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Should This Current Capitals Team Be Expected To Make The Playoffs?

By CJ Witt

Alex Ovechkin, Rasmus Sandin, Washington Capitals (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
Alex Ovechkin, Rasmus Sandin, Washington Capitals (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /
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Rasmus Sandin, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Rasmus Sandin, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports /

Defensive issues

This is just me wondering how good the defense will be. When I look at potential line combo’s they look like this.

Sandin-Carlson

Defensively…oof! That could be rough. They should get their points but can they keep the puck out of their net.

The rest of it is

Johansen-Jensen

Fehervary-van Riemsdyk

Call me crazy, but that does not inspire a ton of confidence. You also have Joel Edmundson on the team who, guess what, is injured. So the Capitals have two guys on IR to start the year. Good start there! But even having him would be nothing crazy which would improve the team ten fold. Nice player, we’ll see how much he helps.

And a sketchy looking D goes into the next concern.

Darcy Kuemper, Charlie Lindgren, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Darcy Kuemper, Charlie Lindgren, Washington Capitals Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /

Goaltending

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a ton. Goaltending was not a problem last season. But after trying to fix what was once a problem the fix was not as great as most people were hoping for. You had water flowing into your ship, you fixed it, and it was still leaking. Clearly not as bad as the giant hole that was once in the boat, but water was still coming in.

The Capitals got the most wanted goalie in free agency in Darcy Kuemper, gave him a bigger contract and he played alright. When you go out and get a guy like him you hope the results are better than alright. Can he rebound and not have an alright season, but a good season? Maybe even a great season?

Well we just showed the defense. That is a little scary. Can the forwards help the D a lot? From what I’ve seen this pre-season, which is limited, the offense looks a little more free. A guy like Evgeny Kuznetsov looks like he could be free to make plays. But that also comes with some nasty turnovers in bad spots which will let the other team run at your goalie.

If the offense is more free, puck management becomes crucial. If the team does not have that they will be chasing the other team and giving odd man rushes, making the goalies job even harder.

Goaltending was not bad last season. But it needs to improve. We’ll see if it does.

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