Put this much talent on one team and the critics are going set the bar pretty high for you. So the Caps – despite an 18-8-3 record and 39 points – were bound to hear about it after blowing a 4-1 third-period lead on Monday to the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs. And we all know that’s not the first time that has happened this season. So the NHL Network’s Bobby Holik had some pointed comments about the Caps during the final segment of Tuesday’s On the Fly program. Does Holik, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the New Jersey Devils, think Washington has what it takes to win a title?
“Right now they definitely don’t. Because they’ve had those letdowns against [the] Toronto Maple Leafs. They [are] playing .500 hockey the last couple of weeks,” said Holik. “That’s not good enough. Some people might say ‘There is plenty of time for them to get better.’ There isn’t. They’ve got to prove [to] themselves that they can pull together and stay together and continue winning. Right now, I wouldn’t even call them one of the top four teams the way they’ve been performing.”
That seems absurd on the surface. The Caps enter play Wednesday with the second-most points in the entire league and – to be fair – are actually 6-4-3 over the last 13 games, a smidge over .500. But with a pair of recent three-game losing streaks – yes, Bruce Boudreau, two of those six losses via the shootout – the heat does get turned up. It doesn’t help that Sidney Crosby and the rival Pittsburgh Penguins have won 10 games in a row to vault atop the NHL standings.
“Sid the Kid – yes, everybody looks at him and says ‘Oh, he’s so hot this month. He’s doing so well this month. How’s he doing it?’ The guy’s going to the net,” said NHL Network analyst Kevin Weeks. “And with Pittsburgh they are willing to play different ways. And Bobby, you know this better than anybody having won [a Stanley Cup], when you’re playing and you have a good team you have to find different ways to win on different nights and you have to be okay with that. One of the things that I don’t see with the Washington Capitals is I don’t see them being okay with winning different ways just yet. That goes back to the mental part that you’re talking about.”
But the Caps have repeatedly said controlling the game in the third period is one of their main goals during the regular season. And while they are 16-0-1 when tied or leading a game entering the third there have been a ton of close calls, too: Three third-period goals allowed vs. Boston, a blown 3-1 lead to Toronto, goals allowed in the final 30 seconds to Carolina and Atlanta. They won all of those games. But there’s fuel there for critics looking for it. It’s up to the Caps to respond now.
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