The Washington Capitals have been a surprisingly strong team to start the 2023-24 season and find themselves in the middle of the Metropolitan Division heading into 2024. After missing the playoffs last season, this is exactly what the team was hoping for this season after making a few moves to bolster the roster in the offseason. The Capitals decided to trade for defenseman Joel Edmundson from the Montreal Canadiens and sign forwards Matthew Phillips and Max Pacioretty. While Edmundson and Pacioretty have been nursing injuries, these additions had helped early on in the season.
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While the team was delighted to get Ryan Leonard with the eighth overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft which bolsters their prospect pool immensely, they were hoping for a quick flip of the switch and a spot in the postseason. While their start has been fun to watch and many fans have hope that this season could be the complete opposite of last season, there are still a few players the Capitals need to step up in 2024 if they hope to secure a playoff spot coming out of the tight Metropolitan Division.
Alex Ovechkin
As the Capitals’ captain and likely the best goal scorer of all time, Alex Ovechkin didn’t start the season out well offensively. With only seven goals through 34 games heading into last night’s matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ovechkin’s chase for the all-time goal record seemed to be slowly falling out of reach with his multiple-game streak of not scoring a goal. Luckily, he has seemed to have found his confidence again and should take that momentum into 2024.
Ovechkin entered 2024 with 65 goals less than Wayne Gretzky who holds the all-time lead with 894 goals, while Ovechkin was sitting at 829. After a goal against the Penguins last night, he now sits at 830. For an offensive powerhouse like him, an underwhelming seven goals was unexpected for a player known for having no issue putting up 40-50 goals a season. With only one game under his belt in 2024 after last night, the hope is he can bounce back and push for 20-30 goals with 47 games left in the season.
Matthew Phillips
One of the Capitals’ new additions who started well but has taken a bit of a step back is Phillips, who while he hasn’t been the worst player away from the puck, hasn’t had quite the offensive production the Capitals wanted out of him when they first signed him. He has been solid defensively and for a smaller-sized player, he plays a surprisingly strong physical game from time to time. Unfortunately, he will have higher expectations heading into the new year as the Capitals hope he can explode offensively.
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Through 25 games this season, Phillips has scored one goal and added four assists for five points. As a depth player, the team didn’t have expectations for him to be a top offensive producer, but they would have preferred that he be pushing the 15-20 point mark by now. Hopefully, 2024 can be a much better year for Phillips and he can help be a key piece to the Capitals’ depth.
Evgeny Kuznetsov
The final player we’ll mention in this article is forward Evgeny Kuznetsov who has been underwhelming at both ends of the ice this season. With only five goals and six assists for 11 points through 31 games, he has not been anywhere near what the Capitals’ wanted out of him offensively. While there are still plenty of games left for him to bounce back, he’ll need to focus on fixing both his offensive game and his defensive game which both haven’t been very strong up to this point in the season.
While Kuznetsov has been involved in trade rumors before, he will need to step his game up if he plans on being part of a contending team if he has any interest in leaving the Capitals. His production is one of the main things teams will look at if they go to acquire him and if they don’t like what they see, he’ll finish the season in Washington. If that ends up being the case, the Caps need a much better second half of the season out of Kuznetsov and they’re hoping he can provide that moving forward.
The Capitals took home a massive 4-3 win over their division-rival Penguins last night and will be right back at it tonight in a battle against the New Jersey Devils. Hopefully, these three and the rest of the Capitals players can continue to play well and fight their way back into the postseason, and potentially make a push for the second Stanley Cup in their franchise’s history.