A colossus with feet of clay will appear at the Bell Center on Saturday evening to face the Canadian. After fifteen years of domination, the Washington Capitals are staggering.
They missed the playoffs for the first time in ten years last year, a spectacular plunge until the 25the rank in the general classification, only a second exclusion since 2007.
General manager Brian MacLellan’s timid reset since the spring has yet to have the desired effect: Washington has won just one of its first three games, allowed twelve goals and scored just four.
It’s obviously only three games, but Alex Ovechkin is worrying observers in the American capital. For the first time in his career, he did not have a shot on goal in two consecutive games and was limited to one assist in three games.
MacLellan did not dare to change his team so much despite the failures of last season that the Capitals started the regular season with the oldest team after the Pittsburgh Penguins, with an average of 29.5 years, according to the site capfriendly.com.
The oldest players occupy important positions. Ovechkin is 38 years old, Nicklas Backstrom 35 years old and TJ Oshie 36 years old. Defenseman John Carlson and goalie Darcy Kuemper are 33 years old.
We didn’t rejuvenate the club with the acquisitions of Max Pacioretty, 34, and Joel Edmundson, 30, but both found themselves on the long-term injured list before playing their first game with their new team .
In such a context, the seven-year contract extension for 45 million granted this summer to the rough Tom Wilson, 29, is astonishing. These power forwards tend to slow down in their thirties and Wilson will begin the first year of this agreement (at an annual salary of 6.5 million) at precisely 30 years old.
He remains a useful winger for the Capitals, but it’s a significant salary for a player still looking for a 25-goal season, and who has crossed the 45-point mark just once in his career. Wilson has also been plagued by injuries in recent years.
And the next generation?
Like all dominant clubs over a period of more than a decade, Washington has not been able to build a succession. The Capitals have drafted just three times in the top fifteen since 2007, and two of those picks, Filip Forsberg in 2012 and Jakub Vrana in 2014, have since been traded.
Winger Ryan Leonard, 8e total choice this summer, is undoubtedly the most promising hope. In his first two games at Boston College, Leonard had an assist. He amassed 94 points, including 51 goals, in 57 games in the American development program last winter alongside Will Smith, Gabriel Perreault and Oliver Moore, all drafted in the first round.
Otherwise, winger Ivan Miroshnichenko, 19, first pick, 20e in total in 2022, came within a hair of remaining with the team this year. He started the season in the American League. Hendrix Lapierre, 21, first choice, 22e in total, will begin his second season in the American League, where he amassed 30 points in 60 games last year.
We will have to keep an eye on small forward Andrew Cristall, second round pick in 2023, already 18 points in just eight games in the Western Junior League. Connor McMichael, 22, is still considered a prospect. He is productive in the American League, but shy in the NHL. For now, he plays left wing on the second line with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Oshie.
The first center, Dylan Strome, is not too old at 26 years old. He has just had his best career season, 65 points.
The recovery is nevertheless likely to be long and painful in Washington. There is no depth in defense after John Carlson, nor a replacement on the horizon. Rasmus Sandin, acquired from the Leafs for a first-round pick last year, is a disaster defensively. We have just recalled from the minors Hardy Häman Aktell, 25, hired last summer after a season of 36 points in 51 games in Växjö, Sweden.
Will Ovechkin beat Gretzky?
PHOTO GEOFF BURKE, USA TODAY SPORTS
Alex Ovechkin
Alex Ovechkin is 73 goals short of beating Wayne Gretzky and becoming the top scorer in National Hockey League history. It’s both very few goals and a lot. Especially for a 38 year old player.
As Martin Leclerc wrote in his column this week on radio-canada.ca, he will need seasons of 37 and 36 goals if he wants to beat the record in two years, 40 years from now. But only one player, Brett Hull, managed to score at least 36 goals at the age of 38, recalls the columnist. Over three years, he would need more or less 25 goals per season, but could he do it at 41?
Ovechkin, 822 career goals, had 42 goals in just 73 games last year. Nothing is impossible with him. Let’s see if time will work against him.