ARLINGTON, VA — After a stellar start to the 2024-25 season, the Washington Capitals have looked mortal in recent games. Washington has a record of 5-4-2 in its last 11 games, including losses to the bottom-feeding Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres, and has not strung together consecutive wins since before the holiday break.
Head coach Spencer Carbery expressed frustration with the team’s recent play Wednesday, highlighting the contrast between the team’s hot start and their current middling performance. While a few bad games can be written off, the Caps have moved into more concerning territory.
“Starting to get a little impatient, I’ll say that, with the way things have gone of late,” Carbery said. “Because now it’s creeping into where — you have some ups and downs in a year and guys go through slumps, your team goes through (slumps) — this is now turning into more.
“The challenge for us as a group is — so our start is long gone now and now you have to continue to — you are who you are and you are what you show on the ice. And so two games, three games, four games, five games, ten games, fifteen games, twenty games. What you’re showing is who you are.”
Carbery has tweaked the Capitals’ lines in an attempt to revitalize struggling players, but found only limited success. After debuting new lines and pairings against the New York Rangers on January 4, he indicated Wednesday morning that more changes were coming.
The Capitals’ recent struggles become more baffling compared to their record without Alex Ovechkin in the lineup. A slump seemed imminent when Ovechkin fractured his fibula November 18 against the Utah Hockey Club, but the team continued to win without their best player on the ice, going 10-5-1 in his absence. Some cracks did begin to show, particularly in the team’s offense: before Ovechkin’s injury, the Caps’ 4.24 goals per game led the NHL. While he was out, they averaged just 2.94 goals and ranked 18th over that span. Still, the Capitals managed to find ways to win.
But shortly before the holiday break, the Caps’s faults started to cost them. Ovechkin’s return didn’t set off the slump — the Capitals went 2-2-0 in their final four games without him — but getting him back didn’t right the ship. Before the holiday break, the Caps ranked third in the standings and led the NHL in points percentage (0.706). In games since the holidays, however, they’ve only won 3 of 6 and hold just the 12th best record in the league.
The Capitals’ early-season performance shocked much of the NHL as they pivoted from barely making the playoffs in 2023-24 to become one of the league’s top teams. With a record of 27-7-2 in their first 30 games, that hot start has cushioned them from the full effect of their recent losses, allowing them to hang on to their spot atop the Eastern Conference. Even their recent play has seen them win close to half the time. But if the Capitals want to stay truly dominant, neither those early wins nor their current middling performance will be enough.
“We have to be careful of resting on what we accomplished at the beginning of the year,” Carbery said. “Now with the way that we look, is that who we truly are? Did we just get off to a good start with a great shooting percentage and win a lot of games and bank a bunch of points? Or are we a team that can carry play and look really good seven out of ten nights? That’s what we’re going through right now and what our challenge is before the 4 Nations break.”
