Capitals Are Hitting Critical Juncture

In their short homestand, the Washington Capitals tried to climb the standings by playing well in just the third period of both contests, leading to a pair of split 3-2 decisions.

Tuesday, the Capitals were able to erase a 2-0 deficit against the Montreal Canadiens and walked away with two points thanks to Connor McMichael’s first career overtime goal. However, two nights later against the San Jose Sharks, while Washington tried again to close the gap from a two-goal deficit, this time they were unable to force overtime and continued an unwelcome streak.

While the Capitals had pushed towards the top of the Eastern Conference standings in December, they have gone over a month since winning back-to-back games, last managing that simple streak back in their California trip early last month. Their last seven games have alternated between losses and wins, seemingly unable to build on momentum to avoid a slow slide down the standings, as Washington fell out of the playoff picture on a tiebreaker with a potentially season-defining road trip starting next week.

With less than three weeks before the Capitals hit the Olympic break, injuries and inconsistency continue to define the team’s play, as they have been stuck in malaise for over a month now and haven’t changed with the rapid-fire compressed schedule January has brought.

This homestand, Washington tried to parlay two sub-par periods and a solid third into points. While it worked once against a Canadiens team that arrived in the nation’s capital late the night before, they were unable to overcome a lackluster start. They came up empty against the Sharks and once again snuck into a playoff spot, only to fall back out again.

While the Capitals are now seemingly the destination for every forward on the trading block, Washington has really bided its time and waited to see how the market develops, but with very few teams seemingly ready to look forward to next season as of yet, the team remains thin in the middle as it hits a critical stretch of the season.

Forward-wise, the injury to Tom Wilson hasn’t helped the Capitals as of late, and the nearly season-long absence of Pierre-Luc Dubois has left Washington with a hole in the middle. While the Caps could manage for a while with a team that’s thin in the middle until Dubois returns after the break, having Wilson out has left the team’s need for another Top 6 forward to power the offense is even more glaring.

For a team whose offense is dependent on defensemen pushing, the return of Jakob Chychrun from an illness was a welcome development, but a three-minute span cost them dearly on Thursday, with collisions among teammates, puck turnovers, and poor coverage giving San Jose all they needed for two points in a short stretch.

The team’s goaltending has been solid, but the Capitals have shown in the eight games so far in January that the offense has not gotten into a groove, notching more than three goals in just two of those games. And the road is about to get much tougher.

Washington wraps up the three-game homestand Saturday against the Florida Panthers, then spends most of the rest of the month on a six-game trip, without back-to-back days off for another week, wrapping from Denver to Vancouver to Alberta to Seattle and then wrapping up in Detroit. And while the Capitals have avoided falling behind the pack in the playoff chase –

With the trade deadline now less than two months away and the team’s need for a Top 6 forward remaining a constant, the Capitals have treaded water for over a month now, not really seeming to have urgency to even make a change by calling up one of their top prospects from the AHL’s Hershey Bears to try and spark the offense. But clearly, with the tightly-packed standings and what seemed to be a given playoff spot a month ago now has become a lot murkier in recent weeks, certainly could compel Washington to act to fill the hole up front sooner than later should the road trip go sideways.

With cap space and a glaring need, change will be coming to the Capitals, but with their playoff cushion gone, they can’t afford to wait a lot longer to add to their offense.