Washington Capitals season preview
There’s going to be a very interesting dynamic this season for the Washington Capitals. After missing the playoffs last season, the Capitals have hired a new head coach in Spencer Carbery, who is only 41 years old, and he is in this role for the first time in his NHL career. This team hasn’t won a playoff round since the year they won the Stanley Cup in 2018, so they are hungry, but their competitive window is starting to close.
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Offense
Everyone knows that the Capitals have the best offensive player to ever lace up the skates in Alex Ovechkin, but the Capitals aren’t the offensive juggernaut that we’ve seen over the past 15 years anymore. They’re a bit of an older group nowadays, but having Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson fully healthy will definitely boost the team offensively. Last season, Washington finished with the 16th-best power play, which is very uncharacteristic of them in the Ovechkin era, so there is plenty of room to improve on that front. The Capitals should perform better than they did in 2022-23, but I don’t expect the improvement to be drastic.
Defense
It’s fair to say that the Capitals blue line is perfectly average. John Carlson has been a staple of this defensive core his entire NHL career, and it really hurt them last season that he only participated in 40 games. Having him back and ready to go is huge for this group, but they don’t have other names that truly jump off of the page. They were slightly below average last season, mostly due to injuries, so they should improve this season, but they’ll still struggle to keep pucks out of their own net.
Goaltending
Darcy Kuemper is entering his second full season with the Capitals, and he is hopeful that it will be much better than the first one. He appeared in 57 games and earned only 22 wins, but he didn’t have much help in front of him as the Capitals allowed 12.31 high-danger chances against per 60. Charlie Lindgren is a solid backup, but he could also be better as well considering that his save percentage was below .900. The goaltending won’t steal them any games, but they should be better than last year.
Player To Watch – F Alex Ovechkin
There has been so much chatter over the years about if Ovechkin can realistically beat Wayne Gretzky’s goal record of 894, and now that he is entering this season with 822, it seems like it’s only a matter of when, not if that he will break it. He put up 42 goals last season, so I have no doubt that he will flirt with that total again in 2023-24. Watching Ovechkin play is must-watch television now that he is cutting close to Gretzky. He is only 72 goals away.
Outlook
The Capitals are heavily favored to miss the playoffs at -320 at DraftKings Sportsbook and I happen to agree that their window with this core has shut. They have a solid team, but the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference as a whole is just too strong. They’ll be competitive, but I don’t see them finishing above eight other teams. But with that said, it will be exciting to watch them due to Ovechkin’s scoring race.
