The Caps still have work to do

If I told you the beginning of the season that Alexander Ovetkin was going to break Gretzky’s record this year, the Washington Capitals were going to be tops in the Eastern Conference, were going to win a round, but then flame out against a team that is no stranger to making it to the conference final, albeit in five games. You would have said to yourself, “That’s a good season for the Washington Capitals.” Uh the Hurricanes made pretty light work of the Washington Capitals. Uh a 3-1 win in game five. They eliminate the Caps in five games and it’s kind of a disappointing end for the Washington Capitals after they enter the playoffs as the number one seed in the East. A real storybook uh regular season that essentially sputters out against the Hurricanes. And you got to give credit to the Canes because they suffocated them. They played Hurricanes hockey, boring hockey. Some might say, I don’t want to get into that because I don’t want to get yelled at by the most psychotic fans of the South. Uh, but it was kind of a sputtering out from the Washington Capitals after what was a storybook season. So, my question to you, uh, is it fair to feel disappointed or let down by the Washington Capitals, a team that had 111 points in the regular season, first in the Eastern Conference. Uh they were second in the regular season in offense. They scored three total goals over their final three games of the season. Four five on five goals over five games. Like this thing came crashing down. So is it fair to be a little disappointed in them? Yes and no. The world’s worst sports talk radio answer. So all of life, all of sports, uh, is all based on expectations. And if I told you the beginning of the season, despite the fact that, you know, the Washington Capitals, you know, what they did towards the end of last season and, um, what Brian McClullen and Krisp Patrick were able to do in the offseason, if I told you the beginning of this season that Alexander Ovetchkin was going to break Gretzky’s record this year, the Washington Capitals were going to be tops in the Eastern Conference. we’re going to win a round but then flame out against a team that is no stranger to making it to the conference final, albeit in five games. You would have said to yourself, that’s a good season for the Washington Capitals. It just doesn’t feel that way because our expectations got raised all along the way with the Washington Capitals. I’m like, and maybe this is just a byproduct of me like getting older, but I I I tend to do things like big picture now more than just sort of daytoday or or game to game. I look at the whole season and I say to myself, that was a really successful season. I know Pete, it doesn’t feel like that for Carbury, for Ovetchkin, for Logan Thompson who’s just absolutely killing himself after that goal yesterday. Like I from for all those players, it does not feel like a successful season. But when you win silver at the Olympics, it doesn’t feel like you’ve won anything until a few months go by or maybe a few years go by and you realize that was a really noteworthy accomplishment. like I really actually did something. So based on what the expectations were for the Capitals the beginning of the season, this was a successful year. It just doesn’t feel like it because they really got snuffed out by a Carolina Hurricanes team that plays, and I know we’re going to do the boring thing in a second. I really look forward to this conversation. They play a really smart, safe, defensive, stifling, challenging to play style of hockey. And play, trust me, playing against I’ve talked to so many players about this, playing against Carolina is exhausting because by the time you actually do get the puck back, you’re too tired to do anything with it. So, long-winded answer, but I think it was still a successful season for the Caps. They they don’t feel like it, but I I don’t look at them and say that this was a disappointing season at all. Yeah. I guess it comes down to like splitting things into two seasons. If you split it, you know, regular season and playoffs, they absolutely unbelievable story during the regular season. But like when you look at a team that basically led the Eastern Conference all year long, kind of having trouble in the first round, I know they won in five games, so they had a little bit of trouble against the the Montreal Canadiens. and then like you just got choked out by the Hurricanes in the in round two. Like that to me is disappointing for a team that led the Eastern Conference basically all year long. So I really I know I’m in the minority here, but I really enjoy watching the Carolina Hurricanes and I like watching the Carolina Hurricanes from Popcorn Row from Press Row because you can really see what’s going on out there and this is a team that plays the closest to Chess of any other team out there. Now, we’ve heard plenty about Rod Brendmore and the Carolina Hurricanes and playing manto man. The interesting thing about when you watch a team like the Carolina Hurricanes playing man-to-man, the first thing that you notice is how much ice is actually out there because not everybody is spread out playing zone. Normally, when we look at a game, it’s like, wow, there’s nowhere to move out there. You get a couple of strides and then you got to move the puck, right? Right. But when you when car when you’re playing Carolina, the first thing that jumps out at there’s a lot of available ice and when there is a breakdown, when Carolina breaks down, the scoring chances that they concede are gradeA chances. Like the minute the the the minute something doesn’t work and the man-to-man crushes on Washington Capitals have the puck, the scoring chances are like when you look at like expected goals, like all of these goals should go in, right? That’s cuz that’s the position they they put them and that’s the risk that they take. We’re going to play man-to-man. It’s stifling. All of our guys are essentially, you know, they do like they must do like triathlons. Like you have to be in in incredible shape to play for the Carolina Hurricanes. But when it does break down, your scoring chances are are top draw. But that’s the gamble. That’s the chance. That’s the risk that the Carolina Hurricanes take. For them, it all worked against the Capitals. But I said to myself at the beginning of the series, if there’s one team that can really make Carolina pay for making those mistakes, I mean, Edmonton is the best example, but really in the Eastern Conference, Washington has a lot of guys that can score. That’s why I thought Washington, although I I I don’t know how how many games I would have given them at the beginning of the series, they had a chance because they don’t need a lot of time to score a goal and they have a lot of guys that can that can find in the back of the net. So yeah, I thought that this was this a chance for Washington to actually do something here that that they did squander. Yeah, I mean part of that too is the goalending because Freddy Anderson has been a monster for Carolina. Uh Sean, do you have the uh the stats there for the goalending? Like if the Hurricanes the way that they play, you mentioned like they hold the puck for a ton of the game and when they give you the puck, if you have great if they have great goalending on top of that, like good luck. And these numbers for Freddy Anderson during the series, five games, uh, six goals against, a 937 save percentage, and seven goals saved above, uh, above expected. He he allowed less goals than goals he saved above expected, which is is wild. Uh, I didn’t think that Logan Thompson was bad in this series. I thought that he was below kind of the bar that he set for himself during the regular season. And goalending as a result kind of was a little bit of a story here, but more so just that for Carolina, they finally have the goalending that they’ve been searching for in playoff runs past. There’s one mitigating factor here. There’s one wild card with Frederick Anderson, and that is the hospital bracelet. Yes, that’s the one for like the the wild card in all of this because you’re right, like when Frederick Anderson is on his game, Good luck. Good luck everybody. Right. and and it’s not and the the Carolina Hurricanes are stingy. Um they’re not going to allow um they will allow the great A’s, but they’re not going to allow a ton of shots against you. Um it’s a really strong defensive team as as we all know, but Freddy Anderson, when he’s on his game and he’s healthy, like he’s he’s he’s amongst the tops in the in the NHL. And as we’ve seen before, like you don’t need like the best goalender to win a Stanley Cup. You just need a guy that’s going to give you a save and he gives him a chance. Whenever he’s healthy, he gives him more than a than a great chance to win every single night. Logan Thompson’s interesting because when we look back at this series, what are the two goals that are going to stand out? The um the fetchoff winner, you know, with just under two minutes left in in game five and also the Jacob Slavven floater. Again, two quintessential Carolina Hurricanes goals. Just throw it on the net, volume shooting, volume shooting. I did want to play this clip uh from his his presser last night and it was basically him just talking about the um the 50th anniversary season and just kind of the whole vibe of it and encapsulating Sean. Go ahead. Deep. It’s awful. I told him that. It’s awful. Yeah, it because you did feel that this team was capable of doing something special and and potentially going to the cup finals or making some noise and we we knew we had our work cut out for us. We knew it wasn’t going to be smooth sailing through this, but but we believed and uh this group will never be together again. And so that is um that’s just a fact. That’s the way that this this whole thing works. But when we do when the wounds heal and we have some time to reflect that this 50th anniversary Caps team will go down in history and and I’ll just speak for myself is this is one of the greatest seasons that I’ve ever been a part of as a coach or a player. And I’ll never forget this group. And I told those guys, I love them. And um every single one of them, what we went through as a group this year and what they accomplished and O’s record and everything that went into this season. I will I will never forget this group. It uh really really memorable year. Yeah, I loved I love that message. I love basically that entire press conference that he gave because essentially he was like we were punching above our weight class in this series. The Hurricanes are so much better. but also uh this was an unbelievable season and that’s kind of how I feel about the Capitals and uh I I thought he did did a very good job of summing it up. Another noteworthy thing from that that exit presser was he was asked by your pal our pal Greg Washinsky. It’s like hey is Alex Ovuchkin coming back and he gave the well he’s under contract but uh I expect him to be back. Not a hard yes. Is there any chance that Alex Ovuchkin retires after this season? I mean, you never say never, but I I I I have a hard time believing that he’s not going to come back to create some some distance between uh Gretzky’s number and what his number ends up being. Uh try to catch me now. I now ovetchkin even early in his career would always talk about you know he’s going to go back one day and play one more season with Moscow Damo that he ow that in his heart he feels like he owes that um to to to Russian hockey and and to that league. So I I think that even when he exits the NHL that he’s still going to go play at least one more season in Russia. But I’ve I I don’t think that there’s I shouldn’t say anyway because people wake up one morning and say, “You know what? I’ve had it. What more is he going to prove? He’s got everything and he’s going to the Hall of Fame. He’s got one of the records we thought would never be broken.” But I would I have a hard time believing that that wouldn’t be back. I I have I have a if I can freestyle a question to you, Pete. Oh, yeah. when um when Carrie was talking about this this group will never be together again, who do you think he meant? Uh it’s interesting. Um I wonder about that. There’s the obvious like Lars Eller and and like expiring contracts. You know who you know who I think you might have been talking about like the players like that the reality is this is why you could say like every team’s going through a rebuild because every team changes every year right um um I wonder if he was talking about Mitch Love and Kirk Mueller his because why do you think that as of well listen it’s no secret that Mitch Love as much as Spencer Carby’s going to win the the coach of the year he’s going to win the Jack Adams um he’s the new hotness in the NHL and rightfully so. He’s been successful at every single level. Like he’s he’s he’s hit the scene here in the NHL and and demonstrated he’s one of the elite coaches already around the league. Really really smart. Other teams tried to to to to get him before um good on Washington for getting there. But Mitch Love is the next hotness. Like there’s a there’s a there is a real buzz around Mitch Love and he’s he’s either has interviewed or is going to interview with I think as many as five teams. There’s a lot of people that are talking about him and I believe Kirk Mueller is in demand as well. All these teams want to talk to him. So, as as much as Carbury is talking about um his players and some that might not come back, I wonder as well if he’s also talking about his assistants, specifically Mitch Love. Interesting. All right. And I wonder about Pittsburgh. You want something? I wonder about Pittsburgh because it does it does seem very much like a Kyle Dubis move. Don’t forget Sheldon Keefe was a first-time. Now there was a background with with him and Sheldon Keefe going back to Sus Marie but you know Kyle when I when I look at how Mitch Love has coached whether it was with Saskatoon Stockton Calgary Wranglers assistant you know handling Ovetchkin knows that division really well as well. I wonder if if Kyle Dubis looks at Mitch Love and says this guy might be the next Spencer Carbury and that is right in the sweet spot of the bat for someone like Kyle Dubis. Anyway, just lob it out there for you and your viewers. [Applause] We all silly like the mayor.

The Washington Capitals’ surprisingly positive season came to a screeching halt against the Carolina Hurricanes and in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Spencer Carbery said it best — there’s still a lot of work to do. Jeff Marek joins the show to discuss where the Capitals go from here — including whether Alex Ovechkin will be back? And should we be let down that they didn’t make more noise in the playoffs?

0:00 Season expectations
1:01 Capitals’ Playoff Struggles
4:36 Credit to the Carolina Hurricanes
7:57 Goaltending
10:01 Reflections on a Memorable Season
11:50 Ovechkin’s Future
13:04 Coaching Changes?

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