The Washington Capitals have been knocked out of the 2020 NHL playoffs in the first round by their old bench boss and his New York Islanders in only five games. The 4-0 defeat marks the second season in a row that the Caps haven’t at least seen the second round after seeing it in the prior four.
The Caps outshot the Isles 21 to 17 and out-attempted them at five-on-five 52 to 23.
- Well, the Caps actually played pretty well for the second game in a row, but when you go down 3-0 in a series you literally need to be perfect the rest of the way to even have a chance. And they were not perfect. And they are no longer playing hockey this season. Let’s talk about it a little.
- So what is next? I think you have to start with this entire coaching staff…and yes that means Blaine Forsythe this time too. When a team like this plays as badly as they did for huge stretches of time in all five games, it’s a coaching thing. Todd Reirden seems like a really cool guy, but I don’t think he’s a good enough head coach in the NHL, especially one that will be overseeing the probable final dominant years of Alex Ovechkin‘s career. It’s time to move on and I think that moving on needs to feature an established coach that can hopefully turn this thing around in one offseason.
- Who fits that requirement and is available right now? Peter Laviolette is likely a name that we will hear a lot of if the Caps make the move in firing Reirden. Gerard Gallant is probably the next name after him. Could a reunion with Bruce Boudreau even be considered? They probably need to stay far away from Mike Babcock. “Lesser” names could include Ken Hitchcock, Guy Boucher, Randy Carlyle, or Marc Crawford among others.
- What I want to see is a more modern style of play. I don’t want to retread what I’ve spoken about in the past few of these posts, but the Caps have looked utterly slow under Reirden. Can you get that modern style of play with those names mentioned above? I think it’s possible with the first three mentioned. Do the Caps front office agree? I hope they do, but it’s not a sure thing they even fire Reirden.
- It’s the very likely end of an era in net for the Washington Capitals. The greatest goaltender in this franchise’s history and arguably one of the greatest of all time (the Vezina, Jennings, Cup winner combination isn’t exactly a packed house), Braden Holtby has run out his contract and will become an unrestricted free agent on October 9, 2020. If it’s truly the end, Holts will finish his Caps career with a 284-125-48 record, 2.53 goals-against average, and a 91.6-percent save percentage. Said Caps career also featured love and dedication for truly each and every member of this Washington Metropolitan Area and beyond which will leave a mark in DC sports history for the rest of time. It feels like such a very simple phrase, to sum up, such a great man and great hockey player, but “thank you Braden” is what I’ve got and long may the Holtbeast reign. Capitals number 70 should never be worn again.
Final cookies of the playoffs, now they’re just “cookies”
Until the season starts 🐾🐾 pic.twitter.com/2SM8bY5CSI— Ovie the Bulldog (@OvietheBulldog) August 21, 2020
- Now that we’ve spoken on end about how this team was coached, it’s time to dig a little into how it is constructed from a roster point of view. A lot of this is going to be a stream of consciousness so I apologize if it feels scatterbrained. Here is the list of players that scored in this five-game series. TJ Oshie, Alex Ovechkin, and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Ovi was the sole player to score a goal at five-on-five.
- So with the above bullet being said, it’s very clear that the probable major difference between this team and the one that won the Cup in 2018 is that this bottom six is significantly weaker when it comes to putting up points. With Nicklas Backstrom out, the Caps had to move Lars Eller up and consequently got nothing from their bottom six centers. Richard Panik did not have a good debut season in red and the Caps have another three years left to pay him $8,250,000. Carl Hagelin is an unbelievable penalty killer, but he is absolutely woeful with the puck on his stick and he has the same exact contract situation as Panik. Travis Boyd has never really felt like an NHL player to me. Garnet Hathaway is getting overpaid for the amount of production he gives. The Ilya Kovalchuk experiment was a complete and utter failure.
- The Caps defense corps feels like a disjointed mess. Although it’s also a mess that could be cleaned up by a better coach. John Carlson had an incredibly hot start but is probably going to be the most undeserving winner of the Norris Trophy since its inception. Michal Kempny has clearly and unfortunately lost a step or two due to that horrid injury he suffered at the hands of Cedric Paquette. I don’t think either Radko Gudas or Brenden Dillon should be brought back as neither fit the mold of a successful modern NHL defenseman. This feels especially true in Dillon’s case because there are likely going to be teams out there willing to give him three or four-year deals. Nick Jensen. Jonas Siegenthaler and Dmitry Orlov were more positive than negative overall for me overall, so no real qualms with those three.
- We’ve spoken at length about Evgeny Kuznetsov and I think he is the biggest question mark for Brian MacLellan this fall. Do we believe a new coach can transform him into a viable NHL center that isn’t torched defensively every night? Does he actually need to be moved to the wing and if so what happens with the center depth? Could he or should he be shopped around the league for a deal that features maybe a one-for-one change of scenery (Calgary)? Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z.
- So Chris, that sure seems like a whole lot of complaining and not a whole lot of solutions being offered. Well, let’s get into some of that. I think the Caps not only need to but will be forced into accepting a more youth filled roster next season. I personally want to see Martin Fehervary, Alexander Alexeyev, and Connor McMichael given full seasons at the NHL level. Players like Aliaksei Protas, Bobby Nardella, Brian Pinho, Garrett Pilon, and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby are all also due very strong looks to make the roster out of camp. I would love to see GMBM get creative with his forward group, but you also have to wonder how much he wants to change before handing the reigns to a new coach. It’s gonna be an interesting offseason and I hope the Caps find a way with the frozen salary cap to be one of the more active teams in the trade/free agency market as that is when it’s the most fun as a fan.
- We are here at the final morning numbers bullet for quite some time. Thanks for reading these yet again for another season. This series of posts are my favorite thing to do as I can kinda just ramble on forever and Peter and Ian are okay with that because you guys seem to like it. Draft coverage is my next endeavor so tune in for that in the coming weeks. Stay healthy and let’s go Caps!
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Islanders
Screenshot: NBC Sports Washington
