In an unusual position for a team picked by many to go all the way, the Washington Capitals find themselves on the outside of the playoffs looking in. With today’s 3-2 loss to the Eastern Conference leading New York Rangers, the Caps are in 9th place in the East, a point behind the Canadiens who currently hold the final playoff spot and two points behind the Southeast Division leading Florida Panthers, who also have a game in hand over Washington. More importantly, the Capitals are 3-4-3 in their last ten games and have lost two in a row.
As of today, the regular season is two-thirds over. Washington has played 55 games and has 27 games to go. Some might say that’s more then enough time for the Capitals to not only get back in the playoff picture, but also to easily win the division. At the risk of being a naysayer, of the 27 games remaining, more than half are on the road, where the Caps have a 9-15-3 record. To make matters even worse, 9 of these 14 road games are against opponents who have better records than the Capitals.
Today’s loss to the Rangers and Thursday’s shootout loss to Winnipeg are typical of how things have gone for the Capitals this year — the Caps played less than sixty minutes of hockey in each game, and the results are what can be expected in a league as competitive as the NHL. Washington was intense for extensive stretches and looked like a much better team than their opponents. Unfortunately, these periods of time were punctuated by rookie type mistakes where they could not even pass the puck out of their own zone. Dmitry Orlov’s play today wouldn’t even qualify for a starting job in Hershey — he gave up up the puck multiple times today, two of which directly resulted in Ranger tallies.
Now there must be those who are saying: “What do you expect from a team that is playing without the likes of stars Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green?” This correspondent would point to last year’s Pittsburgh Penguins, who played the majority of their season without Sidney Crosby and an extended period without Evgeni Malkin. Somehow they managed to do just fine, tallying 106 points in the regular season, just one less than Washington’s 107. It must have something to do with coaching — after all, Penguins’ Coach Dan Bylsma was awarded the Jack Adams award for the best coach in the NHL.
The bottom line of all this is that it can be done — with a will to win, a willingness to give 100% for a full sixty minutes each and every game day, and a commitment to the team and each other. It’s yet to be seen whether each of the Capitals are willing to make that sacrifice — sadly, so far they haven’t been.
Tomorrow night against San Jose, the last home game before a four game road trip, should give us a clue. More of the same level of play will mean Washington fans will have an even longer off-season… one that begins in early April.
Let’s Go Caps!
