Follow @james_tanner123 When last we spoke, the Mighty Ducks had defeated the Capitals 4-0. Then, two days later, the Capitals lost again, this time 3-1 to the Kings.
But those are just games. For almost two months now, the Capitals have lost, then won, then lost two, then won two, then lost, then won.
As their formerly large division lead has slipped away, they have played basically .500 hockey. They lost six of their last ten, and in the ten games before that, they won five of them. They're not doing terribly, they just can't get anything going.
The reason for that is obvious enough: they basically get out shot and out chanced every game. If they win, it's usually because Ovechkin, Kuznetsov or one of the goalies had a great game. But long term, they get outshot too much to do anything unless they go on a well-timed PDO bender.
The reason for this is also obvious: they have a top-loaded roster that has too many below average players on it. And who built it? Brian MacLellan. A below average manager whose job should have been on the line, and who should have been replaced this summer. A man so bad at his job that as long as the Oilers didn't fire Peter Chiarelli first, the Capitals could have hired literally anyone and it'd have been an improvement.
Instead they re-signed him yesterday in a move reminiscent of the Canucks recent re-signing of Jim Benning in that it's obviously a terrible move no one can believe happened.
Professional sports has had a statistical revolution. Teams that recognize this and react accordingly are going to win a lot in the next decade. Teams that stick with one of the 200 Hockey Men are not going to do as well. Having an old, ex-player as your GM is the management equivalent of owning an Apple Watch or a Fanny Pack. It's the plastic sunglasses and e-cigarette of management choices.
"Hey Bro, let's put on our Oakleys and listen to Sublime."
Which is to say it might have worked in the 90s, but it's ridiculous now.
Last summer Maclellan lost Nate Schmidt to the expansion draft. That's a firable offense.
He then decided to re-sign T.J Oshie to what was instantly one of the worst contracts in the NHL. Firable offense.
A third F.O was committed when he fed-exed Marcus Johanson to New Jersey in exchange for Ray Shero's Netflix password.
Because of the Oshie signing, he was unable to retain several other players. Overall, the Capitals lost Shattenkirk, Winnick, Williams, Johanson, Alzer and Schmidt over the summer. That is over 25% of what was the best team in the NHL.
With the Capitals up against the salary cap, they couldn't replace any of these players with NHL players. They also failed to recognize how crappy Brooks Orpik is, and were not creative enough to find him a new home. (Arch rivals the Penguins were able to add a first line centre to their third line by creatively gaming the system so that another team would pay for him, however).
It was one of the worst summers an NHL team ever had. The Caps were forced to play this season with 4-6 AHL players in the lineup every night. They are a sad ghost of the team they were last year. And, with Ovechkin crushing it in one of the last years of his prime, is MacLellan creative enough to find a way to improve his team?
Of course not. He added some guys who cost F.A and who's names I'll have to look up everytime I want to mention them.
So basically, after one of the worst calendar years for a GM in history, the Capitals rewarded him with an extension. Where is the youth? Where is the forward thinking ? The new ideas? The Creativity?
If you're a Capitals fan, you should not be happy at all about this development.