Can The Washington Capitals Beat The Best Teams In The East

You just read the headline. Can the Washington Capitals beat the top teams in the eastern division? The short answer? Yes! Clearly they can. Want an example? Fine. You don’t have to go back that far. On Sunday, April 11th, in Boston, the Caps throttled the Bruins 8-1. So, when you hear that question of “Can the Capitals beat a top team in their division?” I’m guessing that might be one of the first things that come to your mind.

When I ask that question I am also very aware that the Caps have in fact beaten all the top teams in the division, in regulation at least once. In that sense, again, the question has been answered. Yes, they can beat the top teams.

While watching the Capitals most recent loss to the Bruins I went and took a look at how the team does against what I consider the top teams in the division. I consider the Bruins, the Islanders and the Penguins the top teams in the division. If any of those teams went on a run in the playoffs I don’t think anyone would be incredibly shocked, right? If that’s the case that would mean you’re obviously a top team.

The Capitals against these top teams do not have a great record. These top three teams have a combined 10-6-2 record against Washington.

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Now as you would expect, the Caps beat up on the not so good teams in the division. The “bottom” teams in the division would be the Sabres, Devils and the Flyers. These teams are not making the playoffs and at least two of the three have been at the bottom of the division for basically the entire season.

These three bottom teams are 3-16-3 against Washington.

You are not going to find any advanced stats in this article. Actually, you aren’t going to find really any stats. Those kinds of things will come later when the playoffs are a little closer and we’re trying to figure out how the Capitals match up with these teams. Right now, the only question I’m asking is do you think the Caps can beat any of the top three teams in a playoff series?

Can they beat the team that has given them their most recent loss, the Bruins? The Bruins are 4-1-2 against Washington this season. All four of their wins have come in regulation.

Can the Caps beat the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season. The Islanders are 2-3 against Washington so far this season. Something that I think is important here is while the Caps do have a winning record against New York two of those three wins came very, very early in the season. That was when the Capitals jumped out to a great start (6-0-3), the Islanders stumbled out of the gates (3-4-2). The Isles are 2-1 against the Caps since then including two very different wins recently. An 8-4 game on the 1st and a 1-0 scrappy game on the 6th.

The next three games for the Caps are against this Islanders team, so we may learn a lot about these two teams in the next several days.

Last, and certainly not least, do you as fans feel comfortable playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins? It’s felt like forever since these two teams have matched up. The last time the Capitals and Penguins played was on the 25th on February. The Pens back then were probably what you could consider an average team. Their record was just 10-7-1 after their loss to the Caps on the 25th.

The Penguins since then are 18-7-2, good for 38 points. That is tied for the third most points in the NHL since then, behind only Colorado’s 45 and Las Vegas’ 41. They are tied with the Capitals who are 19-8-0 since then.

The Penguins are 4-2 against the Capitals this season. However, three of those four wins came after 60 minutes of play. The next time these two tangle will be on the 29th and 1st of next month. A lot has changed in the last month and a half. It should be interesting to see how these teams play against each other later this month.

How good is this Capitals team? Is this a team that just beats up on poorer teams and plays somewhat average vs the top teams? The bad teams are not following them to the playoffs. Having a losing record against the teams you will have to get through come playoff time isn’t the most encouraging sign.

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Time will tell. I’m not even close to being one of those people who go out and make bold predictions. With that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if this Capitals team won the Stanley Cup. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised if this same team lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Only time will tell.

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