And with the trade deadline looming a month from Thursday, that edge is tricky for Ovechkin and the franchise that he both built and has been built around him. After Tuesday night’s 5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens that included an ugly three-goal first period, the Capitals sit on the outside of the playoff picture looking in — seven points back of the two wild-card spots in the Eastern Conference, with five teams ahead of them. The old Caps might have added at the deadline and made a push. These Caps? That just wouldn’t be wise.
The more jarring thought: If the Capitals sell, there’s more than just the typical discussion about who to move and what the appropriate returns would be — which we’ll get to. There’s a serious discussion with Ovechkin about how any trade makes sense both for the team’s competitiveness in the next two seasons — the final two seasons of his contract, perhaps the final two seasons of his career — and for his (currently sputtering) pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record.
This is delicate, allowing the core of the most successful and important teams in franchise history to age however gracefully it can while simultaneously — and rather stealthily — getting younger overall, rebuilding without admitting it. It’s why Ovechkin’s best argument not to sell might be to get himself going offensively, and he did score his 10th goal of the year against Montreal. It’s also why each of the 13 games between now and the trade deadline is massive.
“There’s just not a lot of margin for error,” rookie coach Spencer Carbery said. “And we know that.”
They’re living it. If it feels like the Caps can easily be blown out of nearly any game but all of their wins are 3-2 cliffhangers, that’s because they are. The Caps have 22 wins; 17 of them have been either one-goal decisions or two-goal victories capped with an empty-netter. The Caps have 19 regulation losses; 15 have come by three or more goals, all but laughers, including Tuesday night in a rare game against a team behind them in the standings.
That’s a tough way to go through life, and it should inform the decision-making as the deadline approaches. The most aggressive play General Manager Brian MacLellan could make would be to trade either or both of goaltender Charlie Lindgren and center Nic Dowd. They could bring the highest return not only because they’re both performing well — despite being yanked Tuesday, Lindgren has essentially supplanted Darcy Kuemper as the No. 1 goalie, and Dowd is a pest of a penalty killer — but because they’re also under contract for next season. Some of the potential rentals — defenseman Joel Edmundson, forward Anthony Mantha — might bring a pick or a piece. Lindgren or Dowd — or both in combination — could yield a haul.
In a normal situation, MacLellan might look at the brutal stretch ahead — eight of the next 11 games against teams that currently hold playoff spots, including games this weekend at Boston and home with Vancouver, the league’s two best teams — and think, “We’re going to have to swallow hard and trade guys we like.” This isn’t a normal situation. Ovechkin hangs over it all.
That the Capitals are 30th in a 32-team league in goals per game isn’t all on Ovechkin. But that he’s not…
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