Caps break in a new year against Sabres

Thursday night at 7:00 pm in Buffalo, New York, the puck will drop for the Washington Capitals 2021 campaign. It will be a season that will be different on a number of levels.  

For the first time, the Capitals have seen a core member of its championship team depart via free agency such as goaltender Braden Holtby.  The window for winning another cup is still open but for this generation of Caps, there are more yesterdays than tomorrows on the horizon.

Combine that with a new coach in Peter Laviolette, and there are plenty of questions heading into the new year. 

Here are three important things to watch as the season gets started:

Goaltending

Holtby has gone off to Vancouver which means the Ilya Samsonov era is officially here.  

Samsonov’s rookie year was impressive. He was 16-6-2 with a 2.55 goals-against average.  Statistically, he was better than Holtby.  Much better.  

Now, however, he’s the number one guy with no experience behind him.  Rookie, Vitek Vanecek will open the year as the backup. The keyword there is a rookie.

Between the two, there are exactly 26 games of experience that will go into battle against the likes of the Bruins, Flyers, Penguins, etc.  

Veteran Henrik Lundqvist was supposed to be the Caps insurance policy but he was ruled out for the season with a heart condition. If the organization is right about the kids, then the Caps are set for the next decade or so.  If not, they have a big problem.

The Blue Line

The defense has been somewhat of an issue the last couple of seasons.  With so much money tied up in offensive stars like Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and the rest, GM Brian McClellan has gotten creative trying to fill the second and third pairings.  

Brendon Dillion was a great find last year and is now locked up for the next few seasons.  The Caps also made a trade for former Boston Bruin Zdeno Chara.  Chara is a freak, he’s the size of an NBA power forward in street shoes and an NBA center on skates.  He’s also 43 years old but figures to give the Caps some massive muscle on the penalty-kill and in select spots throughout the year.

The Weird Year

After the Caps were swept out of the first round of the playoffs in the NHL bubble last year, players said things just didn’t jell when they came back from the shutdown.  

This season will feel a little more normal but it will be far from business as usual.  Having Laviolette in charge should help, he’s not exactly the laidback type but until we see it on the ice, last year’s ending has to be a concern.