Season Review: Washington Capitals

Well, as we've reached the semi-finals of the playoffs, I will be reviewing the seasons of teams as they're eliminated from the playoffs. Obviously, the last team reviewed will be the one that wins the Cup.

Now the final team to be eliminated from the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals: The Washington Capitals.

Season expectations: Any team with Alexander Ovechkin is going to have high expectations, rightfully or wrongly. However, this season marked one that was supposed to bring the noise for them. While Alexander Semin and Niklas Backstrom are just ever-improving, Mike Green broke out in a huge way last season while Simeyon Varlamov seemed poised to breakout as the new starting goaltender for Washington. Though in a conference with the champion Pittsburgh Penguins and other favorites such as the Boston Bruins or Philadelphia Flyers, the Capitals figured to give the rest of the league a run for their money and finally spell an end to their playoff failures.

My prediction: I predicted they would end up first in the Southeast Division and third overall in the Eastern Conference.

The truth: They won the President's Trophy as the best team during the regular season. The hockey world was stunned, however, when the team was eliminated in seven games to the 8th-seeded Montreal Canadiens.

What went right?: Well, any team with a first line of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin is going to do well regardless of what the rest of the team looks like. Green did well and still managed to break a point-per-game average as a defensemen. Secondary scoring was absolutely abundant with three other players breaking the 50 point barrier and two more breaking the 40 point barrier (and Eric Fehr ended up with 39.) The shutdown defenders on this team did very well and the efforts of Jose Theodore, Varlamov, and Michal Neuwirth provided the team with solid yet semi-inconsistent goaltending (though much of that was likely attributed to injuries and unfortunate circumstances) to get the team to finish best in the league. They seemed to lack an enforcer but with John Erskine and Jasom Chimera (who was traded for former captain Chris Clark) in the lineup, the team had enough sandpaper to get by.

What went wrong?: One could say these guys ran into a wall (and the wall's name was Jaroslav Halak) but there were a legitimate amount of things that spelled the end of the Capitals. The first, and loudest, is the fact that the team doesn't necessarily play the "right" style of hockey. This was a criticism espoused initially by Steve Yzerman (when asked as to why he left Mike Green off of the Canadian Olympic roster) and then echoed by R.J. Umberger (whom many viewed as sour grapes considering the abysmal performance of his team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.) Though as talented as they are, the team managed to be stymied in the offensive zone yet couldn't find an answer in the defensive zone despite not having as much of a challenge; so there has to be some level of truth to that assessment. Also, have they been spoiled by playing in a very weak division? One has to wonder what effects that has had on both their stats and preparation for the second season, which is worlds different from the first.

So what's next?: GM George McPhee is going to have an incredible task to deal with during the off-season in having to get Backstrom locked down with a new contract. The team will have some wiggle room in the salary cap department but will still need to lock up key RFAs such as Neuwirth and Tomas Fleischmann. Also, now is the time for coach Bruce Boudreau to start to figure out how he's going ensure that the team's offensive prowess doesn't remain a defensive liability; especially come playoff time. They still have a hell of a team, though, so they don't need to blow it up to make it work.