“The team will make the playoffs, as I promised, ten to fifteen years in a row.”
– Ted Leonsis, 2011.
Courtesy: Washington Post
The Washington Capitals have offically been eliminated from the 2014 playoffs.
Let that sink in a moment.
The Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets did what they had to do last night to secure their post season and knock the Caps from the Wild Card race. After a big win against the Blues on Tuesday, the Caps’ were left to the mercy of the other two teams, and there was a speckle of hope remaining. However, Washington pretty much sealed their own fate by going 4-3-3 in their last 10 games, and with 3 games remaining, barring a major melt down, the Caps will probably end up 9th in the East – let’s hope they can at least do that.
So what went wrong? Plenty.
Every year it seems to be the same story with the Washington Capitals: they dominate some games, they implode most; they lose too many leads and win too many shootouts. They are the most inconsistent team in the league, unless you want to argue about Vancouver’s woes.
The Caps, simply, are just not a well built team. A lot that blame goes on the shoulders of GM George McPhee, a lot of it goes on the shoulders of ownership, a lot of it goes on the shoulders of the coaching staff and some, or maybe even most, goes on the shoulders of the players. Almost every person in this organization is to blame for the Caps’ demise.
With the exception of Joel Ward, Jason Chimera, Eric Fehr, Karl Alzner and Troy Brouwer, and some spirited play by Braden Holtby and a couple others, the core of the team, the ‘not-so-Young-Guns, have been the main cause for concern as the Caps wind down an awful season.
Alex Ovechkin will always be criticized for his lack of care throughout the remainder of his NHL career. His lack of heart this season was evident, and I’m sure a lot of that is fatigue from his Oympic duties, his father’s heart attack and his engagement, but this is not the same charasmatic Ovechkin we’ve seen in the past. This was probably his most boring 50 goal season to date, and with his close-to-league-leading +/- pushing -40, it goes to show that his interests are elsewhere.
The +/- stat is a skewed statistic. It doesn’t necessarily mean that a certain player is bad at back checking or defense. Steve Ott, of the Blues, is last in the league with a -37, and he’s not a bad player; he was just on a bad team (Sabres).
However, the fact remains that the Capitals and Ovechkin just never seemed to want to raise their level of play and take on the rest of the league. They had some good games, like their road trip to California, but most of those kinds of games were followed by embarrassment.
Mike Green is another thorn. I wouldn’t call his play heartless, I would just call it careless and sloppy. He’s never been a good defenseman and the worst thing that the Caps did was try to make him an all-around player, like they tried with Ovechkin. Green is a gifted player. He can skate, shoot, and stick handle extrordinarily well, and his creativity is exceptional – in the offensive zone. Defensivly, all of those characteristics seem to fly out the window and fall flat. Too many times we saw him stop skating and let the opposition score (‘ala Ovie), and too many times did we see him cough up the puck after trying to make a fancy play and it led to an opposing goal. It just happens too much, and the Caps suffered because of carelessness like his – and for some reason he gets the most ice time.
The Capitals have a lot to think about going into the off-season. There will be changes. There will be an almost brand new team from top to bottom going into 2014-15. I’ll have more later on what I think will happen, and who will be moved.
Caps fans have been pining for a Stanley Cup for almost 40 years, and it looked like we had a shot at something a few years ago in the Boudreau era. What happened was, in my opinion, the pressure to win from ownership destroyed what could have been one the most dynamic franchises in hockey. The pressure to turn Ovechkin into the leagues best player took it’s toll. The pressure to try and fit key pieces into the lineup and force chemistry both on the ice and in the locker room blew up in the face of the players, coaches and management. You can’t force chemistry. It has to have time to blend and mature and rub off on younger players. There was no time for that in Washington. Leonsis wanted a Cup and forced fed his team so much that they fell.
Is it time for a rebuild? No. We’re not there yet. There is some life still left in this team. They do, however, need to stop and reset. This isn’t a contender. They haven’t been in 3 years. If they can get that idea out of their head, the pressure to succeed might let up a little.
The simplicity of the game seems lost at times for the Caps, and all the heart in the world isn’t going to change that. But what drives most teams to succeed and get to that next level is something that the Capitals need to find. They need identity and they need consistent guidance.
Let’s hope they can, at least, finish strong in the remaining three games, and go out with some class and whatever dignity they have left.
More to come…
