The Washington Capitals are fighting for their playoff lives as they get ready to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
Washington sits in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, three points behind the Philadelphia Flyers for the final divisional playoff spot and have to leapfrog the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Islanders in order to get there.
They are also three points behind the Ottawa Senators for the final wild-card position in the Eastern Conference but have four teams between them and the final spot.
With four games remaining in the regular season, the Capitals remain confident that they can return to the postseason for the third straight season.
“If you told us at the beginning of the season that we’d have a pretty good chance at getting 95 points, that’s usually enough to get into the playoffs,” Capitals forward Dylan Strome told TSN’s First Up on Tuesday. “So, we’re hoping four more wins is enough to get us in.”
The Capitals head into Wednesday’s game with points in seven of their past 10 games and building confidence after star centre Pierre-Luc Dubois came back from a 55-game absence at the beginning of February.
Even though the team was humbled by the New York Rangers on Sunday with an 8-1 loss, Strome feels the team is heading in the right direction going into the final stretch.
“We sort of found our stride of late,” said Strome. “We’ve had some exciting hockey games in the last 10 games or so. We’ve been scoring a lot of goals, but we’ve been giving up a lot more chances and goals, and then we laid an egg at Madison Square Garden.”
Washington came into this season with high expectations after finishing last year with the NHL’s second-best record of 51-22-9.
They had a strong start to the season, registering a 15-9-2 record after the first two months to sit third in the Metropolitan and two points behind the leading Carolina Hurricanes.
However, the team fell off through the holiday season, going 12-13-5 in December and January to slide outside the playoff picture. Their inconsistency led to the team being sellers at the deadline that marked the exit of prominent long-time players in John Carlsson and Nic Dowd.
The impact of the Capitals’ moves at the deadline put a strain on the locker room, but Strome says the team has adjusted to the new reality.
“That was probably the toughest trade deadline that I’ve gone through in the NHL,” said the 10-year veteran. “We weren’t out of it by any means, and we felt we had a good hockey team. It’s never a good feeling when your team sells at the deadline, it’s a downer in the locker room.
“It was difficult but we’re hockey players and we adjust and adapt on the fly. I’m not going to say it was easy, but I think guys have stepped up and made it interesting down the stretch.”
Carlson’s trade to the Anaheim Ducks was particularly heartbreaking around the Capitals’ organization due to his 17 years with the team, including helping lead the team to a Stanley Cup victory in 2018.
The 36-year-old, right-shot defenceman had 10 goals and 46 points in 55 games with the Capitals before the trade and was averaging 22:52 of ice time.
“The way it happened with Carlson, it was disappointing,” said Strome. “As a competitor, you want your team to be in the best position possible and then you lose a guy like him, who lived and breathed Capital hockey his whole career.
“To lose a guy like that, it took the wind out of sails a little bit [because] of how much he meant to the locker room and just his calming influence because he’s seen it all in his 17 years. But we’ve bounced back pretty well. Lots of guys have stepped up and played pretty well in the last 15 games or so.”
Another reason for the Capitals’ determination in their playoff push is the uncertainty surrounding captain Alex Ovechkin’s future after this season.
The undisputed face of the franchise is wrapping up his 21st season in the NHL and is on the final season of his five-year, $47.5 million contract.
Ovechkin has done everything there is to do in the NHL, including winning three Hart Trophies, three Ted Lindsay Awards, nine Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophies, an Art Ross Trophy, a Calder Trophy, and a Mark Messier Leadership Award.
The 6-foot-3 superstar winger led the franchise to their first Stanley Cup in 2018 and won the Conn Smythe Trophy in the process with 15 goals and 27 points in 24 games. He was already named as one of the NHL’s all-time top 100 players in 2017 as part of the league’s 100th anniversary, and last season he broke Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record of 894.
Ovechkin still leads the Capitals in goals and points at 40-years-old with 31 goals and 61 points, putting his career goal total at 928 and counting.
The Capitals don’t want his career to end in their regular-season finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 14 and are hoping to see him for at least one more playoff curtain call.
“I don’t know what he’s going to do, but we’re going to support him either way,” said Strome. We’re just enjoying every day we go to the rink and get to play with him, see him in the locker room, and get to have a couple of beers with him when we’re on the road.
“The guy is leading our team in points and goals, so it’s not like he’s slowing down at all. He’s really special and he’s an awesome teammate and a great guy.”
