us pessimistic about the Capitals’ chances of being a playoff team. There’s still time for them to turn things around, but we’re not all that far from must-win territory for them. They need an extended run of wins if they’re going to leapfrog over Philadelphia, New Jersey and the New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division and avoid missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
Caps fans who were accustomed to their team having its way on offense now see the organization struggling mightily with the puck. Washington’s goals-for-per-game average of 2.35 is the third-worst in the NHL. And the teams immediately above them in that category – Anaheim and Montreal – as well as the two teams below them (Chicago and San Jose) are nowhere near playoff contenders. No current Caps player has a points-per-game average of better than 0.67, and that’s a stinging condemnation of where Washington is in their competitive cycle.
Certainly, the Capitals also have problems on defense. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper has not lived up to expectations, as evidenced by his 3.21 goals-against average and .892 save percentage. But in the macro picture, Washington is being hurt because it simply does not have the number of elite talents at all positions that their Metro rivals do. We’ve seen the same thing happen to the Blackhawks, and in the past couple of seasons, the Pittsburgh Penguins also have been in a slow but steady decline. A drop in competitiveness is all but unavoidable for teams, and the Caps haven’t drafted and developed well enough to avoid that same fate.
Capitals GM Brian MacLellan has his work cut out for him in the foreseeable future, as many, if not most of his players are signed through the 2024-25 campaign. Does anyone see a sudden and dramatic reversal of fortune for Washington? Sorry, but we don’t. We believe the Caps are going to continue to struggle, both for the remainder of this season and until further notice. Washington brass has to make some difficult decisions about the team’s veterans, but better that than running back the same group and expecting different results.
The Caps had their moment in the sun not all that long ago, but it’s a measure of the league’s parity that they now look outmatched more often than not. Their stars are either underperforming or are no longer able to carry the water for the organization, and there’s no cavalry on the horizon to put them back in the mix as a bona fide Cup contender. Washington fans would understand a full-on rebuild, as a rebuild is what landed them talents like Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom in the first place.
Stranger things have happened than a Capitals turnaround, but we remain doubtful that will actually take place. They’ve got some bitter medicine they need to swallow, and that will almost assuredly mean they’re going to be well out of the playoff race for at least a few years. We’ll be happy to be proven wrong about them, but we’ll also be unsurprised if they continue their spiral.