The Daily Faceoff Show: Capitals drop to eighth in Eastern Conference

For as long as the Washington Capitals have been one of the NHL’s premiere franchises, they’ve flown a bit under the radar so far this season.

Especially when the Capitals roared out to an impressive 8-3-1 start, with Alex Ovechkin on one of the highest offensive paces of his career, it would’ve been easy to just assume that Washington had its playoff spot solidified and there was no need to pay attention to this team until the playoffs.

But as the Capitals have flown below the radar, they’ve steadily regressed.

Washington is only 7-6-4 since Nov. 30 and in terms of points percentage, fell into the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference over the weekend. If you count their nine overtime and shootout losses as regular losses, the Capitals are a middling 21-18 on the season.

Although Washington still has a 10-point lead on a playoff spot, in a season where the gap between haves and have-nots is so wide in the Eastern Conference, it begs the question of how the Capitals stack up compared to the true Stanley Cup contenders in the conference.

On Monday’s episode of The Daily Faceoff Show, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk weighed in on the Capitals.

Seravalli: “I think this stretch exceeds past that 4-4-2 run. I think really, you look at the Caps’ schedule since Nov. 30, they’re 7-6-4.

“I think there’s three ways to look at the run they’ve been on. The optimist would say, exactly what you did, they’re in a really solid playoff spot. They don’t need to worry; these are the dog days of the season.

“The pessimist would say, that’s just a .529 points percentage run. We’ve slid down to the fourth spot in the Metro, eighth spot in the conference. Although our playoff spot is likely safe – they could continue at this run for the rest of the season and still finish with 97 points. That’s how many points they’ve banked. And Alex Ovechkin is in a swoon and, of course, he’s been a little banged up.

“I think the realist would probably look at this graphic here and say when you look at a 7-6-4 run, these are the seven wins. And yes, you got a win against the Preds, who’ve been near the top in the west. The Jets are clawing for a playoff spot, the Ducks have been in one almost the entire season. But I’m looking more at their measuring stick games and losses. You size up the playoff teams they’ve faced – Florida, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minnesota and Boston. All losses. They got a point in one of those games.”

Yaremchuk: “Washington is a team I’m fascinated to watch leading up to the deadline. When you had a team that looked so good for so long and now, they’re falling off a little bit. And you’re in the Eastern Conference, where it’s pretty apparent who the sellers and buyers.

“I’ll be really interested to see what they do leading up to the deadlines.”

You can watch the full episode here…