The Washington Capitals will spend a third straight summer wondering what if. Despite another first round exit, it was still a good first year in the Peter Laviolette era. The Caps overcame a fair amount of adversity throughout the season but some injuries towards the tail end of the season was ultimately what did them in.
The Caps finished the 2021 season with a 36-15-5 record for 77 points, that was good for second in the MassMutual East Divison. The Caps had challenges from playing only their divisional opponents up to eight times. Many were familiar foes from the Metropolitan Division while others were new faces.
The Caps averaged 3.36 goals for per game while allowing 2.88 goals per game. Their power play finished at a 24.84 percent success rate while their penalty kill finished at 83.95 percent.
The Caps were ranked third in the regular season on the power play including first in the East Divison. In the playoffs, it was a completely different story as the Caps had a success rate of 14.3 percent. That’s a huge drop off and ranked 12th in the league.
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Alex Ovechkin led the Caps with 24 goals. He was flirting with a 30 goal season until an injury with about two weeks left cost him significant playing time. T.J. Oshie was right behind him with 22. Oshie proved his worth and that he belongs here for life. Sorry Seattle.
The Caps also had a hole at goaltending as they had to use a rookie and a sophomore after Henrik Lundqvist announced he had to opt out the season for heart surgery. What we saw was the emergence of Vitek Vanecek and sadly it ended in Game 1 of the playoffs after he got injured after allowing a goal.
Vanecek went 21-10-4 with a 2.69 goals against average and a .908 save percentage as he was thrust into a bigger role than he expected. Not only with the absence of Lundqvist but with Ilya Samsonov on the COVID protocols list.
Samsonov would come out okay as he went 13-5-1 with a 2.69 goals against average and a .902 save percentage. He ended up playing in Games 3, 4 and 5 of the first round.
Grade B-: If I had to grade the Caps 2021 season, I would give them a B-. They performed well and responded to challenges putting them at above average. What dropped their grade was the late regular season crash with all the injuries as well as another first round flameout. Overall, not a bad first year for Peter Laviolette and it’ll be interesting to see how they do in a full 82 game season when the world gets back to normal.