Are The Washington Capitals Satisfied With Just One Stanley Cup

After so many years of coming up short and all those years that were filled with frustration, the Washington Capitals finally broke through in 2018 and won the Stanley Cup. Break through. That’s what that year felt like.

I cannot be the only one who thought that now that they have made that run that another should be expected. The core of this team was going to stay in place, and while not the youngest of guys anymore they still had plenty of good years ahead of them.

After winning that Cup you should have thought that a run similar to the Chicago Blackhawks, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins was in store for this Capitals franchise. You should have even expected a run like the current Tampa Bay Lightning team. Plenty of conference finals appearances and add in a Cup for them.

Unlike those five teams I just mentioned who have had sustained success in the playoffs, this Capitals team has not. Before they won the Cup in 2018 this was a team known for not being able to get past the second round of the playoffs. Now, in the past three seasons they cannot get past the first round.

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What’s happened? The core of this team has stayed intact. It’s a core that most teams across the league would be jealous of. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, TJ Oshie, Lars Eller, Tom Wilson, John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov.

The supporting cast has changed for sure. You have lost guys such as Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen on defense. You’ve lost young players like Andre Burakovsky and Jakub Vrana. Maybe to top off all of that you have seen a Vezina and Cup winning goaltender walk away in Braden Holtby.

You may have lost talent, but there is still plenty of talent on this Capitals team. You have four strong forward lines, a combination of defensemen that most teams can only dream of, and two young goalies that have shown they can be very good. What is happening when the playoffs roll around?

Why does the effort level seemingly plummet when the first round of the playoffs starts? It’s not like this is one player either. We all know the guy I’m talking about here. Kuznetsov has definitely come under the microscope thanks to his last season, and rightly so. But this issue goes beyond just one player.

Going back to 2019 the only players I can remember who had a good series vs Carolina were Ovechkin, Backstrom and Brett Connolly. That was a great Capitals team with mostly the same pieces that won the Cup the year before. That was also a team that very much got out hustled for large portions of that series.

That was a series that saw the Hurricanes outshoot the Capitals 33-11 after two periods in game three, a game they eventually outshot the Caps 45-18 and won 5-0.

That was a series that also saw the Capitals lose in seven games. In that seventh and deciding game the Capitals blew a 2-0 and 3-1 lead. That was a game that went to double overtime and the Capitals got outshot 18-6 in those overtimes. They were just holding on until they couldn’t anymore.

The next season, while completely strange, was a lot of the same. While in the bubble for last seasons playoffs it was again the Capitals being out battled and out hustled for extremely large portions of their series vs the New York Islanders. That series never felt close and the Islanders won it in five. I don’t remember thinking anyone played that well in the bubble.

This season, it started better, Washington looked pretty good for a game or two, then they seemingly ran out of gas. After game two, it was once again for large portions of games, mostly Boston. That series is fresh in our minds, there isn’t much recap needed for this one.

Are the Capitals satisfied with winning just one Stanley Cup? I, and I think all of us know the answer to that question. Of course not! I don’t care what you’re talking about, you should never jump into someone else’s head and tell them what they think or feel. I will not come out and say these guys don’t want it. I am very curious to find out what or where the disconnect is between these guys heads and the effort level they show at the most important time of the year.

I heard a story on a San Jose Sharks broadcast a while back. It was told by Drew Remenda, a former Sharks TV color commentator and it was a conversation he had with current Sharks TV color guy, former NHL defenseman, Stanley Cup champion and Olympian, Bret Hedican.

Years ago the Sharks were in a slump. They had a good game where they had a good effort, but still lost. Remenda apparently says, “But at least they played hard.” Remenda then says that Hedican snapped back with “Yes, but Drew, effort or playing hard is non negotiable”.

Excuse me for taking a bit of a turn there, but that quote or story has stuck with me. We should not be sitting here and talking about effort, especially when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Yet here we are.

So what’s happening? As a player you are only going to get so many chances at a Stanley Cup and the Capitals have completely wasted three good chances.

At the end of the day this Capitals core can come back to D.C. and look up at the Stanley Cup banner and be very, very proud. They should be. No matter how you did it or how many you won, a Cup is never something to look down on.

You just hope that when you look at that banner 15 to 20 years from now you’re not wondering why the 2018 banner isn’t joined by another one. It’s likely the Capitals are going to get another chance or two. There is no more time to be wasted, the Capitals need another long run.