The Washington Capitals’ unlikely postseason begins this weekend, but before we explore the future we must re-examine the past. In October we asked you to make predictions about the big questions around the 2023-24 season. You submitted your guesses about the Caps’ playoff chances, Ovechkin’s goal totals, and a lot more.
Looking back, you nailed some of these, but the misses — yikes, they’re big.
Right: The Caps made the playoffs
Two-thirds of our respondents guessed the Capitals would make the playoffs. It looked hairy for a while, but you were right. And I admit it; I was wrong.
Though here’s an interesting wrinkle: your average prediction for the number of standings points the Capitals would accrue was 90.9. Mine was 91. The Caps got 91. The x-factor seems to be disappointing seasons from teams like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Detroit. So really, aren’t we all winners? Well, except for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Detroit. They’re losers.
Wrong: Ovechkin didn’t score 42 goals
Okay, we overshot this one a bit. Not accounting for Alex Ovechkin‘s scary and scary-slow start to the season, we guessed he would score 11 more goals than he actually did. My prediction was 33, but I’m a pessimist. You should ignore me.
Really wrong: Kuznetsov didn’t get 69 points
Not only did Evgeny Kuznetsov not get 69 points; he didn’t even get 20. Certainly not for the Caps. After missing time in the player-assistance program and in otherwise limbo, Kuznetsov moved to Carolina, scoring seven assists in 20 games, for a season-long total of 24. I had him at 60. Big miss.
I think we can all throw our hands up on this one. It happened. We move on.
Wrong: Wilson didn’t score 27 goals
Our collective hopes for Tom Wilson‘s offensive renaissance were unmet. He scored 18 goals. If anything, Wilson flourished as a defensive player in his first year under Carbery’s system, taking on tough duties for defensively weak on-ice partners. I have to say; I think 27 was unrealistic. I wrote down 15 though, so I was wrong in the other direction.
Wrong but in a good way: McMichael played much more than 58 games
We predicted that Connor McMichael would not yet secure a full-time role with the big club this season. An understandable guess given that there were three centers above him to start the season (Backstrom, Kuznetsov, and Strome). But once two of those players became inviable, McMichael stepped in and didn’t look back. He played 80 games and finished the season on the Ovi line.
I thought he’d only get 62. Good for him. He’s an NHLer for sure now.
Nailed it, almost: Pacioretty returned in January
I don’t know how any of us would have had insider information to know this, but I guess we did? Forty percent of respondents said Max Pacioretty would return in December, and thirty percent said it’d be January. It was January 3. What you make of that return is a different matter. Pacioretty had 4 goals and 19 assists in 47 games.
Oh yeah: Mantha was the first player traded
At the start of the season, you had good reason to think Anthony Mantha would be the first player out. His relationship with the team was strained after a few underperforming seasons, but Mantha actually delivered in 56 games with 20 goals. So instead of trading him as a depressed asset, the Caps traded him to Vegas as a studly scorer. Mantha had 3 goals in 18 games for the Knights.
I thought Nicolas Aube-Kubel would be traded first, so I was way off.
Oof: Backstrom and Oshie missed way way more than 31 games
What were we thinking?! Oshie missed thirty games on his own. Backstrom played just eight games before entering the mystery zone between LTIR and retirement. So that’s 104 total missed games, a sad result for Washington’s aging core.
I’m on the hook for this. I had it at 30 games. What can I say – I still had hope.
Nullified: Hathaway didn’t fight a Cap, but…
A person in the RMNB Discord…
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