After a less than satisfying 22-23 season that was riddled with injuries and no playoff apprearance the Caps are looking to make progress this season and hopefully back in the playoffs which we have been so used to.
After a full offseason the Capitals are looking as a whole very similar to last year’s team with a fully healthy Tom Wilson on the horizon.
The Caps are with a brand new younger coach Spencer Carbery for once in hopes to lit some fire with this team. The Capitals have added a skilled vet in Max Pacioretty.
Is that enough to get the boys back in the playoffs that remains to be seen. As a fan on the outside looking in it seems like the organization is hoping our young guns step up and play a bigger role with this aging core to compete in the Metro.
Yes our goal as Cap’s fans we want to make the playoffs and get back to the Stanley Cup, but lets be real we are here watching history unfold with Alex Ovechkin’s race to goal scoring immortality to 895. Especially when the organization has openly said “we are not going to rebuild” while Ovi is on this team.
The Capitals this season don’t have much star power aside from our aging core and Tom Wilson, but even with our poor record last season we did have some bright spots that included the play of Dylan Strome and Sonny Milano.
Strome is the only remaining forward that accounted for over 50% of the goals last season when playing with Ovi last year. He was able to finish with 65 points and hopefully they keep those two on the same line again this season.
Pacioretty should help increase the offense as well just as long as he is able to stay healthy given his previous injury history. This move was more of a high risk high reward type acquisition being a point per game player when he was with Vegas from 19-22 seasons. This is a big if so I am keeping my expectations low for Max.
As for the defensive end adding Rasmus Sandin was huge to strengthen the back end with guys like Carlson, Jensen, and van Riemsdyk who have shown to be very dependable on defense.
In between the pipes we still have Darcy Kuemper who had a .908 saver percentage which was a drop off from his .920 when he was in Colorado. For all the Cap’s fans that were constantly coming for Darcy’s head every game he was 13.2 goals above the expected last season compared to the 15.9 during his time in Denver. We are going to need him to be that steal a game goaltender if the Caps are going to be a serious contender similar to how Holtby was for us.
The Capitals struggled last season with outscoring their opponents with a lackluster season from guys like Kuznetsov and Oshie who used to have big star power, but now are just regular table setters now with a lot of remaining weight that needs to be picked up.
Finding the right line combos will be the biggest start for Carberry being able to find which guys mesh the best together. Last season it seemed like every night there was a new line combo which usually doesn’t bode well when it comes to the teams overall success.
The biggest question this offseason was if we were going to trade Kuznetsov or ride with him another season to see if he can get back to that playmaker type player that dominated during our Championship run. I have been up and down on my thoughts on Kuzy because his lackluster play was extremely frustrating last season.
Overall with an offseason that allowed Backstrom and Wilson to get back to 100% could pay big dividends this upcoming season and provide what this team needs to get back in the playoffs.
Worst case scenario we basically see what we saw last season which was less than desirable and the only bright spot being able to watch Ovi rip shots past more goalies on his way to history.
If I am being realistic we will see Ovi reach another 30 plus goal season and a healthy Caps core that allows them back in the playoffs again, then get past the first round and then get eliminated and anything past that is playing with house money.
Reminder
My original prediction from my “OVI GETS 700!” blog was that “Ovi Passes Gretzky in the 2025-26 season at the age of 40 the week of January 5th! BOOK IT!”
The Morning Skate 