Washington Capitals

A New Season Begins

The Capitals have just completed their allotment of 6 preseason games and have final cuts to make before heading into the new season. On Thursday the Caps begin the season with a tough road match up in Boston. The beginning of the season is always a time for excitement and anticipation but this season comes with the expectation of competing for hockey’s ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup. Sporting their new motto t-shirts, the team unabashedly state this goal: “Get Ready. It’s Our Time.” As they prepare for the marathon that is the regular season the team seems to have a sense of destiny. Right now they are the darlings of Washington. No other professional team can match their appeal, enthusiasm, and most of all, their story. From the two time Hart Trophy winning Alex Ovechkin to the larger than life Head Coach Bruce Boudreau, the Capitals grown before our eyes. From my seat at the then MCI Center, I watched the systematic dismantling of a perennial playoff contender in favor of raw unproven talent. While it was painful to watch, I understood that the team needed to be reborn. With a little draft luck and some shrewd moves the team now has a core of players that have endured the tough times and have captured the hearts and minds of the fans. Now it’s their time to shine.

The question is do they have what it takes to fulfill their goal? That is a question that will be answered in the months to come. The team lost four veteran players from last year’s squad in Sergei Fedorov, Viktor Kozlov, Brent Johnson and Donald Brashear. In free agency they picked up two veteran forwards signing Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison. In Knuble they gain a net presence that the team has not seen in some time. If he is on the top line with Ovechkin, his propensity to gobble up rebounds may give Ovie a shot at leading the league in assists. Morrison is penciled in as the second line center replacing Michael Nylander who has fallen out of favor with the coaching staff. Nylander did not appear in any preseason games and his future is very unclear at this point. The loss of Brashear leaves the Caps without an enforcer but the team still has grit and will look to punish teams on the power play for their transgressions.

The Capitals offense was one of the best in the NHL last season. In 2008-09, the Caps ranked third with 268 goals scored. 85 of those goals came on the power play representing the most the Capitals have scored with the man advantage since 1992-1993. The Capitals gave up a total of 240 goals against tying them for 19th in the league. The Capitals have lots of depth at the defense and goalie position but are very inexperienced at the same time. The defense has 10 players returning who played with the Caps last season. The coaches will have some decisions to make here. Mike Green was second in the Norris Trophy balloting last season and will look to build on his 73 point output from a year ago. The return of Brian Pothier at the end of last season added more experience but rookies Karl Alzner and John Carlson are looking to break into the lineup. It will be interesting to see who is on the opening day roster. In goal the Caps will start the season with Jose Theodore and Semyon Varlamov between the pipes. Michal Neuvirth had an exceptional training camp but got injured in the final week. Other injury notes include Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleischmann. Fehr is still recovering from surgery on both shoulders and Flash had a blood clot in his leg and will be out for few more weeks. Quintin Laing, Chris Bourque, Keith Aucoin and Alexandre Giroux are battling to take these spots on the roster.

To move into the elite team conversation the Caps need to be a more consistent team. Last season they played their best hockey against the best competition but played their worst hockey against the bottom of the standings especially outside of the conference. The Caps lost to Phoenix, Edmonton, Columbus (twice), Colorado, and Los Angeles (twice). The Caps need to show up with the same effort against every team they face. Most of the rants we saw from Head Coach Bruce Boudreau last season were directly tied to this concern. With that being said, The Caps are still rather young and wear emotion on their sleeve but the experience gained last season should bring more maturity and consistency to the team. The schedule this year will be brutal with the Olympics not allowing as many days off but the last month of the last season was not good for the Caps as most of the teams they played were out of the playoffs and led to a slight let down going into the post season. This year’s schedule appears to be stiffer and the end and hopefully will prime the team going into the playoffs.

I expect the Caps to start the season very fast. Judging from the preseason, the team looks like they wanted the season to start yesterday. They had a couple of goal scoring explosions that may foretell an ability to put a lot of pucks in the net in a hurry. I would expect them to cool down going into November but pick it back up around Christmas time. Following the Olympic break it will be interesting to see what happens as quite a few of the Caps will be representing their home countries in the Vancouver games. They will probably be a little more run down than most teams but then pick it up again going into April and then its playoff time and sixteen wins gets you a cup. Thursday is the beginning of a long road but this team seems to have the components in place to make the run and I am ready boys make it our year.