The Washington Capitals 8-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins felt like another reality check for the Penguins organization of how big of a gap now exists between the Penguins and Capitals……. It’s a massive one.
2022-2023 Season | PIT 91 Pts, -2GF | WSH 80 Pts, -10GF
2023-2024 Season | PIT 88 Pts, +4GF | WSH 91 Pts, -37GF
Washington after earning the final wildcard spot last season with a Minus-37 Goal Differential, have suddenly transformed into a machine with a Conference Leading 82 points and a +61 Goal Differential. The Penguins meanwhile enter Sunday with a conference worst Minus-42 Goal Differential. The Capitals pretty much rebuilt themselves overnight at the NHL-Level and they are not only a serious Stanley Cup Contender this season but most around the league see sustainability with this group due to more help coming from their prospect ranks and tradeable assets to keep improving at the NHL level. Scouts feel the next three years are going to be golden for the Capitals organization.
Alex Ovechkin might have 26 goals in 40 games but watch that game yesterday and Ovechkin who was just going through the motions, is really far down the list of why the Capitals have emerged as one of the premier teams this season. They are not reliant on him by any means. This is just a team that’s deep 1-18 on the ice with size, speed, skill and have evolved into a systematic machine with how well they clog the middle of the ice defensively. As good as Sidney Crosby remains, Pittsburgh is so behind the eight-ball when their best player is pushing 40 years old and he’s likely to remain their best player for another season or two at least. That’s the risk they took when they didn’t value retaining a Jake Guentzel who again is having a phenomenal season and was one of Team USA’s best players on the ice in the Four Nations Tournament. And some of the Capitals turnaround this season has been luck, let’s not discount that. Even the biggest Jakob Chychurn fan could not have expected him to resemble prime Erik Karlsson some nights.
Still, Kyle Dubas keeps talking about teams the Penguins can look at as examples in their retool. He’s often mentioned the Rangers, Kings and lately has thrown out the Capitals. The Rangers one has always been a hard one to get behind. They accelerated things by signing the premier winger in free agency in Artemi Panarin in July 2019. Unless you’re going out and signing Mitch Marner or Mikko Rantanen this summer, you can’t use the Rangers template too much and when New York publicized their retool around 2018 and 2019, they still had the likes of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad just entering their prime to also build around and accelerate things. New York also had some goalie prospect named Igor Shesterkin coming up through the ranks. Pittsburgh doesn’t have those type of difference makers on the roster now or coming up through their system.
For the present, yesterday’s game highlighted again how bad Pittsburgh has to fix their goaltending situation, while the Capitals goaltending situation has also played a big factor in their quicker than expected turnaround. That’s one example with the Capitals — Pittsburgh has to look at. —
“We beat ourselves in so many ways,” Mike Sullivan said of Saturday’s loss. “I thought when they got their fourth goal, it’s a 3-2 game, it was 5:43 in the second period. Shots were 19-9. We had twice as much offensive zone time as we did in the defensive zone,” Sullivan said. “We felt pretty good about where the game was at even though we were down a goal. And then we chased offense……When you chase offense, and you don’t have a recognition of risk reward. You end up giving your opponent’s easy offense. And as a result, that’s what we get. We beat ourselves in so many different ways., that’s the most disappointing part.”
You want to give your franchise icon Sidney Crosby a prayer of competing for a wild card spot next season and accelerate things a little, Pittsburgh has to find a true No. 1 goaltender. Unless you really want to tear things down to the studs and play for a Top-5 pick, throwing out these 1B level goaltenders is never going to cut it over an 82-game season. Every avenue has to be exhausted including gambles (health reasons) such as targeting To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
The Tristan Jarry demotion was supposed to be an opportunity for Joel Blomqvist to get a serious look as the starter. Yet, things have strongly went Alex Nedeljkovic’s way. However, the organization as a whole is becoming less and less optimistic Blomqvist is a No. 1 capable goaltender. The view around him has become maybe To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!