Washington Capitals a year in review

[yave1964]

PRESEASON OUTLOOK

 

 With the new aligned divisions the Capitals/Penguins rivalry was expected to heat up. After years of being told they won the division because of the overall ineptness of their playmates the Capitals looked forward to quieting the naysayers. Coach Oates and his star player Ovechkin had a love in going.

 

FINAL RECORD

38-30-14 92 points 9th in East

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR

 In 80 games Marcus Johansson scored 8 goals, 6 on the power play, 1 four on four and only one all year five on five.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE SEASON

After defeating the Canes 4-2 on December 20th the Capitals went to 19-13-3 and looked like they were going to be a solid playoff team.

 

LOW POINT OF THE SEASON

 they then immediately fell apart losing 12 of their next 15 games. Goaltending woes and controversies began and would not end until Halak came over from Buffalo.

 

 WHAT WENT RIGHT

Evgeny Kuznetsov made his long awaited start to his NHL career and looked like an exciting player for years to come. Ovie scored 51 goals including 24 power play goals and 10 game winners. Nicklas Backstrom was amazing especially on the power play. Joel Ward had a career high 24 goals. Troy Brouwer (43 points) had a solid season as did fellow vet Jason Chimera (42 points). Eric Fehr brought his grit back to the capital as a fourth line forward. Mike Green and John Carlsson were very good as offensive d-men.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG

 Ovechkin and Oates by the end of the season had ended the honeymoon phase of their relationship. Not certain if it can be repaired. three separate Capitals, Erat, Neuvirth and Orlov demanded trades. Due to injuries and age Brooks Laich seems to have hit the wall. Trade deadline acquisition Dustin Penner was awful (1 goal in 18 games). But the worst was the goaltending, after a hot start Braden Holtby was putrid after December, Michael Neuvirth was given a chance and was shipped out of town, and rookie Philipp Grubauer played like a rookie, he was inconsistent but talented.

 

MVP

Warts and all it has to be Ovechkin. 51 goals, 24 power play goals, 10 game winners. Cannot overlook the bad but the good is really good.

 

UFAs

Michael Grabovski

Dustin Penner

Jaroslav Halak

 

OFFSEASON OUTLOOK

 hey they only missed the playoffs by 1 game. If Oates/Ovechkin can fix the issues between them now and the locker room can be sorted out the club has a lot of pieces. Kuznetsov for a full season has to be considered a bonus. The Capitals look to be an angry and hungry club ready to make up for this season falling short.

[flyercanuck]

It's hard enough to get Penner motivated on a team that works hard. Having Ovechkin as a role model just puts him in permanent vacation mode. This team will never compete with a goalsuck floater as a captain.