The Capitals’ faint playoff hopes ended Tuesday night, and not of their own hand – a Florida Panthers win gave both them and the Islanders 87 points, 10 ahead of the Caps with five games remaining for Washington.
Tiebreakers mean that the math is official and the Capitals can’t surpass those two, so the final five games starting Thursday night are for, sadly, nothing but pride, and when the final horn sounds next week, a playoff run of eight straight seasons that included a Stanley Cup in 2017-18 will end.
Laviolette, when he talked Sunday at Caps practice, had a tinge of knowing it was close to over in his voice – and when he joined the Junkies for his weekly Wednesday appearance, there was indeed some finality in the way he spoke about the elimination finally happening.
“It’s more just reality than anything. I feel like in the last 10 days or so, there were some games that were really big against teams right with us in the standings that we had to win, and we weren’t able to get that done,” Laviolette said. “Even though we weren’t eliminated when I talked, chances were slim and it was a really long shot. Had those games gone differently, we’d still be looking at big games and a chance to push, but we needed to find a way to win those games with Buffalo, Pittsburgh, the Islanders, and we weren’t able to do that.”
The Caps were 22-13-6 at the halfway mark thanks to a scorching 11-2-2 December, but after a 6-7-1 January, the team lost seven of nine in February after the All-Star break and never recovered. Had they simply been a .500 team instead of a 8-14-1 squad, maybe things would be different, but that left them quite a hill to climb over the final 20 games.
“For sure, I do think it could’ve been different; I think that month we were playing really well and guys were on point, and it was a grind with travel, but coming out of December through January up until now, we’ve never been able to string it together and move up in the standings,” Laviolette said. “In December we were able to move, but not able to sustain it. Win two, lose one kind of thing, won’t cut it.”
As a head coach, Laviolette has made 13 playoff appearances in 21 seasons, and had been two-for-two as Caps head coach, so this year will be a disappointment in that it’s not three-for-three, and a rare May off for the veteran bench boss – but he’s only focused on Thursday as of right now.
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“I haven’t thought about it like that, because even still yesterday, we came to work preparing to handle our business and win hockey games, and that hasn’t changed even as reality has set in,” Laviolette said. “My focus isn’t about what I’m going to do on May 1, it’s what’s the plan going into Montreal. Just going day-to-day trying to finish the season the right way.”
Alas, like the Wizards, the Caps are playing out the string, but unlike the banged-up Wiz, Laviolette’s bunch is going to be as full steam ahead as possible against the Canadiens, Panthers, Islanders, Bruins, and Devils – the latter four teams currently occupying for of the eight Eastern Conference playoff spots.
“Our lineup is what it is right now, and we’re in a position right now where these are the guys that have been here all year,” the coach said. “I don’t believe any moves can be made at this point, and we have a couple guys who have been in and out with injuries, so we have to see where they are, too.”
But, even as the Caps had four straight first-round exits, they’ve continued to regress in the standings, too, during the Laviolette era, going from a .688 winning percentage in 2020-21’s COVID-shortened season to .610 last year to now .500 with five to go.
Can the team re-tool on the fly, mixing in youth with the established vets perhaps, to get back to where they need to be?
“I feel like the team can definitely still be successful. The last couple years we were banged up but fought through the adversity to make the playoffs, even if we didn’t find the success we were looking for,” Laviolette said. “This year was just a lot we were dealing with and not able to get that done, but I still think that given full health and a full year with that squad, we can find success. I don’t think it will be difficult to re-toll and find that success again next year.”
The Junkies will hear from Coach Laviolette one more time, next Wednesday as the Caps come off their penultimate game of the season, where there will surely a lot more talk about what went wrong this year and where the future lies.
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