Over the past several seasons, the Washington Capitals have seen some incredibly talented teams fall far short of postseason glory. In 2009-10, they boasted a staggering 121 points and 54-15-13 record en route to capturing the franchise’s first and only President’s Trophy. That particular team would promptly be eliminated by the eight-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the playoff’s first round in an upset that stunned the hockey world.
Currently, the Caps are on pace to earn an unprecedented 129 points. That would be the best regular season result since the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings won 131 points. Unfortunately for the Capitals, though, that Red Wings team was eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals.
The good news for the Capitals, though, is that they currently have a team much better than their 2009-10 squad — one that will not go down nearly as easily as its predecessor.
This season, Washington became the first team to win 38 of its 51 first games in 70 years — a feat that is hard to come by, to put it lightly. So, it’s only natural to wonder what has caused a change in sentiment in our nation’s capital. Are these the same Caps that perplexed NHL fans in years past?
There are several reasons why the 2015-16 Capitals are much better than they have been in previous playoff pushes. The top five reasons are as follows: a supporting offensive cast, defensive depth and mobility, goaltending, coaching and experience.
Once the Capitals selected Alexander Ovechkin first overall in 2004, they knew they had a franchise player destined for greatness. This year, the Russian-born forward became the first player to score 30 or more goals in each of his first 11 seasons since Wayne Gretzky. The aforementioned great scored 30-plus in each of his first 13 years in the league, and it came through seasons with the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings.
While Ovi and the Caps have always been strong offensively, they’ve never wielded firepower quite like this before. Evgeny Kuznetsov, a 23-year-old Russian forward, has found his stride, and leads the Caps with 54 points through 52 games. He’s making life easy for normal scorers, including Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie. These names represent just four of the Capitals’ seven players on pace to score 20 goals this season, as Justin Williams, Jason Chimera and Marcus Johansson can all be held in that regard.
Defensively, Washington has improved greatly since it won the President’s Trophy several years ago. With names like John Carlson, Karl Alzner, Matt Niskanen and Dmitry Orlov, the Caps’ current defensive roster is younger, faster and stronger than it was in 2009-10, when it featured names like Tom Poti, John Erskine and Shaone Morrisonn.
We saw during last year’s postseason that Braden Holtby was capable of stealing games when he went head-to-head against one of the best goaltenders in recent history in Henrik Lundqvist. Holtby has followed up his playoff performance by dominating this season, boasting numbers such as a 2.08 goals against average, a 92.8 save percentage and a league-best 34 wins. And as a 26-year-old, Holtby is only getting started.
Barry Trotz coached the Nashville Predators from 1998 all the way up until 2014, when he was signed by the Washington Capitals. He was a Jack Adams Award (Coach of the Year) finalist in both 2010 and 2011. He led the Caps to 101 points (45-26-11) in his first year with the team.
The most important feature of this year’s Capitals team, though, is experience. Players like Ovechkin and Backstrom have experienced devastating defeats early on in their career, which has only made them hungrier. Players recently brought in, such Justin Williams, Brooks Orpik and Mike Richards have all won Stanley Cups before. And that is exactly the type of personal experience that the 2009-10 team lacked.
All these factors have contributed to Washington’s outrageous success this year. The Capitals (unsurprisingly) boast the league’s best power play percentage of 24.4 percent. On average, they score a league-best 3.29 goals per game. Their 84-percent penalty kill rate is good for fourth best in the NHL. They have the fewest goals against in the league with just 117 through 52 games, and the second lowest goals against per game played ratio at 2.25.
The Capitals have a tenacious roster with an excellent mix of skill, speed, strength, youth and experience. They have an elite goaltender, a reputable coach and a trusting fan base. They have the purest scorer of this generation in Alexander Ovechkin, and perfect playmaking complements to him in Backstrom and Kuznetsov. Barring a series of unfortunate injuries, the Washington Capitals are the clear favorites to win the Stanley Cup.
