Early expectations for the 2021 Washington Capitals season.
The Washington Capitals enter a new era on the head coaching front as they said goodbye to Todd Reirden and hello to Peter Laviolette. The Caps also said goodbye to Braden Holtby and hello to Henrik Lundqvist but that time was short lived.
Lundqvist decided to not play this season after a heart condition making things very interesting in the goalie situation for the Caps. What the team will likely do is go with Vitek Vanecek to backup Ilya Samsonov who is ready to take over as the starter.
Offensively the Caps are returning pretty much everyone plus a few extras via the taxi squad. You can read Nicolas’ predictions here. The biggest player returning is Alex Ovechkin, who enters the last year of his contract. No need to worry as he’s expressed he wants to stay with the Caps.
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Coming off a 48 goal season, all eyes will be on him in the Wayne Gretzky chase. Maybe he’ll get a documentary down the line that is similar to the last dance. This is indeed that time as we enter the twilight of Ovi’s career.
But it’s not just Ovechkin who will be an impact player. Evgeny Kuznetsov will likely center the top line alongside Tom Wilson. Look for Wilson to have a breakout year. As for Kuznetsov, I think Laviolette will love working with him to reach his potential.
On the second line will be Nicklas Backstrom, who looks to bounce back from a down year. Alongside him will be Jakub Vrana, who will look to continue to kill it in the NHL as one of the best young second line wingers. Alongside them is V’s bro T.J. Oshie, who like Ovechkin shows no signs of aging.
The third line is where things get a little tricky. We’ve got the best third line center in Lars Eller, a reliable veteran in Carl Hagelin and perhaps a battle between Conor Sheary and Daniel Sprong. On the fourth line we’ve got Richard Panik as well as the podcast bros Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway.
The regular season will be unlike any other. It will be a challenge for this veteran Capitals team against some of the competition they will be facing with the top four spots up for grabs. It will be a fun one to stay on top of and it will also be mentally exhausting seeing the same guys over and over again. Bring it on.