If there is a mantra being whispered around the Washington Capitals' camp this fall it is this: "If not now, when?" And the answer is, "If not now, then look out."
The Caps are coming off a dominating regular season during which they won the Presidents' Trophy by an 11-point margin over the Western Conference leader Dallas Stars. Washington finished 16 points ahead of the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division. Unfortunately for the Capitals, a familiar playoff scenario played out when they were knocked off by the Pens, the eventual Stanley Cup champions, in six games in the second round.
"You can make an argument we were right there with them the whole way," general manager Brian MacLellan said in a recent interview. Anything can happen in the playoffs. That's life. But, as MacLellan acknowledged, for a Capitals team that has never won a Stanley Cup and hasn't been to the conference finals since 1998 (which is also the only time they've reached a Cup finals), it's a painfully familiar storyline.
"It's a never-ending narrative with us. But I like where we're at," he said.
Best new faces
MacLellan looked at his lineup, which includes the defending Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby and perennial goal-scoring champ Alex Ovechkin, and decided there wasn't much he lacked. And he's right.
The big addition was third-line center Lars Eller, who was acquired from the Montreal Canadiens for a pair of draft picks. MacLellan thinks Eller has better offensive tools than he has shown thus far. He skates well, has good vision and is big and strong. "He's got a lot of great attributes," MacLellan says of the 27-year-old Dane.
If he works out, the Caps will be as good as they've ever been down the middle, where Eller will fall in behind Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, with Jay Beagle handling fourth-line pivot duties. The departure of Jason Chimera, a solid third-liner, will open up more opportunities for someone like Andre Burakovsky, who now has a chance to prove he's got a significant top end offensively.
Biggest unknowns
When you're as good as the Capitals were for so much of last season -- they were second in goals allowed and goals scored per game, fifth on the power play and second on the penalty kill -- how do you get jazzed for another 82-game grind?
We see this all the time with Cup winners or teams that fall just short. They need to find motivation to stick to the game plan and play correctly in October while looking ahead to April. Of course, one assumes that getting bounced early in the playoffs will be its own motivation, but it's a valid concern with a team that was as dominant as the Caps were last regular season. "The biggest thing we have to guard against is [thinking, 'Let's just get to the playoffs right now and see what we've got,'" MacLellan said.
Other issues: Can Ovechkin stay as durable as he has been, given his rough-and-tumble style of play? And will Kuznetsov continue his arc toward stardom after a disappointing postseason and an up-and-down World Cup of Hockey?
Sure things
Well, there are sure things, like Ovechkin challenging to win a goal-scoring title, Holtby being in the mix for a second consecutive Vezina Trophy and the Caps being very hard to play against under head coach Barry Trotz.
And, yes, Washington will still light it up offensively. But the other certainty is that if there isn't success this season, next summer will be a time of great change. Wings T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams are entering contract years, as is homegrown blueliner Karl Alzner. MacLellan had a two-year plan for this team when he brought in Oshie and Williams last offseason to get them over the hump. One down, one to go.
Prediction
Nobody will be sleeping on Trotz's watch, and the rest of the coaching staff, several members of which were courted by other teams looking for head coaches during the offseason, is top-notch. So don't expect much of a regular-season drop-off for a Capitals team that will once again be among the league's finest. First in the Metropolitan Division.