Alex Ovechkin and more comment on why Washington unraveled.
ARLINGTON, V.A. -- On Saturday, the Washington Capitals found themselves in a position they haven't been in for nearly a decade: cleaning out their lockers before the start of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs after failing to qualify for the postseason.
Not only that, but they had to come face-to-face with what went wrong in a lost season before even having enough time to fully process it while also being tasked with talking about the abrupt departure of head coach Peter Laviolette.
"It's still pretty fresh," Tom Wilson explained.
The Capitals did admit that they had known for a bit that the playoffs weren't really in reach down the stretch, even before they were mathematically eliminated. Still, it's not an easy thing to take in, especially after eight consecutive playoff berths.
"There's been some time to calm down a little bit from that anger and frustration. The exit meetings, I've only had one good one in my career. They're usually not great and this one's no different. Sucks falling short," T.J. Oshie added. "Sucks putting a lot of effort and energy into the season and not having a chance to continue... you feel you let down all the fans and all the time and traffic [they go through] to get to the matches or watch on TV. You feel bad about that."
That being said, there's still one big question looming: what went wrong for Washington?
The Capitals had high hopes and high expectations coming into the offseason. Not only did they revamp their goaltending with Stanley Cup champion Darcy Kuemper and up-and-comer Charlie Lindgren, but they also brought in Dylan Strome and other pieces to lead the charge. Then, Sonny Milano joined in, adding some strong secondary scoring.
In the end, it didn't work out, and one major reason that stood out was the influx of injuries before and during the season.
The team was already without the services of Nicklas Backstrom (hip resurfacing), Tom Wilson (ACL surgery) and Carl Hagelin (eye/hip surgery). And then, adversity struck once again.
Connor Brown, who added flare to the top-6 and penalty kill, tore his ACL just three and a half games into the campaign, ending his contract year and first season in D.C. But it was one injury in particular that really shook the team.
On Dec. 23, in one of the final games of a red-hot December that saw Washington rocket back up in the standings following a lackluster start to the campaign, John Carlson was hit in the face with a 90MPH slapshot. It severed his temporal artery and fractured his skull, keeping him out of the mix for three months.
For Alex Ovechkin, that was the beginning of the end.
"The Carly injury was painful," Ovechkin said. "When your best D is out for long term, it sucks. Everything is changed -- power play, penalty kill -- because he plays the most minutes in the game and the system was kind of changing as well."
Ovechkin himself also missed nine total games (four due to the death of his father and five due to injury), with the team winning just one of those games with No. 8 out of the mix.
Oshie's injury struggles also continued throughout the year, limiting one of D.C.'s most important pieces to just 58 games, and the Capitals also had to play without Nic Dowd, Martin Fehervary and Nick Jensen for a bit. Wilson was also re-injured on Jan. 24, fracturing his ankle in the same leg.
Taking that into account, as well as a poor start and inconsistency down the stretch, the team wasn't exactly set up for success. Still, Wilson emphasized it wasn't an excuse.
"It's the theme around the league. Everyone says it. I think this year, we were kind of chasing it all year; we were behind the eight ball when it came to a lot of things. Health-wise, right when we kind of get it going, things would change, someone would get hurt," Wilson said, adding, "It's the reality of our situation this year. There was a lot going on and there wasn't a lot of predictability."
Then, there was the issue of finding chemistry and offense. Backstrom and Wilson's return led to line shakeups, and Laviolette and the team couldn't exactly get the right combinations going. And of course, all of the absences didn't really allow for anyone to gel with one another.
Inconsistency from the group also didn't help, and underwhelming seasons from the likes of Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha didn't help either.
"I'm probably disappointed in [Kuznetsov's season]. You know, I think it wasn’t as good as last year. I liked his season last year, played well," general manager Brian MacLellan said. "For whatever reason, he never quite found his game. I mean, there are stretches where I thought he played well, but overall, I think he underperformed the season he had last year.
“Same [with Mantha], I think he had periods where I thought he found his game and was competing hard and then near the end, I don’t think he was a confident player playing at his highest level.”
The team's sell-off at the deadline indicated a need for change and growing pressure to at least try and make a run, but that effort wasn't there from the group to find a way to win, even when -- mostly -- everyone was healthy.
"For whatever reason, we just weren't where we wanted to be as a group. I don't think the hockey was good enough," Wilson put it bluntly. "I don't think we were playing hard enough down the stretch to win games... When you're a team, it's a team game every night, and you need everybody. I'm not going to stand here and say, like, 'I was perfect every night or these guys weren't.' I just think collectively, as a group, we all know we could have been better."
"Th inconsistencies that kind of plagued us all year, it's tough to win in this league if you have only some guys going some nights," Kuemper agreed. It 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."
Overall, there are questions that need to be addressed this summer, from Backstrom's future to the team's consistency to secondary scoring. And, in the end, a longer offseason will be beneficial as the team can reflect further and come to camp refreshed and knowing what needs to be done next year.
And, with a new coach also at the helm, Washington expects to be right back in it and shake off this year.
"We're not happy about the situation. I think with this group, we can regroup and start fresh next year and hopefully, we can get together as a team and really start off the right way," Backstrom said. "We're still hungry in here and still want to win, so we need to turn this around.