THE HEARTBREAK CAPITALS
Washington desperate to succeed
Here are some of the headlines that pop up when you punch the words, “Washington Capitals playoff history,” into a search engine.
“A history of Capitals’ failures in the Alex Ovechkin era.”
“Those who know Capitals’ playoff history are condemned to be haunted by it.”
“The storied tradition of Capitals collapses.”
And, my personal favourite, “How to write a Washington Capitals playoff story,” which provides a writing template to be used for the Caps’ inevitable post-season failure.
See the theme here?
The Caps, it seems, have become that rare franchise that is synonymous with heartbreak. True, they haven’t been at it quite as long as the Red Sox or Cubs, nor have their greatest defeats come on the biggest stage like the Vikings or Bills. But since coming into the NHL four years after the Canucks, they’ve built a remarkable resume with a succession of inexplicable losses at the hands of superior teams that, taken in total, strains the bounds of credulity.
Today, the Caps will confront the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of their second-round series, but they also confront their own miserable history. Can they get it right this time?
Well, they haven’t in the past — at least not when it really counted. But given everything that’s already happened in this series, it can reasonably be asked: If the Caps don’t do it this time, will they ever do it?
“We have absolutely nothing to lose,” centre Nick Backstrom said after the Caps’ stunning 5-2 win in Pittsburgh in Game 6.
“That’s what we’ve been telling ourselves lately, to just go out and have fun.”
But technically that’s not true: They can lose their reputation as choke artists.
As mentioned, the Caps’ history of playoff failure is extensive, but for the moment, let’s focus on the last decade and the events that brought us to this place.
The current edition of the Capitals emerged as a contender in 2007-08, three years after they drafted Ovechkin, the giant and troubled figure at the heart of this drama. In the 10 years since, they’ve averaged a staggering 101 points per season while winning seven divisional titles, four Eastern Conference titles and three Presidents’ Trophies.
As you may be aware, they’ve yet to make it out of the second round of the playoffs over that span.
This combination of regular season dominance and playoff ineptitude is unprecedented in the post-merger NHL.
In the Ovechkin era, the Caps are 3-6 in Game 7s. The 2009-10 team won the Presidents Trophy with 121 points and bowed out in the first round to the Habs. Last season’s team finished with 120 points and were bounced by the Pens in the second round. The script changed from year to year, as did the cast of characters, but the ending never seemed to change.
This year was shaping up as another dark entry in the Caps’ record book and it might be the ultimate commentary that their fortunes changed with a move that defied logic. Trailing 3-1 in the series and coming off a Game 4 loss to a Crosbyless Pens team, Trotz took the unprecedented step of demoting Ovechkin to the — gasp! — third line and promoting the mercurial Andre Burakovsky to Ovie’s favoured spot with Backstrom. It was bold. It was daring. It was really, really weird — but damned if the Caps haven’t looked like a different team since, largely because they are a different team.
They now boast three scoring lines with elite talent on each unit, and it’s now the Penguins who look like they can’t keep up. The Caps are playing fast and heavy. Burakovsky has been a revelation. Backstrom is playing the most meaningful hockey of his career.
Ovechkin, for his part, has become the game’s highest-paid grinder. It’s quite likely he isn’t thrilled by this turn of events, but he’s had plenty of opportunities to alter the course of Caps history before this spring.
“We weren’t getting enough offence with having everything on two lines,” Trotz said. “We’d been losing the series. If we continue down that path, maybe we don’t have opportunity.
“Sometimes you have to try. I’d rather try to do something than regret (not doing something) I should have done before.”
As it happens, this post-season also brings the Ovechkin-era Capitals to a crossroads. This summer, four key players — Kevin Shattenkirk, Karl Alzner, T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams — become unrestricted free agents, and four more — Burakovsky, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt — become RFAs. There will be changes and they’re not going to be for the better. That only increases the table stakes for today.
“I don’t think there’s anything we need to say,” Trotz said. “We gave ourselves the opportunity to play hockey. Other than that, Game 7 is its own entity.”
At least, he’d like to think that’s the case — the history books tell you otherwise.
It can reasonably be asked: If the Caps don’t do it this time, will they ever do it?