This is a systematic issue, the talent is there and the system is failing them.
The Washington Capitals are a bad hockey team right now and there’s nothing that Brian MacLellan can do at the trade deadline to fix it. Since the calendar year turned over, the Caps are 6-9-2. While it would take an epic collapse for this team to miss the postseason, a first-round playoff exit is looking more and more likely as the team continues to flounder.
Without getting too granular, this team really only has one significant issue. They are unwilling to adapt. However, this does break down into two issues, the power play and more recently, the penalty kill. Vitek Vanecek, when he returns from IR, is the team’s number one goaltender and, while unproven in the playoffs, is the best option the team has to win a Stanley Cup this season.
Ilya Samsonov has run out of opportunities to prove himself and this will likely be his final season in DC. Marc-Andre Fluery reportedly doesn’t want to come to Washington and there simply aren’t any better goaltenders on the market than what the Capitals already have in Vanecek.
I’ve seen all the chatter about why the Caps have stumbled in the new year: The team is too old, they’re too slow, the goaltending is suspect but at the end of the day what worries is me is the complete lack of the coaching staff’s willingness to change. The talent is there, even without Anthony Mantha and TJ Oshie in the lineup, this team is one of the league’s best. Oshie and Mantha will return, the team will become deeper but even if that happens, they’ll continue to struggle if the underlying systems aren’t changed.
Hot take: I'm not terribly concerned with the players on the ice. The systems (specifically PP, PK) have been disastrous. There is not a single player(s) that you just insert and suddenly the #Caps are good again. Need to make meaningful changes in how they play, not who.
— David Atlas (@DavidAtlas69) February 13, 2022
The Washington Capitals 5-on-5 numbers have dipped too but I believe that’s because the special teams units suck any momentum out of the game and it’s hard to recover against NHL teams when you’re hemorrhaging goals on the penalty kill and more worryingly, completely unable to score on the power play. Blaine Forsythe has got to go, the power play has been a problem since October and the team has done nothing to address it. There is not one player that Brian MacLellan can trade for and insert into the man-advantage that suddenly makes the Capitals an average or above-average power play.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom can’t enter the offensive zone with consistency on the man-advantage but suddenly you trade for Claude Giroux and he is able to? I’m not buying it. This is a systematic issue, the talent is there and the system is failing them. Peter Laviolette has done a terrific job all things considered, but if he can’t get the team out of this slump, then all of that goes out the window and he shoulders the blame for wasting one of Alex Ovechkin’s best individual years. If MacLellan won’t relieve Forysthe entirely, Laviolette needs to relieve him of his duties as the power play architect.
After the team’s 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators, Nicklas Backstrom summed up my theory in less words.
More Nicklas Backstrom: "I just think that everything needs to be better. We got to, I don’t know what it is, I feel like we just got to relax and try to play our game here because that is not our game.”
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) February 13, 2022
The Washington Capitals aren’t playing their game because they can’t score on the power play, in-fact, they’re giving up goals on the power play. To compound issues, the team is also now struggling to kill penalties and that puts them in a position where they have to chase games. If the Capitals adjust and start operating at even league-average on special teams, they will be just fine but if they don’t, fans better not look to Brian MacLellan to make the struggles disappear because he can’t do that by making a splash at the deadline.