The 33-year-old believes the Capitals will return as contenders after a lost season.
ARLINGTON, V.A. -- At this point last year, Darcy Kuemper was still between the pipes and in the thick of a playoff race with the Colorado Avalanche that would end with him raising the Stanley Cup for the first time. Now, he and the Washington Capitals find themselves back home and reflecting on where things went wrong.
For the 33-year-old, the dissonance between this year and last is disappointing and had been for the last stretch of play in D.C., where the team knew that it would likely miss the postseason for the first time in nine years.
"We had a lot higher expectations for how our season was going to go," Kuemper said. "It doesn't feel good that it's done already, but that's how it went."
Kuemper was part of those high expectations, as he signed a five-year, $26.25 million deal to become the Capitals' new starter and provide long-awaited stability and consistency in net. He, along with backup Charlie Lindgren, was brought in to replace young netminders Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek.
The veteran navigated a heavy workload over the course of the season, playing in 57 games despite missing a month of play due to a concussion and another couple of games with a back issue.
Looking at his first year in D.C., Kuemper was happy with the work he put in, posting a .909 save percentage and league-leading five shutouts.
However, he wasn't impressed with his 22-26-7 record; he'd signed in D.C. because he wanted to win and compete for another Stanley Cup, and Washington's second-to-last-place finish in the Metropolitan Division was a far cry from that.
"I definitely am disappointed we didn't win more. I'm happy with the effort I put in. I feel good about my game being in this position," Kuemper said. "I've got to look at how I'm going to improve this summer and what I'm going to need to do my part to help the team get back to where we want to be."
Kuemper also explained that missing the likes of Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson and John Carlson for a majority of the year hurt, as well as missing Alex Ovechkin due to personal reasons and injuries in the second half. In addition to that, the team started on the wrong foot, and from there, Kuemper felt like Washington was always one step back.
"It was a tough year we had. A lot of injuries. It kind of felt like we were chasing it the whole year. Obviously, we struggled a lot with inconsistency," Kuemper said. "We would look good and feel really good one game, and we were never really able to build on that and get it snowballing."
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Then, when the Capitals did have a chance down the stretch to sneak into the mix, Kuemper noted that the team failed to gel or come together to step up to the occasion.
"The inconsistencies that kind of plagued us all year, it's tough to win in this league if you only have some guys going some nights," Kuemper added. "I felt like when we were in those big games; it felt like it was lacking the whole group rallying together to get up for those games. The results showed that."
Kuemper is back in Saskatoon and will spend most of his time in the gym working out, along with a bit of skating. He will aim to return around July to start training again for the 2023-24 campaign, and he also plans to focus on a few key areas of his game.
"I want to continue to work on speed and strength, watch some video of my game and kind of break it down, see which areas I really like from this year and which areas I want to address," Kuemper said.
And, by the time training camp rolls around, he is confident that he and his teammates will be on the same page and ready to bounce back immediately and put missing the playoffs in the rearview.
"We've got to hit the reset after this year," Kuemper noted.
For him, there's one way to do that: using last year as motivation.
"We showed at times how good this group can be," Kuemper said. "We've just got to use the humility of how this season went to push through the summer and make sure we're ready to get back to where we want to be next season."