When Does It Stop Being Early For A Struggling Capitals Team?

It’s something that I think is irritating some Washington Capitals fans out there. The major annoyance is obvious. The Capitals as a team right now are not doing very well. Twenty games into the season the team sits at record of 7-10-3, not a record to be proud of to say the least. After people point out what the record is you will hear some people follow with this response. It’s early.

Some fans won’t accept that response. I suppose the argument being that we are twenty games into the year which is basically twenty-five percent, or a quarter of the season. That doesn’t sound too early to a lot of people.

At the end of the day, it still is pretty early for more reasons than one this season. Maybe in past seasons we would and should start hitting the panic button but this season, even with the Capitals struggles they are not that far out of any race.

Even at the bad record of 7-10-3 the Capitals are still just five points out of a playoff spot. As I write this Washington is currently chasing the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings in the wild card race. Both sit at 22 points, the Rangers at 9-6-4 and the Wings at 9-5-4. In the division they are still just seven points out. Both the Hurricanes and the Islanders have 24 points.

It’s easy to look at the standings and have a bit of a freak out. When you look at the standings you will see the Capitals are closer to last place than they are a playoff spot. It’s also easy to get annoyed or upset when someone says to calm down because the year is still fairly young. There is still a lot of hockey to be played. Going on a small run and getting just a tiny bit of help in the out of town scoreboard and the Capitals will be right back in the races.

There will be a time when it stops being early. It’s hard to point out when that time will officially start. We have to wait and see how the Caps play in the next several games and we also have to wait and see what the other teams in the conference and division do. If the Capitals remain a poor team that early will start to end very quickly. If they turn into an average team and the teams around them remain average, the early will extend for a good amount of time.

Just because we can lets go ahead and look at the upcoming schedule and see if we can figure out when it stops being early and when people, including myself, can stop saying that.

To close out this month of November the Capitals play the Flyers first. Philadelphia got off to a good start, but they’re 2-6-2 in their last ten games. They are one point up on the Caps in the standings. That needs to be a win and for arguments sake lets say they do win that game.

After that they host the Calgary Flames. Coming into the year the Flames were considered by many to be a Stanley Cup contender. Right now they are just 9-7-2 and are tied with four teams for the two western wild card spots. I won’t say that is a win for Washington, but again, it’s a team that is pretty average right now. If the Capitals want to dig themselves out of a hole, beating an average team should happen.

After that, the next night they go to New Jersey. Not much to say here. The Devils are on an absolute tear. That is going to be a tough game. After that the Capitals start a five game road trip out west starting with the Canucks. Vancouver is not a good team, that’s another must win.

We’re not going to look at every single game for the next month but here are all the games for the next month, ending on December 23rd, the last game before the Christmas or holiday break.

In order it goes, Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Philadelphia, Seattle, Winnipeg, Chicago, Dallas, Toronto, Detroit, Ottawa and Winnipeg.

It isn’t the toughest schedule out there. A lot of those teams are playing average, if not bad hockey, at least right now. A lot can change between now and when these games get played.

The worst part about this schedule is the travel. They start December on a 5 game road trip and they play 7 out of 9 on the road between the end of November and December 13th.

In that stretch from a long ways out those teams look beatable. You avoid a lot the toughest teams for the most part. You avoid New Jersey, taking away that they play each other in a few days from now, you avoid Carolina, you avoid Boston, there’s no Vegas, you don’t play Tampa. The tough teams the Capitals do play are Dallas and Toronto and those aren’t even until the 15th and 17th.

You could argue there is a stretch of seven or eight average teams Washington will play in a row. If the Capitals want to jump back into contention there is your opportunity. That is one reason you have to continue to say it’s early when talking about the early season struggles.

If the Capitals continue to struggle then that early will end somewhat quickly. If they do not pick up the pace then I can’t imagine early going past maybe the second week of December. I think, depending on how the results go in the next two, three or four games, December 15th and 17th when the Caps host both the Stars and Maple Leafs, that is probably when early ends if they don’t start to put up W’s on a consistent basis.

It will still be tough to say. The Capitals will likely get more and more healthy with Orlov and Wilson expected back in the not so distant future. January also looks a little weak in terms of the competition. To start the first month of 2023 Washington will play Buffalo,  Columbus twice, Nashville and Philadelphia twice. The back end of January gets a little tougher with the likes of the Isles, Vegas, Pittsburgh, Colorado and Toronto.

As much as some people don’t like to hear it, it is still early. The Caps are still close to a playoff position and the schedule is not packed with hard teams. If they start winning then they get even closer to the playoffs and hopefully get healthier with some stars returning to the lineup.

But they have to start winning and putting up good last five or last ten games records. To me, early will end in about three weeks if the Capitals don’t turn it around.