5 fun facts about the Capitals as their season is officially over
There’s 16 teams still playing for that chance of winning the Stanley Cup. The Washington Capitals are not one of them as we all know.
Now the Caps have a goal of remaining competitive while searching for some youth this summer. Tom Wilson told the media on breakdown day:
“I think the leadership and the group of guys is kind of second to none around the league. You’ve got really good quality people and really good teammates and that’s a foundation that you can build around. Different guys come in and can complement that or add to that. There’s going to be probably a second wave of what we need younger guys to come in and start pulling their weight and adding and complementing the core that’s getting a little bit older. I’ll be probably a little bit of a hybrid of that in the middle.”
Here are five fun facts as we wrap up the 2022-23 season:
#5 Russian Machine never breaks
Alex Ovechkin not only passed Gordie Howe for second place of all time, he finished the season with 42 goals. Although he didn’t lead the league, of the other nine players to reach 42 goals and 33 assists, none of them were older than 27. Ovechkin turns 38 in September just before next season.
#4 73
73 is the number of games it took this season for the Capitals to have all six remaining players from their 2018 Stanley Cup championship on the ice together. Those players are Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Tom Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie. Washington’s key core.
The reason it took so long to have them all together? Injuries.
Carlson, Wilson, and Backstrom all played 40 games or fewer. Oshie played in just 58 games. Ovechkin was sidelined for consecutive games multiple times whether it was due to injury or the death of his father Mikhail.
In all it added up to the team missing the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons.
Ovechkin told reporters on breakdown day:
“You can see when we’re missing Osh, when we’re missing Backy, Willie, Carly, me, I don’t think we played well long enough together to set up the standard [of] what we wanted to do.”
Ovechkin is right. There was not enough time to redevelop chemistry and it cost them dearly. But the players still believe they can get the job done next year. Nicklas Backstrom added:
“I think the core group here has been with each other for a long time and, obviously, we’re not happy about the situation. I think with this group we can regroup and start fresh next year and hopefully we can get together as a team and really start off the right way.”
#3 5
Five games is the number of consecutive games the Capitals won this season and it only happened twice. Other than those two mini five game winning streaks the play has been inconsistent to put it mildly.
Ovechkin said:
“I don’t think we were consistent enough to get success. We won one game, we would lose two games … [There were] lots of reasons why we never had that kind of success, lots of injuries, lines changing most of the time. And when you’re healthy, you stick with all four lines to find chemistry and to find different ways to find success.”
Now the Caps have a long summer ahead but that can actually benefit an old team like these guys. T.J. Oshie said:
“I think everyone talks about the age of some of our guys. So what better way to go against that than to give these guys the ability to train for four months and really get ready like some teams are able to.”
Oshie already has the right mindset. He also noted that teams like the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres benefitted from missing the playoffs last season as each are the fastest in the league this season. Luckily for the Devils, they got in.
#2 Enter Sandman
The brightest spot among the Capitals after the fire sale trade deadline was the addition of Rasmus Sandin in the Erik Gustafsson to the Toronto Maple Leafs trade. In the deal they got a young defenseman that will also be under contract next season.
Sandin is just 22 years old and in 19 games with the Caps he had three goals and 12 assists for 15 points. He had three assists in just his first game with the Capitals. He also had another three assist game in a road win over the New York Islanders.
At the end of the season he cooled off like the rest of the team but his assists were among the fastest in the first few games among a player to play his first few Capitals games in franchise history.
Sandin recently accepted an invite to represent Team Sweden at the 2023 World Championship of the IIHF. He’s also been spotted in attendance at Maple Leafs playoff games rooting on his former teammates.
He found out he got traded to the Caps in the middle of practice and lots of Leafs fans weren’t happy about it. After that short sample size we had after the trade deadline, we can see why!
#1 When it all got away
Listening to the player interviews on breakdown day each player had a different opinion on when things went south for the team.
Tom Wilson gave a blunt answer:
“Towards the end of the year, we just — for whatever reason — we just weren’t where we wanted to be as a group. I don’t think the hockey was good enough. I don’t think we were playing hard enough down the stretch to win games. We were in a really good position even after selling to potentially try and get into the playoffs and there were some big games where we just didn’t get it done, (big games) that, for the last 10 years, had gone the other way.”
Dylan Strome pointed to the Penguins loss in late March:
“I kind of feel like that Pittsburgh game was the game that sunk the ship,” the center said of the last-minute loss at PPG Paints Arena on March 25. “We had some chances after that. But if we win that game…”
Capitals will have quite the offseason ahead to get back on track. light. Hot
Strome also pointed to some costly losses on home ice earlier in the year that came to teams like the Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks, and Columbus Blue Jackets. “Six points you’d love to have back.”