What Needs To Go Right For The Capitals To Compete Next Season

Staying Healthy

I don’t have to remind Capitals fans how badly their team got bitten by the injury bug last year. They started the year injured with big names like Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson missing the start and things just never really seemed to get better. At least not for a longer period of time.

Again, every team will need to avoid this if they have any kind of ambition for that season. Washington is no different. But can they?

I have been saying this for a couple of seasons now. The older a team gets, and the older their most important players get, the more you open yourself up to injuries derailing your team and season.

The older you get it’s harder to fight off injuries. The smaller injuries may just take a little longer to heal to where you can be an affective player again. Those smaller knocks you used to be able to shake off in a few days may now take a couple of weeks.

Just look at the ages of the Capitals most important players. Alex Ovechkin, 38 when the season gets going. Backstrom is 35, T.J. Oshie is 36, John Carlson is 33, Darcy Kuemper is 33. Even some bigger role players like Nic Dowd and Nick Jensen, Dowd being 33 and Jensen being 32. Heck, even Kuznetsov is now on the wrong side of thirty at 31. You could also look at Max Pacioretty who I think most people would hope he could be a key player for the Capitals this year. He has had injury problems in the past and very recent past, and he is already 34-years-old. And he won’t even be able to start this season healthy. He’s still recovering from his injury he suffered last season.

Every team needs to avoid the injury bug. The Capitals are no different. The age of this team scares me though. Can they stay healthy?