Washington Capitals Report Card After Overtime Loss

For the fourth season in a row, the Washington Capitals have been eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The 2021-2022 season is a difficult one to judge for the Caps. As long as captain Alex Ovechkin and forward Nicklas Backstrom are on the roster, a deep playoff run will be the expectation. However, it’s looking more and more like the team’s 2018 title will be its last with this group.

The regular season started well for Ovi and the Capitals. The Great 8 was keeping pace with the top goal scorers in the NHL while his team was atop the Metropolitan Division. However, their pace quickly proved to be unsustainable, and Washington took a tumble.

Ovechkin ended up having a really solid season for the Caps, but the goaltending wasn’t great and the depth players didn’t do the team many favors when the captain wasn’t at his absolute best.

How should we grade the Capitals’ season?

When it was all said and done for the 82-game campaign, the Capitals found themselves in the final playoff position in the Eastern Conference with a 44-26-12 record.

As the playoffs began, and Washington drew the Presidents’ Trophy winners, the Florida Panthers, I gave them no chance. It seemed like the perfect matchup for Florida’s lethal offense.

The Capitals deserve some credit for not only winning a couple of games but for slowing down the Cats’ offense and giving them all that they could handle on a nightly basis. However, as I noted above, simply putting up a fight is not acceptable in D.C. given all that this franchise has accomplished in the last decade and a half.

This offseason is going to involve some significant changes in Washington if the team hopes to keep its championship window open, assuming that it’s not already closed.

I won’t give the Capitals a failing grade, because this was about my expectation for them. With that said, any season with this group that ends as this one did will be and should be viewed negatively.

The Grade: C-