What happens in the playoffs can often overshadow what happened in the previous five and a half or six months. I know I use the Los Angeles Kings as an example for a lot of things but blame them for that not me. In 2012 they had what you could describe as an awful season for what they were expecting. The team looked ready to challenge for the Stanley Cup in the summer and to start the season. In the middle of the season the team cannot score and are out of the playoffs. Things never really got to much better but the Kings did sneak into the playoffs as the number 8 seed. In the playoffs LA only lost 4 games, they went 16-4 after struggling all season long and all of a sudden this is a great team. The Kings still don’t dominate in the regular season and even this year ended up missing the playoffs after winning the Cup last season.
Where am I going with that? Fans tend to make a big deal out of what happened in the playoffs. Yes, it’s the most important time of the year and yes when you lose it sucks, but for a team like the Washington Capitals what was achieved this season can’t be overlooked. After an extremely disappointing 2013-14 season for Washington where a team that was considered a top team missed the playoffs. By the way I have said and have to say again that was one of the worst coached seasons in a while, well done Adam Oates you sir indeed suck.
Coming into this season with new head coach Barry Trotz things were looking better. Questions still stood, like, “Can this team make it back to the playoffs?” and “Will Alex Ovechkin adjust to defensive coach Trotz?”. Valid questions that were going to take time to answer, but most people knew that this team was too talented to miss the playoffs. With Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom leading the charge up front and Carlson, Alzner and new signings Orpik and Niskanen holding up the back while Holtby can be a solid goaltender to miss the playoffs for two straight years would be an absolute disaster.
The first month of the Regular season was uneven to say the least. After winning points in the first five games of the season either winning or losing in OT or a shootout the start was encouraging. After that start though the Capitals ended up losing five straight leading to a 4-5-3 record adding up to 11 points. For the rest of November the Capitals never really got that much momentum, winning two games then losing two games winning one game then losing one game. Most would say after hearing or seeing something like that is that this team is no better than an average team.
It was a disappointing start for me, I had stated before the season started I thought this team would rebound into Stanley Cup contention and be the second best team in their own division. December wasn’t that much better but you saw the good stuff start to creep in for Washington. Through December the team went a decent 18-11-7, not a bad record but nothing stands out about that record.
In the new year though the Capitals jumped from average team into a playoff team and a threat to Cup contending teams. Turning that 18-11-7 record from the first three months of the season into a 45-26-11 record with a 27-15-4 record in the final four months of the season. You saw the Capitals jump from a borderline wild card team to a wild card lock then suddenly jump into the division title race eventually landing at second place in the division. You saw Barry Trotz style of play take full effect and you saw the stars “buy in” a popular saying in hockey. People were calling Washington Cup contenders again.
Taking on the New York Islanders in the first round of the playoffs the Capitals had their hands full. Losing game 1 at home in a pitiful effort this was a big test, the old Capitals could have and would have crumbled, the pressure was on. Then the very next game still on home ice they go down 2-0 early in the 2nd period, here we go again for sure was in the heads of fans and experts. Battling back and winning game two was a huge character win for Washington who ended up winning that series in 7 games.
Everyone will sum up this season by saying what happened in the next round against the New York Rangers, The Capitals were up 3-1 and they blew it, losing in 7, the Capitals just can’t get past the 2nd round. The Capitals were fortunate to be up 3-1, they worked hard and almost came away with a series win. New York was the better team this series, it may not sound great for Washington but the better teams win a 7 game series most of the time. The fact that Washington took the better team to the limit should say something about this team. Not only did they take the better team in the series to the limit they took the best team in the league to the limit, New York won the Presidents Trophy as the beat team in the regular season.
Washington saw the veterans and the leaders of this team play good hockey for a good portion of this season and they saw young guys like Evgeni Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky develop into solid role players hopefully being able to take some offensive pressure off of Ovechkin and Backstrom. You have a guy like Tom Wilson who can change a game if not a whole series by what he does on the ice, controversial or not it’s effective. You have defense, Carlson, Alzner, Niskanen, Orpik and hopefully sometime soon a guy like Orlov to fill in one of the last 2 spots. This team has plenty of talent and depth to continue for years.
You have to remember that this is year one of the “reshaping”. This is only year number one for the current GM and head coach combo, They have a whole season now to see what this team can do and what they need and figure out what they have to add in the coming offseason. You saw good things this season that will shape this team for years to come. You saw Ovechkin go from a -35 last season to a +10 this season, You saw the team be responsible defensively while remaining a big threat offensively, as I said, you saw young guys take big steps in development, Holtby rebounded from a really poor season to become one of the top goalies in the league among other things.
You can point to the blown 3-1 lead if you want, sit back and take the easy argument that is just another blown opportunity for a great team, but if you look to the future, things don’t look so bad for the Washington Capitals and this could be one heck of a team next season and plenty of seasons after that.
