Although the Washington Capitals lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Alex Ovechkin is day to day with an upper body injury, there is a silver lining. The team is heading back to the playoffs and they can honestly thank former hockey player John Scott for the motivation.
Here’s what Scott said in his Dropping the Gloves podcast before the season started:
"“The Washington Capitals will miss the playoffs this year. They’ve made the playoffs for the last 10-some years. They’ve made the playoffs since 2013-14. I think they’re going to be garbage. All their players are older. They’ve lost the last two years. I don’t see it happening this year. Ovechkin’s done. They’re just going to shut it right down. I don’t think any of those guys are going to have a good season. I don’t think Ovi’s going to even come close to Gretzky’s number. I don’t think he’s going to touch 30 goals this year. I think the Capitals are just going to be a hot mess. They didn’t sign anybody. They brought back the goaltender. That was about it. They didn’t make any offseason tinkerings. They made the massive mistake of trading for Anthony Mantha the last year. I think that’s going to make the team worse.”"
Okay let’s break down this preseason quote into different parts. I will give him credit for saying the team is older he isn’t wrong about that. But they did make the playoffs. He also got the years mixed up as 2013-14 was one of those rare years the Caps missed the playoffs. In fact, it was the only time in the 2010s that happened.
The next part of this quote says Ovechkin is done. He might be done for the regular season but he was right on one thing, Ovechkin didn’t touched 30 goals. In fact, he touched 50.
He’s right that the Caps hardly signed anybody and their goaltending while isn’t a mess still remains the biggest question going down in D.C. And then he said trading for Anthony Mantha was a mistake.
No #ALLCAPS in the playoffs.
— hockeyfights (@hockeyfights) October 9, 2021
Is @johnscott_32 on the money? @dropping_gloves is must subscribe content. pic.twitter.com/ivTDjPGoqp
Let’s take a look at that for a second. While Mantha did miss a lot of time this season due to injury he has nine goals and 13 assists for 34 points. Not terrible, could be better but honestly can’t complain. I’m not one of those fans that does the Mantha slander.
Overall, this was fun to look back on and I can’t wait to do the same thing for Paul Bissonnette after the Caps win the Cup.