The Capitals Players Who Must Play Better In The Second Half Of The Season

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I think it's now fair enough to say that the Washington Capitals have entered that really tricky and annoying spot. This is a team that is not really that bad, but they are not very good either. This is a Capitals team that can go on a run, and they can play well for a little while. But they're also a team that is just as likely to go on a bad run and put together bad stretches which takes them out of races.

Since December 23rd the Capitals are 5-10-3. That record is among the bottom teams in the NHL in that time. Their 13 points since then is better than only the San Jose Sharks (12 points) and the Chicago Blackhawks (9 points).

Even with this awful run the Capitals are on they are still far from being out of a playoff race. With 34 games still left to play they are only 7 points out of a divisional playoff spot, behind the Flyers. They're also 7 points behind the Maple Leafs and the Red Wings who currently occupy both wild card spots. Just one small good run and a tiny bad run from a team or two and Washington could find themselves back in a playoff spot.

If the Capitals are going to go on a run and potentially chase a playoff spot they will need a few players to play better than they have recently. That's what we're going to look at today.

I want to point out this is mostly offensively. The guys we'll be talking about today mostly need to play better in terms of getting points and goals and not really defensively or even goaltending. With that being said, who needs to play better?

Alex Ovechkin

This is a little weird, and maybe a little unfair to say based on recent performance. But the Capitals are a team that have trouble scoring goals. Who has not had trouble scoring goals throughout their career? Alex Ovechkin. Who is having more trouble scoring goals this season? Ovechkin.

It's unfair to say he needs to play better because when you look at his last 13 games he has scored 12 points. In that time only Dylan Strome has more with 13 points. Ovechkin has also scored 4 goals in his last 13 games which is almost half of his season total.

Ovechkin has contributed to the Capitals problems a bit this season. It's a team that needs goals and he only has 10 goals through 48 games, or his 45 games played.

Can you blame him? No. He's 38-years-old. He wasn't going to remain a fifty goal scorer his entire career. But when you build a team around a 38-year-old you just hope and pray he doesn't decline. Well, he's declined this season.

If the Capitals want to get back into a playoff spot they are going to need Ovechkin to go on a goal scoring run. Is it fair to ask a 38-year-old to carry a team? No. But this is what the Capitals have done.

Connor McMichael

Now we go to basically the entire other end of the spectrum. We're done talking about an old player who is actually producing at a good pace. Now we move on to a young player who is hardly producing at all. That young player being Connor McMichael.

McMichael has had a weird season. He didn't really start that great, like most of the team. Then he started to get going and started to play well and put up points. He was the center of a line that was the Caps best line for a while, that line being Protas-McMichael-Mantha. Now he is back to not really doing that much.

McMichael has a total of 7 goals and 15 points in 46 games played. That puts him on pace for about 13 goals and 25-28ish points at the end of the season. Production wise that is lower than I would have liked, but there were times that he was among the best players on the team. You take the good with the bad there I think.

If the Capitals want to get back into the playoffs they are going to need more from McMichael. One reason this is the case is thanks to recent news from Evgeny Kuznetsov. On more nights than not Kuznetsov doesn't bring as much as the team needs, but he still brings something. Now the Capitals don't even have that little something he brings and now others have to pick up that slack. McMichael needs to be one of those guys.

With Ovechkin not scoring at the pace we're used to, with Backstrom now gone and Kuznetsov out for an undetermined amount of time the Capitals center depth will be tested.

Dylan Strome is the Capitals number one center. Maybe he is even the teams number one player these days. That's a different story for a different day. Nic Dowd is a terrific fourth line center. But his career high is 25 points and 13 goals, he simply cannot be your second best center. With the options right now McMichael needs to clearly be the second best center. Production wise he hasn't been. Not even close.

Over his last twenty games McMichael has 1 goal and 1 assist. He has a total of two points in his last twenty games.

T.J. Oshie has played nine fewer games, he has more points than McMichael. Ethan Bear has played in eight fewer games, he has more points. Hendrix Lapierre has six less games, he has more points than McMichael. Max Pacioretty has seven less games and he has more points.

I've said this about McMichael before. He has a chance to cement himself on this team, now go grab that spot and run with it. Two points in the last twenty games isn't going to cut it. The team needs him now more than ever. How will he do when the pressure is the highest?

Tom Wilson

I have been saying something a lot this season. What I've been saying is Tom Wilson is the Capitals best player. On a team that has players with much more accolades and skill, Wilson is the team's best player.

Wilson is a guy who can score. He has scored at a thirty goal pace before. I think he is capable of scoring thirty goals over a full and healthy season. And we all know what he can do in a game physically. He is one of those guys who an change a game with his presence alone. When he decides to throw his weight around, watch out!

For a while now I've had trouble finding Wilson in games. It is the 7th of February when I'm writing this. Going back to December 16th, nearly two months ago, Wilson has just two goals. It's not like he is focusing more on being a playmaker either because he also only has two assists. Four total points in his last 21 games played.

We'll do the same we did for McMichael. Dowd has more points than Wilson since then. Nicolas Aube-Kubel has more points. Rasmus Sandin has more points. Martin Fehervary has more points. Beck Malenstyn has more points than Wilson since then. No disrespect to any of those guys. All NHL players, all with more talent than I could ever dream of having. But none of them should be scoring more points than Tom Wilson over a twenty plus game stretch.

Is he injured or is he dealing with something? Well, he has had a broken nose recently. Thanks to that he has been playing with a cage or a different visor. I can't imagine how hard that is to adjust to. That could easily have an effect on his scoring.

I don't know if Wilson is dealing with other injuries or dings. Is the nose affecting his physical play? Does he not want to hit or get hit?

All I can say about Wilson is for a while now when I watch Capitals games is that I hardly notice 43 out there. I have to go looking for number 43 to actually see him. The same way I have to go looking for number 92 when he plays. Not to harp on him during his rough time. That's not something I'm used to when talking about Wilson.

Wilson is usually a pretty easy player to find. Why has he gone invisible for large chunks of time this season?

Like Ovechkin, the Capitals are going to need their best players to be their best players. Tom Wilson is one of their best players. When he is at the top of his game I think he is the Capitals best player these days. The Capitals need a lot more than just 2 goals and 4 points in 21 games from Wilson.

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Alex Ovechkin

Connor McMichael

Tom Wilson

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