TIP YOUR CAPS FOR CUP RUN?
Face Rangers today with NHL’s best record — again! — as they gear up for shot at elusive title
FAMILIAR, isn’t it? Ah, yes, you’ll recall this sort of supremacy by the Washington Capitals, witnessed it only one year ago in fact, the team based a stone’s throw from the White House running through the NHL as if it was finally their year as Alex Ovechkin routinely rocketed pucks into twine on one end and Braden Holtby expertly kept them from getting there on the other.
They won the Presidents’ Trophy and are favorites to capture it again as they roll into New York for a Sunday matinee against the Rangers, but last season ended like they all have since the Ovechkin era began in 2005-06. It ended not only without a Stanley Cup, but one round short of the Eastern Conference final, a distance Ovechkin amazingly has never reached despite the Capitals reaching the playoffs in eight of the last nine seasons.
With less than two months until a new postseason begins the Capitals are scorching, having taken a 19-2-2 run into today’s game against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, returning to the grind after taking their bye week. Now the questions begin to arise as the tournament draws closer and Washington dominates again, questions that have been asked before of the franchise which has zero championships and one Cup Final appearance since beginning play in 1974. Can the Capitals finally break through? Will they finally peak in spring instead of winter? Is this the year? “I think they’re the most complete team in the NHL. I thought that last year as well, but I think being the best team in the NHL doesn’t assure you anything,” NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp said. “I think last year is a perfect example. I
RANGERS vs. CAPITALS 12:30 p.m. on NBC
PHOTO BY GETTY think they were so elite that they bought themselves so much room in the standings that you start, I call it a slow fade. You start letting things creep into games, and you might still be winning, but you let little bad habits get in there, the next thing you know you wake up and it’s playoff time, and everyone else has got their game sewn up tight. And you have a lot of issues going on, and that’s what happened to them last year.”
Indeed, the Capitals, who were four points better through 56 games last year, went 7-5-4 over their final 16 games and ended up losing to the Penguins in the Eastern Conference semifinals. They got next to nothing in the playoffs from Evgeny Kuznetsov, who after leading the team with 77 points had just one point in each of their six-game series.
“If he plays better in the playoffs, I’m not sure the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup,” Rupp said. “You hate to put it on one guy like that, but he’s such a huge part of that team.”
Kuznetsov has 25 points in his last 21 games, is a crucial facilitator in what has been one of the most high-powered offenses in the league. Their top line of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie has been sensational, the trio totaling 153 points over Washington’s first 57 games.
Washington had a league-best fiveon-five shooting percentage of 10.4% entering Saturday’s game at Detroit, a 3-2 loss for the Caps. In the lockoutshortened, 48-game 2012-13 season, Toronto finished with a 10.7% mark, but before that the last team to finish with a five-on-five shooting percentage of at least 10% was the Capitals team which won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2009-10, but lost to the Canadiens in the first round.
What really separates the Caps right now, though, is their balance. With another superb season from Holtby, terrific spot duty by backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer and a strong defensive group, the Capitals took an NHL-best 1.32 goal differential per game into their bye week; Minnesota was second with 1.02. Washington was second in the NHL with 3.41 goals per game and tops in the league with 2.09 goals against while ranking in the top five in both power-play and penalty-kill percentage.
There hasn’t been a goaldifferential-per-game mark as good as Washington’s since the first post-lockout season of 2005-06, a 1.30 margin by the Senators, who were bounced in the second round but the following year went to the Cup Final. “I think what people underestimate is how well they defend. They’re difficult. They’re stingy,” Rupp said of the Caps. “The best thing about having structure in the league is that’s always your crutch, and when you have a game where you just don’t have it, you can always all back on that and if you defend well you’ve got a shot.”
Brian MacLellan and Barry Trotz have Washington in position to succeed, but this has been seen before. The Caps have always been the bridesmaid, and they’ll be under more pressure to win this spring than anyone.