Capitals Punished- year in review

[yave1964]

PRESEASON OUTLOOK   The Caps are an aging team getting further from their Cup win, hoping for another crack at a deep run. I think most thought they would slip a bit but still make the postseason, whether or not they were cup contenders is another matter.

 

FINAL RECORD 44-26-12 100 points  4th in the Metro, lost in six games to the Panthers in the first round.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR They started hot, started like a real contender in one of the leagues toughest division, a four game winning streak culminatin g with a 6-1 drubbing of the hated Penguins on November 4th drew them to 9-2-4 with Ovie scoring at a great pace. On December 31st when they beat the Wings 3-1 to close out the year they were at 20-6-7 and most people thought they were a serious cup contender.

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR Then the wheels fell off. They started the new year on an 8-12-1 run or crawl, and GM  Brian McLellan gave an honest assessment that he was not going all in because the team was, in his assessment not a next level team. The team did add Marcus Johansson for a 4th rounder but refused to add more, 

  My opinion is McLellan is the GM and if he feels the team is NOT in his words, a 'next level team' it is his job to get them there. They played a bit better after the GMS comments and played the Panthers tough in a six game series, His JOB was to make them an elite team, there are so many good to great players on the club, he more or less sat back and watched others improve their teams while the Caps flailed along after the new year. This is his personally built team, I think it was an awful move to throw the white flag up rather than go for it. They are another year older, not a ton of runs left, a couple of solid pieces could have made the difference. I blame McLellan on the teams failures and the players should sue him for non support.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Ovie had a very Ovie year with 50 goals and 90 points as he chases Gretzky's all time goal record. Kuznetsov was brilliant at a point a game and a king on the power play. Carlson was his usual brilliant on the back end. Tom Wilson played through a ton of injuries but managed 24 goals and was his usual nasty without getting carried away and drawing stupid suspension. Sheary provided solid secondary scoring. The goalie tandem of Samsonov and Vanecek while not brilliant were good to very good most of the year. Orlov quietly had a great year as did Nick Jensen.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG Lots and lots of cracks in the armor, the team looked old and experienced a ton of inuries. Mantha went down fist, missed most of the year only apearing in 37 games and potting 9 goals. Backstrom is fighting back issues that may end his career and only managed 47 games and 6 goals. TJ Oshie missed half the year and only had 11 goals. Lars Eller had a miserable first two thirds of the year before kind of salvaging it with a decent finish. Justin Schultz was old and slow and had a horrible year. Hagelin missed 29 games with only 3 goals. Johansson did nothingafter coming over andwas a wasted add. Lots of injuries but the veteran players looked old and out of sorts for much of the second half.

 

TOP PROSPECTS AND DRAFT PICKS They have three guys in forwards Connor McMichael and Fehvevary and defenseman Brett Leason to roles on the big boy club, the truth is those three are decent but not great andthe Capitals team is in awful shape in the pipeline, some argue the worst in the NHL. They are down a 4th rounder in this draft but have their first three.

 

FREE AGENTS sCHULTZ HAS CLEARly lost a step and wont be invited back. Johansson is a free agent who they would like to keep. Kempny is an UFA who they dearly need to keep, he does the under the radar stuff that teammates love. 

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR They became the first team since 2011 to lose a series of six games or longer without giving up a single power play goal.

 

OUTLOOK Bleak if I may be bold. The farm system is empty, a bunch of overpriced vets who are tied up long term and are clearly in the back nine and close to the clubhouse of their career. Backstrom may be done, Wilson is hoping to make it back by around the first of the year. I think the only thing Caps fans will have to be excited about for multiple years is Ovies run on Gretzky. This is a very bad team in the making and it wont be getting better any time soon.