32 in 32 Day 20: Midterms and Ovi's Chase to 895 are All That'll Be Worth Watching in DC This Fall

2021-2022 Season Recap

• Record - 44-26-12 (100 points), 4th in the Metropolitan Division

• Goals For: 275 (10th in the NHL), Goals Against: 245 (12th in the NHL)

• Leading Goal Scorer - Alex Ovechkin (50)

• Leading Point Scorer - Alex Ovechkin (90)

The first playoff team we'll be previewing from the East is the Washington Capitals. Normally a 100 point season would get you a top three finish in the division. Not last season. Their 44-26-12 record was only good for the 8th seed in the stacked Eastern Conference. For the first time in NHL history all eight teams from the same conference accumulated at least 100 points as a team. The conference was frontloaded with contenders, and for a while, the Caps seemed like the team to beat. They started the season with a 18-5-7 record in their first 30 games to take an early lead in the Metropolitan Division. However, they faltered off a bit winning just 26 games the rest of the way. Even with the up and down second half of the year, the Caps were still able to secure 8th seed in the East and gave the Florida Panthers a real run for their money.

The Panthers had an incredible season, winning a franchise record 58 games. They were the best scoring team in the league putting up more than four goals per game, and were the heavy favorites to win the opening series against Washington. I was one of many who didn't give the Caps any semblance of a chance against the President's Trophy winners. They were very close to proving everyone wrong. The Capitals took the Cats to overtime of Game 6 before losing on a beautiful Carter Verhaeghe backhand goal. It was a hard fought battle for all six games. The Capitals took an early 2 games to 1 lead in the series after a dominating 6-1 win in Game 3 in the nation's capital. The loss was a wake up call for the Panthers. They settled down, made some adjustments, and won the next three games to take the series. Though the games were close in scoring, you could tell who the better team was. The loss to Florida marks the fourth straight season in this streak of 8 consecutive playoff appearances where the Capitals failed to advance out of the first round. Their Stanley Cup championship in 2018 seems like a distant memory, and I have to imagine that HC Peter Laviolette is on the hot seat as the window for this veteran club is closing.

Extending the second longest active playoff streak to a ninth straight season will be an extremely tall task in a brutally tough Eastern Conference. The team will be without a multiple key players in their lineup for a large portion of the season. Nicklas Backstrom, who missed 35 games in 2022, had offseason hip surgery that is sidelining him until at least January. The team faired well without him when he missed the first 28 contests of the 2022 season, but I'm not sure if they can pull that off again. At his age, this kind of procedure could have meant hanging up the skates, but Backstrom has every intention of playing this year. Tom Wilson will also be missing quite a bit of time after he suffered a torn ACL in Game 1 of the series against Florida. It is being said that he is ahead of schedule with his recovery, but with an injury like this, Wilson as well as the team's medical staff need to be 100% sure he's ready to get back on the ice. Both of these players will be sorely missed every which way possible. Backstrom is such an integral part of this team from a leadership perspective along with his brilliant playmaking on the powerplay and 200 foot style of play. Wilson is the quintessential example of a player you hate to play against but love having on your team. He is arguably the most hated player in all of hockey, making teams pay both physically as well as on the scoreboard. It's imperative that Washington keeps themselves in the mix until they both return.

They will be going into preseason with a fairly different look than years prior. Besides the injuries to Wilson, Backstrom, and Carl Hagelin, the Caps will feature a new tandem in goal. They're saying goodbye to Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov and saying hello to Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren. Kuemper signed a five-year $26.25 million contract after helping the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup this past summer. When healthy, he's one of the more reliable goalies in the league, but he has had a history of injuries throughout his career. At age 32, this is definitely a risky signing by GM Brian MacLellan. The Caps also brought in Dylan Strome via free agency and traded for Connor Brown. I like both of these additions, especially for the price. MacLellan was able to sign Strome for just $3.5 million after he wasn't given a qualifying offer from Chicago. At just 25, he has his best days of hockey ahead of him. With Brown, they're getting a two way forward that can not only provide much needed depth scoring, but also assistance on the penalty kill. I hope these new acquisitions have adjusted to the change in scenery well because they will need to step up in a big way until the team is fully healthy again.

It's not the defense that concerns me with the Capitals, but rather their offense. We know Ovechkin will lead the charge along with Evgeni Kuznetzov and John Carlson. But after those three, who is the next best option? T.J Oshie is not as young as he used to be (almost 36), and he's coming off a season where he only played 44 games. He's put together five 20 goal campaigns since joining the Caps in 2015, but I'm not sure how reliable he is on the offensive front anymore. Same story with Anthony Mantha. He only played 37 games for Washington last year putting up just 9 goals. When he was traded from Detroit, it seemed like he was going to be a force with this team. We haven't seen that from him yet. He's still young enough, only 28, but he needs to start accelerating his game and putting some pucks in the net.

The rest of their lineup is a mix of aging veterans and unproven youth. The more I look at their current standing, the less I believe they will be in the playoffs next spring. Not having Backstrom and Wilson completely changes the dynamic of this team. We know what we'll get out of Ovechkin, Kuzy, and Carlson. The rest, though, is completely up in the air. Because of this, I predict that this team will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2014. They'll be in the mix, but I don't believe they will be able to win enough games down the stretch. It really all comes down to how they perform with a depleted lineup. I have a feeling that if they underperform then they'll be in the market for new head coach next summer. It won't be because Peter Laviolette did a poor job, but because Brian MacLellan will recognize the change in direction the organization needs to head towards. The biggest story for this Caps' team in the upcoming season will be Alex Ovechkin passing Gordie Howe for second all time in goals scored. He's 20 tucks away from 800 and just 22 away from only having to chase the Great One for the record. At this point, it's not a matter of if, but a matter of when. His chase to 895 will be the only thing worth following when it comes to the aging Capitals these next few years.