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Top 3 questions for the Washington Capitals still to be answered in 2020

By Griffin Youngs

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 16: Ilya Samsonov #30 of the Washington Capitals celebrates with Braden Holtby #70 after the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Capital One Arena on October 16, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 16: Ilya Samsonov #30 of the Washington Capitals celebrates with Braden Holtby #70 after the game against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the third period at Capital One Arena on October 16, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /
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OTTAWA, ON – JANUARY 31: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his third period empty-net goal, moving him past Mark Messier into 8th on the all-time NHL goals list, with teammates T.J. Oshie #77, John Carlson #74 and Dmitry Orlov #9 in a game against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on January 31, 2020 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images)
OTTAWA, ON – JANUARY 31: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his third period empty-net goal, moving him past Mark Messier into 8th on the all-time NHL goals list, with teammates T.J. Oshie #77, John Carlson #74 and Dmitry Orlov #9 in a game against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on January 31, 2020 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Jana Chytilova/Freestyle Photography/Getty Images) /

2. Is the Capitals defense good enough for a deep playoff run?

The Capitals may have been sitting on top of the Metropolitan Division for basically the entire regular season, but the season pause came after a horrific month of February. Even with Holtby’s stabilization in net, the Capitals couldn’t get results, and it wasn’t hard to see why. The defense was exposed as being not nearly good enough.

The offseason saw some shakeups to Washington’s blue line with the necessary departures of Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik, and while they were key pieces in the Stanley Cup run in 2018, their time in Washington was clearly done after tremendous struggles the following season. They were replaced with Radko Gudas and Nick Jensen, as well as Jonas Siegenthaler who received a full time NHL promotion.

However these moves have just not worked out the way Washington envisioned them to. It’s been over a year since the Jensen trade, and still is yet to find a real role. Offensively he’s still looking for his first goal with the team, and defensively he’s been caught out of position way too often while making far too many mistakes. In the month leading up to the break he’s been better, so maybe the worst is behind him, but the Capitals are going to need much better after they signed him to a four contract last season.

Gudas started out well enough, but has cratered since the turn of the decade. Recently he’s been the odd man out on a defense where there has been few bright spots, which says just about enough. Michal Kempny also hasn’t been the same since his brutal leg injury last season, and while Dmitry Orlov has improved significantly from last season, it’s not been good enough. Siegenthaler has been a surprising bright spot defensively, but there’s only so much a decent third pair defenseman can do to staunch so much bleeding.

However no matter how much changes around the edges, a brunt of the issues rests with one man. John Carlson is a leading contender for the Norris trophy, and was almost a lock to win it earlier in the season with the scoring pace he was on. However Carlson has been such a mess defensively that it would make Brent Burns cringe. He is the embodiment of pure chaos. Blown coverages, inability to clear the net, baffling penalties, and a lack of consistent effort has been the name of the game for Carlson for the last few months. He may lead the team in points, but he also is the worst on the team in just about every quantifiable defensive category.

Even the addition of Brenden Dillon at the trade deadline hasn’t been able to do much to stop pucks from filling the net. He’s an outstanding physical presence, but he’s not a miracle worker. If Carlson can’t fix the craters in his defensive game, then there’s not a whole lot that can be done.

The execution has not been there all season long, and if nothing changes, it’ll be a short playoff run. No matter how you look at it, this offseason is going to once again call for some major adjustments.

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