Quote:
Originally Posted by dissentowner
So did many teams that took time, like the Washington Capitals. Only one team goes deep and wins the Cup, many times it is a team nobody suspects or overachieves. You want to tear it down and rebuild again, how has that worked out for teams like the Florida Panthers or the Arizona Coyotes? The forward group is deep enough to contend, we just need a few pieces to get there. Now I am in favour of moving Gaudreau if you can make a trade where a piece comes back to help now because I don't think he fits in Ward's system. This team definitely has a window right now to win though.
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In the 11 years leading up to their cup, the Caps made the playoffs 10 times and never, ever laid an egg in the first round.
- In the three years that they lost in the 1st round it was always a Game 7.
- Four times they lost the 2nd round in 7 games. Once in 6. Once they were swept.
There was legitimate reason for hope.
What were the Caps missing all those years? Several things...all teams have holes, but probably that elusive 1-2 punch at C most of all.
They missed the playoffs in '13-14. But a 26OA pick from 2010 playing in his 1st full season coincides with their breakout from stagnancy. That Tom Wilson guy helped a lot, too.
Ovy, Backstrom, Holtby, and Carlson were all there from 2012 or earlier.
Green, Alzner, Semin, Laich, M Johansson, Jeff Schultz, Chris Clark, Beagle, maybe Joel Ward/Brouwer/various goalies - all were probably considered 'core' pieces at one point or another. WAS made plenty of mistakes along the way, but they clearly picked the right guys to stay committed with.
Here's a better challenge: find me a core group who actually banged their heads against the wall for 5 years, but then went onto sustained success without significant core changes?