Opinion

Best Caps Team to Ever Play?

Kuzy! (Caps Outsider)

The 2009-2010 Caps were described as the best team the franchise had ever seen. They proved it in the regular season by recording a franchise-record 121 points and won the President’s Trophy. They had clinched their division, the South East at the time, and a playoff birth. They won the division by 38 points over then Atlanta, now Winnipeg. They had 54 wins behind Alex Ovechkin‘s 50 goals (109 points), Nicklas Backstrom’s 68 assists, and 30 wins for goalie Jose Theodore. They were bounced in game 7, round 1 to the Montreal Canadiens behind stellar goal tending of Jaroslav Halak. Back then, folks blamed the loss on the Caps’ lack of depth scoring.

This season, Braden Holtby already has 30 wins with 36 games yet to have been played. Ovechkin has 28 goals and 42 points, and Backstrom has 29. The one thing this team has that the 2010 team did not is depth. This depth is led by Evgeny Kuznetsov, who is third in the NHL with 33 assists and fourth in points with 48.

In addition, this team is much better defensively. This season the Caps are scoring .49 fewer goals per game than the 2010 team, but are allowing .62 fewer goals per game. On the penalty kill, they are up from 78.8% to 84.8%. They went from 25th to 5th in the league. At this point,  the 2010 team had 62 points. This year the Caps have 73.

Whether or not this means more playoff success has yet to be determined, but it sure does look good. This season’s Caps will be one of the best the franchise has ever seen, but it could also become one of the best teams the league has ever seen.

Brandon Alter

Brandon Alter covers all three teams in the Washington Capitals Organization. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in May of 2021.

Related Articles

Back to top button