Success can sometimes blind you. If it doesn’t blind you it can sure knock you off track for possibly just a second or two forcing you to miss some signs. Hopefully for the Washington Capitals, that is not the case. It shouldn’t be anyways. In terms of sports it’s now been a long time since the Caps have actually done anything. It might feel like yesterday, but 2018 was a long time ago. Four years is quite a long time in sports. If you have a longer career, it is nearly a third or maybe a quarter of someone’s career.
Back to success being a potentially bad thing for a second. You can look across sports and see how some unexpected success has maybe derailed some rebuilds. In hockey maybe we look to the Buffalo Sabres. That is a team that should be looking to draft as much as possible, hit on some prospects and get some success before trying to land any big names to help.
Instead out of nowhere, while still trying to find success they sign Taylor Hall out of nowhere. The end of their season before had a little bit of success that showed maybe they can take a step up. They then make a signing that didn’t make much sense and team is still not good with little hope for the very near future.
Maybe you can look at the Vegas Golden Knights as well. That team just kept winning and as a result kept trying to add big names and names that maybe didn’t fit into the team identity. That team now is a far cry from the one that captured the hearts and imaginations of Knights fans in 2017 and 2018.
2018 in Vegas was a team full of outcasts and players other teams didn’t really want and their work and effort led them to a season no one ever expected. Now, thanks to that success, it’s a team full of star players they signed or traded for that have big contracts that are aging or getting banged up more easily thanks to playing for a long time now.
In the hockey world that is two different examples of maybe having some success can lead to a team making bad decisions. One trying hard to stop losing, one trying desperately to win it all.
The Washington Capitals clearly need to make some changes. As we said earlier, the Capitals have not done anything in quite a while now. They won it all in 2018 and have followed that up with four straight first round exits. Some of those eliminations have been more impressive than others.
This season was one of the more impressive efforts in those four defeats. The season as a whole would be one most teams would take. They went 44-26-12, that is good for 100 points. Most teams would love to have a 100 point season. However, thanks to the eastern conference and the Metropolitan Division being very strong this past season that 100 point year was only good for the second wild card position in the playoffs.
That forced the Capitals to play the Presidents’ Trophy winning Florida Panthers in the first round. Most expected the Capitals to lose in the first round, including myself. They did in fact lose, but they could have easily won that series.
I won’t go into detail on how they lost. We all know how and why. The frustrating part to me is this. The Panthers tried pretty hard to give that series away. For large portions of that series they looked like the worse team. The Capitals looked like they were poised to go into round two and knock out the best team in the regular season. They were minutes away from a 3-1 series lead, and instead end up losing that series 4-2.
But is it better that they lost that series? I am under the belief that if the Capitals win that series vs the Panthers they then move on to get beat up badly by either Tampa Bay or Toronto. Maybe they can squeak that series into another six gamer but in the end I think they lose to both the Lightning and Leafs. Both of those teams looked insanely good in their first round series, even making me believe whoever won that series had a excellent shot at going to the Cup final.
The Panthers just got swept by the Lightning and now Florida can join the Capitals on the golf course for the off-season.
If the Capitals end up winning that series vs. Florida I’m thinking maybe that success could have hurt the team in the long run. The fans and team saw some success. We knocked out the Presidents’ Trophy winners and got past the first round. We are an elite team, we are close to our ultimate goal.
You have to give the Caps some credit. They did play well for a lot of that series. On the other hand, Florida tried really hard to give that series away and the Caps still couldn’t put them away.
Now after four straight seasons of first round exits the Capitals should be looking at making changes. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to bring back a team that has proven for four straight years they can’t get it done, for whatever reason.
The Capitals are not better than a lot of teams in their own conference. They are not better than Tampa, Toronto is better and younger, Carolina is better, New York is on the rise and since Florida beat them while being the lesser team in their series you would have to say they are better. If this team stands pat they are just hoping teams around them get worse and what kind of strategy is that?
As hard as it might be, this team needs some changes. If they go on to beat the Panthers I think that might have convinced people this team is better or in a better position than they are. This is an old team who is quickly running out of time. They are watching teams around them get younger and better.
Another first round exit should force the Capitals to do something. Will it? How or what would they do? I guess only time will tell.