Last night, the Capitals clinched a playoff spot, becoming the first team this season to do so.
While their presence in the postseason hasn’t really been in doubt for months, and although the clinching game itself was maybe a little closer than one would have liked (thanks in part to John Tortorella continuing his streak of being the singular most annoying coach in the league)…it’s still an accomplishment well worth celebrating. Especially when you think about where they are now compared to where they were a year ago.
Consider that the Caps snuck into the 2024 playoffs as the second wild card, finishing the season with 40 wins (and crucially, for the tiebreaker, 32 in regulation), 91 points, and a much-ballyhooed -37 goal differential. They sold at the deadline, sending Evgeny Kuznetsov to the Hurricanes, Joel Edmundson to the Leafs, and Anthony Mantha to the Golden Knights. They won their last three games to get in, but somehow managed to even be in a position to do so despite a six-game losing streak just a few games earlier. The fact that they even made it to the playoffs was fairly miraculous – and their run, predictably, short-lived.
Fast-forward less than 12 months later and it’s worth taking note of just how far these 2024-25 Washington Capitals have come from their predecessors of a season ago. With 13 games remaining, these Capitals have:
- A record of 46-15-8, becoming the first team to crack the 100-point mark (yes by mere hours, but still!)
- A 12-point lead in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference standings
- A goal differential of +73 – a swing of 110 goals in a year
- The highest goals-per-game rate (3.62) and second-lowest goals-against-per-game rate (2.54) in the league
- 169 goals at five-on-five, the most in the league and 14 more than the next team on the list (Columbus)
- A .559 win percentage when giving up the first goal and 19 comeback wins, both tops in the league
- Two 30-goal scorers in Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson, with likely a third to be added to their ranks before the season is out (Aliaksei Protas sitting at 29)
- 33 goals and 176 points from eight defensemen, up from 20 goals and 135 points spread across 12 blueliners last year
- Six different players already at or above 50 points on the season, compared to just three through the full 82-game slate last year
The additions made by Brian MacLellan and Chris Patrick over the last 12 months, the career years and milestones achieved by both new and longtime Caps, the huge steps forward for players like Connor McMichael and especially Aliaksei Protas, the work done by the excellent coaching staff, and of course, the vibes…all of these have combined for a turnaround that was highly unexpected, and led them back to the playoffs before the end of March.
That alone is a massive accomplishment for this team – but we know this is not all they want to accomplish. This is just the first step, the first checkbox on what we all hope will be a lengthy postseason run. The ramp-up starts now.