Capitals: Top 3 questions that remain to be answered in 2020
It’s been over two months since the Washington Capitals last played a game.
In fact, it’s been over two months since sports all over the country have been shut down due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The days have passed and there’s been no word on if the Washington Capitals season will continue or not.
Doubt has crept in as each day has gone by during these times that are unprecedented. The Capitals had a first place lead in the Metropolitan Division with under a month to go. Alex Ovechkin was chasing history and now has to deal with this on top of two lockouts that severely affected his numbers.
Plus the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs would’ve been in the books in an alternate universe if the season had kept going on. By now we’d know where the Caps would stand, either another offseason or their second trip to the Eastern Conference Final in three years.
We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future in regards to the 2019-20 season and perhaps the following three questions we’ll cover may also wind up being unknown as well. Or maybe we’ll luck out and the season will continue. We shall see.
#3 Will the Caps hold off the Flyers to claim their fifth straight Metropolitan Division title?
In their final game before the pause the Capitals rallied to force an overtime shootout with the Buffalo Sabres. Although they lost the Caps were at least able to come out of Buffalo with a point and that point may prove to be a big difference if the league chooses to jump straight to the playoffs.
The Caps are in the pause with a one point lead ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers and four points ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Each of the three teams had 13 games left to play in a fight to the finish.
On paper it looked like the Caps would have an easier path to the Metropolitan Division title. They had eight home games and just five opponents who currently hold a playoff spot. There’s even two games against the Detroit Red Wings and one against the Ottawa Senators, the Caps were a combined 3-0 against those teams this season outscoring them 16-6.
The Flyers were red hot with nine wins in a row until a 2-0 loss on home ice to the Boston Bruins that might’ve been the difference in the division. Seven of their final 13 games are on the road.
#2 The state of the crease?
One intriguing storyline entering the season was the state of the crease between Braden Holtby and Ilya Samsonov. It remains to be an intriguing storyline with Holtby in the midst of a contract year while we’ve seen flashes of brilliance from Samsonov.
Samsonov was hot in December and January making a case for the Calder Trophy. Then he struggled. After he allowed five goals on 20 shots to the New York Islanders on Feb. 10 he was pulled in the 5-3 loss. It snatched the momentum that Sammy gained from those previous two months.
In his four starts prior to the season being paused, Samsonov was 0-3-1 with a 4.66 goals-against average and an .866 save percentage which included that Islanders loss.
Holtby, meanwhile, went 5-3-2 with a 2.75 GAA and a .911 save percentage during that stretch. As the playoffs were set to begin it was clear head coach Todd Reirden was going to go with Holtby in net for the playoffs but a question that remains to be seen is did we see Holtby’s last days in a Capitals sweater?
The Caps were going to play the Detroit Red Wings before the season was paused and Reirden was going to go with Holtby in net. It’s likely we would’ve seen him get the majority of the starts to see him go out with a bang.
#1 What would Alex Ovechkin’s final goal total be?
The biggest question that has yet to be answered is the final goal total for Alex Ovechkin who sits just two away from 50 just prior to the season being paused.
Ovechkin not only led the league, tied with David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins for first in goals, he also was heating up before the season hit a pause button. Ovechkin scored eight goals in the 10 games prior to the league being shutdown.
With 13 games to go, there’s no doubt Ovechkin would’ve had another 50 goal season for the second year in a row. The Caps also had one more extra game than the Bruins, giving Ovechkin a legitimate chance of winning the Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophy.
The biggest question isn’t if Ovechkin would reach 50 goals or not. With 13 games remaining and two more to go, it’s virtually a slam dunk he reaches it. No the biggest question is how many goals would Ovechkin finish with.
I predict he would’ve finished with 56 goals and that would’ve been the highest since he scored that much in 2008-09, his age 23 season. Again, no player on the Caps is affected more on the pause than Ovechkin and we can’t wait till he’s back on the ice.
Those are our top 3 questions that remain to be answered. What are yours Caps fans? Let us know in the comments!