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Top 3 burning questions as the Capitals enter the trade deadline

You've got questions ahead of Friday and we'll try to answer them

By Michael Marzzacco |
Alex Ovechkin, Kevin Shattenkirk, Washington Capitals
Alex Ovechkin, Kevin Shattenkirk, Washington Capitals / Bruce Bennett/GettyImages
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The Washington Capitals are in purgatory aka they probably shouldn't get a rental at this point. But whether they keep their house money or find a younger player to help the future remains to be seen. Let's get this part out of the way.

After Saturday's crucial loss to the Arizona Coyotes, the Capitals sit at 28-23-9 which is good for 65 points and fifth in the Metropolitan Division with 22 games left to play. It's a murky spot as they're six points behind the Flyers for third despite crushing them Friday night. They are also seven back of the Bolts and Red Wings in the wild card.

Anyway let's cut to the chase.

#3 Should the Caps be buyers?

Absoultley, positively NOT. I pretty much answered that question the opening paragrahs by talking about the purgatory that they're in. But there are no games until trade deadline eve and of course it comes against the Penguins who are only three points back. You can thank the Oilers and the other Connor Mc aka Connor McDavid for that one. The gap would've been way closer had the other outcome happened.

But as we've seen in the past, going for the home run for the hot market player does not work. See Kevin Shattenkirk for an example.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington Capitals
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Washington Capitals / Scott Taetsch/GettyImages

#2 What exactly is going on with Evgeny Kuznetsov?

Your guess is just as good as mine. We don't know much about what Evgeny Kuznetsov is going through but we do know that the assignment to Hershey doesn't quite mean he can suit up for the Bears yet. He's only allowed to practice with them for now until he's cleared by the NHLPA's evaluation of his care through the Player Assistance Program.

Brian MacLellan revealed just as much in his Saturday press conference with the media. Here's the quote via Tarik El-Bashir of Monumental Sports Network:

"They don't give us the details of the program or the post care instructions but he has certain things that he has to accomplish within that program, whatever they are, and if he stays in compliance with those restrictions, he gets to play."
Brian MacLellan via El-Bashir

MacLellan was also asked about the potential of a buyout and all he said was, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Right now we have the trade deadline on Friday so we're looking to see if we can make something happen before then and go from there."

That's not a lot on the surface but mental health is more important than scoring goals for Kuznetsov at this point in time as he has just six in 43 games. That is not 2018 playoff Kuzy which is what the Caps want on the ice.

Rasmus Sandin, Washington Capitals
Rasmus Sandin, Washington Capitals / Patrick Smith/GettyImages

#1 Is this going to be a total rebuild or on the fly retool type of thing?

My spidey sense believes the core that's still around which has shurnk wants one last Cup. Alex Ovechkin knows he has a record he's chasing and I don't need to go into detail because we already know it. But based on what MacLellan said, it sounds like the team captian is "going for it on fourth down" sort of speak.

And Ovechkin has every reason to. Last season's mini fire sale was rough. Seeing Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway go was rough. As was Erik Gustafsson but the Caps did get a gem at that deadline with Rasmus Sandin who has potential and is still looking for his ceiling. But he's trending upward as they say.

Since the All Star break ended which saw Ovechkin and his family ride a camel in the middle of said break, Ovechkin has eight goals in his last 13 games after recording just eight goals in 44 games. The "Russian Machine" is indeed back and running and Ovi helped ignite that comeback in Friday's win over the Flyers.

As far as Sandin is concerned he has 20 points which is identical to last season when he split time with Toronto and Washington. If you're already at that number in the beginning of March, yes that's an upward direction.

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