Top 3 burning questions as the Capitals enter the trade deadline

#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.