Ovechkin started slowly last season, as did his entire team. But as they became adjusted to new coach Adam Oates’ systems, both Ovechkin and the team came on to eventually win the final Southeast Division title. Ovechkin led the league in goals and the resurrected power play helped lead the Caps from the bottom of the league to first place in the division and the eventual third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

From the team’s press release:

ARLINGTON, Va. – Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin won the 2012-13 Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded “to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team,” the National Hockey League announced today. This marks the third time Ovechkin has been named the League’s Most Valuable Player.

The 27-year-old Moscow native is the only active player to have won the Hart Trophy multiple times (2007-08, 2008-09, 2012-13) and becomes just the eighth player in NHL history to win the award three or more times, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Clarke, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Eddie Shore and Howie Morenz. Ovechkin was a finalist for the award in 2009-10. He earned 1,090 points for a margin of victory of 32 from a record-setting 179 ballots cast.

In 2009 Ovechkin became the first player in more than a decade to win consecutive Hart Trophies (Dominik Hasek, 1997-98) and the first non-goaltender to do so since Gretzky won eight in a row (1980-87). He became the third youngest player to win consecutive Hart Trophies, trailing only Gretzky and Orr.

Ovechkin scored 32 goals in 48 games this season to earn his third Richard Trophy in his career and became the first player in the trophy’s 13-year history to win the award three times. Ovechkin is the second Capital to lead the league in goals, joining Peter Bondra (1994-95 and shared the lead in 1997-98) and became the oldest player (27) to lead the league in goal scoring since Pavel Bure (29) in 2000-01.

Ovechkin also led the NHL in power-play goals (16), shots on goal (220) and tied for the league lead in power-play scoring (27 points). Ovechkin finished the 2012-13 regular season with 56 points (32 goals, 24 assists), tied for third in the league in scoring.

The Caps captain finished the regular season with 23 goals and 13 assists in his final 23 games. In that span of 23 contests, Washington went 17-4-2. The Capitals finished the season with a record of 27-18-3, first in the Southeast Division and the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Washington went 23-7-2 in games that Ovechkin tallied at least one point and 19-3-2 in games in which he scored a goal. He led all Caps players in third-period scoring (15g-8a) and tallied seven goals and three assists in the game’s final 10 minutes or overtime.

In his 579th career game Ovechkin became the third-fastest active player to reach the 700-point plateau, behind only Teemu Selanne (541) and Jaromir Jagr (557) and the fastest player to reach 700 points since Peter Forsberg did so in his 549th game in October 2003. Ovechkin became just the third Capital (Bondra and Mike Gartner) to record 700 or more points as a member of Washington and just the 22nd player to record 700 or more points in his first eight seasons.

This was the eighth consecutive season that Ovechkin has tallied 30 or more goals. The Caps captain is the only player to have recorded 30 or more goals each season since 2005-06 and is one of just nine players in NHL history to score 30 goals in each of his first eight seasons in the League, joining Glenn Anderson, Mike Bossy, Gartner, Gretzky, Dale Hawerchuk, Jari Kurri, Luc Robitaille and Bryan Trottier in that accomplishment.

Members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association submitted ballots for the Hart Trophy at the conclusion of the regular season.

Our panel: Dave Nichols, Editor-in-Chief of DSP; Abram Fox, Caps Team Editor of DSP; Katie Brown, Caps Beat Writer for DSP; Sky Kerstein, 106.7 The Fan and DSP contributor; Ted Starkey, SBNation.com and DSP contributor, Adam Vingan, NBCWashington.com; and Harry Hawkings, RocktheRed.net.

PART I: What was the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment this season?

PART II: What was your biggest disappointment about the Caps this season?

PART III: What single adjustment would you advocate for next season?

PART IV: How would you rate the offense this season?

PART V: How would you rate the defense this season?

PART VI: How would you rate the goalies this season?

PART VII: How would you rate Adam Oates, George McPhee and the Caps management this season?

DAVE: Oates: A. McPhee: D. Adam Oates is one of the smartest hockey guys I’ve been around. From his interaction with players at practice to his thoughtful and thought-provoking answers to the media, it’s apparent this guy eats, sleeps and breathes hockey. He’s an able communicator in a business that doesn’t always promote that concept. It took a while, but once the Caps felt comfortable in his systems, they really took off, rebounding from the miserable start to win the Southeast. He jump-started the power play and inspired the “old” Alex Ovechkin to lead the league in scoring again. Oates was measured with how he used his goalies, leaning on Braden Holtby, and did not panic when things went south at times. I look forward to what Oates can do with a full off-season and training camp.

As for the management, organizationally I felt the Caps were not prepared to start this season with the player personnel they had on hand, almost as if they didn’t expect the lockout to end and actually have to play a season. When Eric Fehr, Wojtek Wolski and Joey Crabb are your big free agent additions at winger, you’re grasping at straws. McPhee pulled the trigger during last summer’s draft to finally acquire a legitimate second line center in impending free agent Mike Ribeiro, but then allowed Alexander Semin to walk via free agency. I have no complaint about that actually, but McPhee did not take the necessary steps to replace Semin’s 25 goals. Rather, the organization hoped that the scoring difference would be made up from within. It didn’t work. Only Ovechkin and Troy Brouwer, amongst wingers, scored more than 10 goals.

At the trade deadline, McPhee traded one of his two top prospects, Filip Forsberg, for veteran winger Martin Erat. In nine games with the Caps, he had three points — and just one goal — then zero in four playoff games before he was injured. There’s some disagreement on what type of player Forsberg might turn out to be, but we know what Erat is, and in two years he’ll be even less of what that is and the Caps are on the hook at $4.5M per declining year.

I’m a big fan of McPhee, but he has some work to do this off-season. The Ribeiro decision could very well shape this franchise for the four years. He needs to find a scoring winger, some toughness, and an able blueliner in the very least. His grade for the past season would have been lower had Oates not worked out so well.

ABRAM: 7/10. Tricky question. Oates performed extremely well this season, given the stresses of the lockout on top of being a new coach. He won a division title, his team won 27 games in a 48 game season, and he finished ninth in the NHL in points despite posting a 3-8-1 record over the first quarter of the season. Management’s season was less of a success. McPhee struck out with the Wojtek Wolski signing and the Aaron Volpatti waiver claim, did alright with the Jack Hillen signing, found a gem when he recalled Steven Olesky, and hit a home run with Mike Ribeiro.

At about 3 p.m. on trade deadline day, McPhee would have been judged for this season based on whether or not he re-signs Ribeiro in the next month. Then GMGM dealt prized prospect Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat, a proven veteran usually good for 20 goals and 50 points a season. Erat flopped posting just one goal and two assists in nine regular season games, and zero points in four playoff games. Truthfully McPhee couldn’t have won the deal unless Erat was a major player in a Stanley Cup run, as Forsberg’s potential would always trump consistency. The Erat trade does reflect uncertainty in Washington’s direction. It’s often unclear if GMGM considers his team a pretender or contender – the Erat trade and Ribeiro signing said contender, the Wolski and Hillen signing said pretender. Washington’s second-half surge says they can be contenders, and McPhee will likely get at least one more offseason to make that a reality.

KATIE: Adam Oates was the reason the Capitals were able to attain any sort of success this season. That’s not to negate any of the talent on the roster whatsoever, but what he was able to do with no training camp, a short season, a terrible start and successfully transition Ovechkin to the right wing as a first-year head coach is nothing short of impressive and is a testament to his ability to cultivate a relationship with his players and articulate his systems to the team.

George McPhee deserves all the props in the world for hiring Oates as head coach, his third in two years. Whereas Dale Hunter’s hiring was merely a stopgap, Oates’ hiring was one designed to be long term. The management did well in that aspect, but when it comes down to taking risks to improve the roster, it is less successful. I admire that McPhee doesn’t make knee jerk reactions to remedy things, but there’s such a thing as having too much confidence in the team you’ve assembled, and not doing enough to improve and upgrade it.

SKY: Oates: B+. Management: D

TED: B-. A mixed grade results from Adam Oates’ performance (A-) and George McPhee’s (C-). While Oates’ experiment to move Ovechkin to the right wing was a success, landing the captain back in Hart voting, McPhee’s lack of having a Top 6 forward hampered the Caps for most of the season. The trade for Erat on paper was expensive and may be something that comes back to haunt Washington.

ADAM: Considering all of the obstacles placed in front of him (a lockout, a truncated training camp, a horrible start), Adam Oates did a fantastic job in his first season as head coach. To borrow some of my own work from earlier this season, Oates provided the steady presence necessary to right what had become a rudderless ship with so much turnover behind the bench.

His even-keeled nature and reliance on positive reinforcement rubbed off on his players and provided them with a low-pressure environment. Of course, Oates also revitalized Alex Ovechkin’s career, which cannot be overstated. All in all, Oates is the coach that this team needs to succeed in the future.

As for management, I’ll get into that later…

HARRY: I give Adam Oates an A this season for what he did to revitalize Ovechkin, which had to be his primary job, as well as what he did to the power play, and the fact that he got the team to the playoffs despite their brutal start.  Sure, he was aided by some luck and some hot shooting at the end, but some of the things that he did really helped the club recover and bode well for their future.  He is an infinitely better coach for this team than Dale Hunter.

I give the management a D-plus.  They made the playoffs, and George McPhee made some good bargain moves to get them there.  All of this would have been okay had the Capitals not made that Erat deal and waited for younger, cheaper, enforcements to bring them to the promised land and not went for it by buying at the deadline.  But I simply can’t condone trading away a top prospect for a winger on the wrong side of 30 in an attempt to “win now” when you don’t come close to winning.  Especially because anyone could see it coming from a mile away.  You have to take this move with a small grain of salt because of the way Mr. Leonsis runs his teams, but it’s still very difficult to see a positive.

Our panel: Dave Nichols, Editor-in-Chief of DSP; Abram Fox, Caps Team Editor of DSP; Katie Brown, Caps Beat Writer for DSP; Sky Kerstein, 106.7 The Fan and DSP contributor; Ted Starkey, SBNation.com and DSP contributor, Adam Vingan, NBCWashington.com; and Harry Hawkings, RocktheRed.net.

PART I: What was the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment this season?

PART II: What was your biggest disappointment about the Caps this season?

PART III: What single adjustment would you advocate for next season?

PART IV: How would you rate the offense this season?

PART V: How would you rate the defense this season?

PART VI: How would you rate the goalies this season?

DAVE: B. Along with the rest of the team, the goalies were pretty crummy the first couple of weeks of the season. They got better before the rest of the team did, and probably kept this team afloat until the offense found its footing.

Braden Holtby established himself as the No. 1 goalie on this team, taking the opportunity presented to him and running with it. He was dominant at times, and at times he showed that he was prone to mistake like any other young goalie. He has an almost cocky nonchalance with his glove hand that sometimes gets him in trouble, and his brash stick-handling is exceptional — except when it isn’t. When he makes a mistake there, as in Game 4 against the Rangers, it’s apt to blow up in his face. If he can learn better judgment on when to make the home run play with his stick, he’ll be a much more reliable No. 1. I’m willing to bet Dave Prior and Olie Kolzig get that out of him.

Michal Neuvirth is a solid backup and proved capable the couple of times he was called upon down the stretch. But Neuvy had a chance early in the season to wrest more playing time away from Holtby and he came up small. Though the Caps re-signed the young veteran to a friendly two-year deal, I wouldn’t mind seeing Neuvirth dealt as part of a package to get bigger up front and have the Caps bring in a veteran backup on a one-year deal.

Philipp Grubauer made his NHL debut and had another strong season in the minors. The goaltending position is still a position of strength for the Capitals.

ABRAM: 7/10. What was thought to be a positional battle coming into the season served as Braden Holtby’s star turn. The youngster spent the start of the season at the very bottom of the league in save %, but ended tied for 14th in the NHL with a .920 save %. Holtby also registered four shutouts and finished tied for 4th in wins with 23, a clear sign from head coach Adam Oates that Holtby is the team’s #1 goalie and Michal Neuvirth the second fiddle. Neuvirth’s .910 save % was consistent with his career totals, and while not good enough to rate him a starter, it’s more than good enough for a backup. Before Holtby blew it in Game 7 he recorded a .938 save % in the first six games of the Rangers series. That’s the sort of performance that should have merited a series win

KATIE: Most teams would kill to have young, talented goalie tandem such as Michal Neuvirth and Braden Holtby. Though it is clear Holtby is the number one guy, Neuvirth was solid whenever he got an opportunity to start. It would be unfair to judge either of them by the horrific start they both had early in the season, as that was as much a product of shoddy defense as bad goaltending. I still think Neuvirth, despite signing an extension this year will want to find a place where he can be the starting goalie instead of perpetually backing up someone else. He is certainly capable of it and deserves the opportunity. Holtby is without a doubt the teacher’s pet of the Capitals organization, and rightfully so. He also played the equivalent of a full season, between playing in Hershey during the lockout and starting in 35 of 48 games this season.

SKY: A.

TED: B+. Braden Holtby was very good this season, and gave the Capitals a chance to win down the stretch, although fatigue seemed to set in after playing 68 games between Hershey and Washington – by far the most he’s played as a professional. Michal Neuvirth was good when he was healthy, but really wasn’t much of a factor for Washington. Phillip Grubauer was decent in his brief appearances, and likely will get a role in Washington within the next two seasons.

ADAM: Again, I find it hard to stamp a letter grade on such a broad position, but for the first time since Olaf Kolzig, the Capitals had a bona fide No. 1 goaltender in Braden Holtby, which I believe a franchise needs to succeed.

Holtby started about three-quarters of Washington’s game this season (72.9 percent to be exact, or 35/48), the most by a Capitals goaltender since Kolzig in 2003-04 (76.8%, 63/82). While Holtby certainly had his struggles — particularly at the beginning of the season — he once again strengthened his game down the stretch and gave the Capitals a chance to win almost every night.

As for Michal Neuvirth, he’s the backup goalie now regardless of what he or George McPhee says. I’ve grown partial to calling Neuvirth a victim of circumstance since he always seems to get hurt/sick/bad when he has a chance to wrangle the No. 1 spot away. Either way, the Capitals have a young (and cheap) goaltending tandem locked up that they can rely on.

HARRY: I give the goaltending a B-plus this season.  Braden Holtby was not great early, but he, just like Michal Neuvirth, was a victim of the very poor team in front him during that time.  Washington’s goaltenders both played very well when called upon past the ten-game mark of the season, and their play, particularly that of Holtby, down the stretch was critical to them making the playoffs.  I thought Holtby was solid in the playoffs, too, with the exception of Asham’s goal in game seven, which cannot go in.  The future of Washington goaltending is bright.

Our panel: Dave Nichols, Editor-in-Chief of DSP; Abram Fox, Caps Team Editor of DSP; Katie Brown, Caps Beat Writer for DSP; Sky Kerstein, 106.7 The Fan and DSP contributor; Ted Starkey, SBNation.com and DSP contributor, Adam Vingan, NBCWashington.com; and Harry Hawkings, RocktheRed.net.

PART I: What was the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment this season?

PART II: What was your biggest disappointment about the Caps this season?

PART III: What single adjustment would you advocate for next season?

PART IV: How would you rate the offense this season?

PART V: How would you rate the defense this season?

DAVE: D. I thought, pretty clearly, the blueline was the Caps’ biggest problem this season. In the very beginning everyone was a liability, including the normally stalwart Karl Alzner. I don’t know if it was adjusting to Adam Oates’ system, or the layoff from the lockout (remember, not a single member of the defensive corps played competitively during the lockout), but until about 25 games in, everyone was just getting in each others’ way, pucks were bouncing off skates into their own goal almost every night, and breakouts died in the neutral zone because no one knew what to do with the puck.

When Mike Green came back from his yearly injury absence, things got much, much better, but that because there was nowhere else to go. Green ended up leading the NHL defensemen in goals scored, but teams still keyed their forecheck on clobbering Green any chance they could. John Carlson ended up in the top five in the league in blocked shots, but according to most of the fan base he should have been a candidate to be sent back to the minors early in the season. Pundits wondered for a while, without irony, if Carlson did indeed peak in juniors. Alzner rebounded from his slow start to put together another solid defensive season and even insinuated himself in the play more often this season, and was tied for third on the in shots on goal in the playoffs. Not that Karl being third on the team in shots on goal is a good thing.

The others? A hodgepodge of has-beens, journeymen and never-weres. Tom Poti proved to the team — and probably the league — that his career has come to an unceremonious conclusion. John Erskine enjoyed something of a renaissance, but was completely exposed during the playoffs. Roman Hamrlik, employed by the Caps for a good chunk of the season, was sent packing to sit in the press box at Madison Square Garden instead of Verizon Center. The #fancystat folks loved Jack Hillen’s contribution, but it was really hard to see that translate to success on the ice, and his lack of physical stature left him open to punishment. Steve Oleksy provided some depth, but he’s a career minor league journeyman for a reason, and those reasons were evident if willing to look for them.

Dmitri Orlov and Tomas Kundratek were banished to Hershey, and for the life of me I don’t understand why, especially in Orlov’s case. But both should see plenty of time with the Caps next season.

About the only thing that was legitimately encouraging on defense this season is that Jeff Schultz, finally, took his proper place in the press box after about mid-way through the season. I fully expect the Caps to try to trade the 6’6″ liability, if not simply buy him out under the amnesty clause in the CBA.

ABRAM: 6/10. The defense gets the same rating as the offense, even though they weren’t as good, because Washington’s D corps was working with much less talent. Steven Olesky, a career minor-leaguer, became a stalwart on the back line, and Jack Hillen and John Erskine both earned a great deal more ice time than a putative playoff team would prefer. The Caps were in the bottom half of the league allowing 2.71 goals/game, and allowed a deflating 32.3 shots/game. In the playoffs the defense made a marked improvement, cutting the scoring down to 2.29 goals/game, and limited shots as well, cutting that number down to 29.3/game, fifth best in the league (though it should be noted that five of the top eight teams in that stat were also eliminated in the first round). Notably, the team’s penalty kill stepped it up in the playoffs, finishing the playoffs with a 92.9% kill rate after ending the regular season in the bottom of the league at 77.9%.

KATIE: Aside from Mike Green, Karl Alzner and John Carlson, the blue line was not stellar this season. John Erskine, who signed a contract extension this year, seemed a step or two behind or looked lost for as many times as he blocked a shot or jumped in the crease to save a flying puck. Jack Hillen rebounded from injury and proved to be reliable, and Steven Oleksy, called up from Hershey earlier in the season, provided an inspirational story and a little bit of grit. Overall, the defense wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either, so mediocre with flashes of brilliance should sum it up.

SKY: C.

TED:B. Defensively, the Capitals are thinnest, with the top two of Mike Green and Karl Alzner being reliable, but John Carlson was wildly inconsistent this season. John Erskine and Jack Hillen weren’t really the answer, either. While Dmitry Orlov was in Hershey, the bottom end of the Capitals’ defense was part of the breakdown in the series against the Rangers.

ADAM: I’m not sure if I can simply give an entire defensive corps a grade, but I was impressed by the team’s depth. Twelve defensemen played over the course of the regular season, which at one point was a league-high. Karl Alzner and John Carlson continued to grow, while Mike Green looked like his old self again near the end of the season. Jack Hillen was solid when he wasn’t injured, and Tomas Kundratek, Dmitry Orlov, Cameron Schilling and Steven Oleksy proved that the Capitals’ blue line pipeline is strong.

HARRY: I give the defense a B-minus this year.  Mike Green, Karl Alzner, Steve Oleksy (seriously) and John Carlson all had good seasons individually but the bottom half of the defense, like Jack Hillen, John Erskine, Tom Poti, and Jeff Schultz were all inconsistent or downright bad.  The Capitals’ d-zone play never looked right all season; it seemed as though they were running around constantly and their penalty kill was 27th in the NHL at 77.9% and showed little improvement through the season.  In short, there was always an issue with the defense despite the solid play of some individuals, and unlike the offense, it didn’t get noticeably better as the year progressed.

Our panel: Dave Nichols, Editor-in-Chief of DSP; Abram Fox, Caps Team Editor of DSP; Katie Brown, Caps Beat Writer for DSP; Sky Kerstein, 106.7 The Fan and DSP contributor; Ted Starkey, SBNation.com and DSP contributor, Adam Vingan, NBCWashington.com; and Harry Hawkings, RocktheRed.net.

PART I: What was the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment this season?

PART II: What was your biggest disappointment about the Caps this season?

PART III: What single adjustment would you advocate for next season?

PART IV: How would you rate the offense this season?

DAVE: B-. Ovechkin led the league in goals and scored at a torrid pace as the Caps rebounded from their dismal, near-fatal start to capture the final Southeast Division title. Overall, the team tied for fourth in the league in goals per game at 3.04, fueled by their dominating power play. But in the playoffs, it was a different story. While the goal scoring was spread out between 11 players, only one (defenseman Mike Green) had more than one goal.

As Montreal and New York did in previous playoff series, the Rangers loaded the box with all five skaters on defense and dared the Caps to park bodies in front of goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The few times they did, they found success, including Mike Ribeiro’s game-winner in Game 5. But those opportunities were few and far between. Usually, the Caps found themselves satisfied with heaving shots from the point (three 0f the four top shot-getters were defensemen) to be turned aside easily by Lundqvist or, more likely, knocked down by a shot-blocker well before it reached a dangerous area.

The Caps found an offensive rhythm in the regular season under head coach Adam Oates that had been missing the last couple of years, resurrecting a moribund power play and turning it into a main cog in their attack. But power play opportunities aren’t as common in the postseason — officiating conspiracy or not — and the Caps need to find a few bangers that aren’t afraid to park their keisters at the top of the crease and do the necessary dirty work in the playoffs.

ABRAM: Six out of ten. During the regular season they were on fire, finishing T-4th in the league with 3.04 goals/game and dominating on the power play with an absurd 26.8% success rate. Alex Ovechkin won the Rocket Richard trophy with 32 goals, and Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Ribeiro finished third and fifth in the league in assists with 40 and 36, respectively. During the playoffs they stunk, getting shut out twice, only scoring 1.71 goals/game and converting the power play at an 18.8% clip. For the first time in Ovechkin’s career he failed to lead the Caps in playoff scoring, netting just one goal and one assist. No Capitals forward scored more than one goal in the seven-game series loss.

KATIE: The addition of Martin Erat to the top six was a bit of a gamble for George McPhee, but Erat, when he wasn’t injured, was a valuable part of the second line.  Marcus Johansson, once healthy, adjusted easily to his top line role. Nicklas Backstrom, once he was back to centering Ovechkin, returned to his usual nifty-passing self. Ovechkin, scoring 32 goals and almost breaking Peter Bondra’s short-season record of 34, provided the spark the Capitals needed offensively.  Troy Brouwer had a career-high 19 goals, then all but disappeared during the playoffs. Eric Fehr, playing healthy for the first time in several years, was probably one of the players who improved the most this season – he stepped up to the second line in Erat’s absence in the playoffs and was solid on the penalty kill. Fehr’s overtime game-winner against the Boston Bruins was not
only clutch, but was the icing on the cake for a great year for him. Mike Ribiero was producing at an insane clip while centering the first line during the beginning of the season, but once moved to the second line found his bread and butter setting up some great plays on the power play. The third and fourth lines also performed well, providing the grit and energy expected of them, as well as scoring a few goals when needed.

SKY: B.

TED: B. The offense was much better when driven by Alex Ovechkin, although as was on display in the playoffs, when the captain wasn’t producing, it was difficult for the rest of the team to contribute. Nicklas Backstrom needed to be better when the playoffs arrived, and he wasn’t. The second line was nearly invisible against the Rangers.

HARRY: I give the offense an A-minus this season.  Adam Oates came in and after an early rough patch, revitalized this club offensively, bumping them from 14th to 5th in the NHL in goals per game with an increase of nearly .4 goals per contest.  The power play was terrific, leading the NHL, and Alex Ovechkin looked every bit the offensive dynamo he was at the start of his career during the second half of the season.  After those early struggles, offense only became a problem in the last three games of the playoffs, when Henrik Lunqvist had a save percentage over .975.

Our panel: Dave Nichols, Editor-in-Chief of DSP; Abram Fox, Caps Team Editor of DSP; Katie Brown, Caps Beat Writer for DSP; Sky Kerstein, 106.7 The Fan and DSP contributor; Ted Starkey, SBNation.com and DSP contributor, Adam Vingan, NBCWashington.com; and Harry Hawkings, RocktheRed.net.

PART I: What was the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment this season?

PART II: What was your biggest disappointment about the Caps this season?

PART III: What single adjustment would you advocate for next season?

DAVE: The Caps obviously have more than one single problem area to address. They need a top-four defenseman, another scoring winger, most likely a replacement at second line center for Mike Ribeiro, and I’d like to see a veteran goalie brought in to back up Braden Holtby. I think the most pressing need is for the Caps to get bigger and stronger up front. Tom Wilson was inserted into the playoff lineup to make his NHL debut because the Caps just couldn’t match up with the Rangers size-for-size. Will he be ready at the start of next season? The Caps like to see their Juniors-eligible players exhaust that eligibility before inserting them into the lineup, but Wilson didn’t look overmatched at all in the three games he played with stakes as high as they can get.

I’d like to see the Caps target another big, tough, capable forward to add to the mix, in addition to Wilson. I know that players like Milan Lucic or Brain Boyle don’t grow on trees, but the Caps have a definite need for size and toughness up front — players willing to crash the net.

ABRAM: Pick up a top four defenseman. Washington’s defense over-performed this season, particularly John Erskine and Jack Hillen. Neither man should be earning over 17 minutes of ice time in a game. The Caps finished toward the bottom in the league in team defense. Right now, D.C. has a playoff caliber offense and goaltending. Their defense is their weak point, and while Karl Alzner, Mike Green, and John Carlson are a good start, they need more support.

KATIE: It’s hard to pick just one adjustment that needs to be made during the offseason. One of the most glaring deficiencies will likely be in the top six forwards if Mike Ribeiro is not offered an extension. Alex Ovechkin needs a scoring winger on the other side of the top line. Marcus Johansson sufficed for this once he was healthy, but I still think he’d benefit from a lesser role, possibly on another team. His late-season play undoubtedly boosted his trade value. If Ribeiro doesn’t return, that leaves a hole at 2C that could be filled by Brooks Laich, in theory, but I’d like to see McPhee make some bold moves to fill that spot as well as a scoring winger for the top line. There needs to be scoring elsewhere when Ovechkin isn’t doing it, furthermore, it would be foolish to rely on him to carry the offense because of a deficient roster.

SKY: Bring in another top-four defenseman.

TED: Washington needs to get another Top-6 forward, either to replace the presumably departing Mike Ribeiro or add some depth on the wing. While Martin Erat will have a full season in 2013-14, he certainly didn’t show a whole lot in limited action between unfortunate injuries in Washington.

ADAM: Admittedly, I don’t think there are really any adjustments that the Capitals need to make in regards to their style of play under Adam Oates. The power play has been revitalized and the “hybrid” system rejuvenated the team’s play at even strength; Washington was the fifth-highest scoring team in 2013 at 3.04 goals per game, a significant improvement over the 2.66 they averaged in 2011-12 (14th).

HARRY: The single adjustment that I would advocate for at this point is the abandonment of the “win now” mentality.  The Capitals made the playoffs this year in large part due to their weak schedule, something that will disappear next year when they will join a Division with the Rangers, Penguins, Islanders, Flyers, Hurricanes, Devils, and Blue Jackets.  That set up is several orders of magnitude harder than their current one in terms of making the postseason, and I think the Capitals need to realize that and do what they can to get pieces in place for when Tom Wilson and Evgeny Kuznetsov are ready to contribute at a high level, instead of treading water and hoping to get lucky.  It will be very difficult and likely will not happen, but I truly feel that is the best path to long-term success and a championship.

Our panel: Dave Nichols, Editor-in-Chief of DSP; Abram Fox, Caps Team Editor of DSP; Katie Brown, Caps Beat Writer for DSP; Sky Kerstein, 106.7 The Fan and DSP contributor; Ted Starkey, SBNation.com and DSP contributor, Adam Vingan, NBCWashington.com; and Harry Hawkings, RocktheRed.net.

PART I: What was the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment this season?

PART II: What was your biggest disappointment about the Caps this season?

DAVE: I’m not that disappointed about the Caps losing a playoff series to a team that had one fewer point than them in the regular season, even if they hosted Game 7 and came out as flat as a pancake. What I was disappointed about was the way they handled it afterward. Yes, my biggest disappointment all season was the whining they did about the officiating after they were bounced.

I understand the frustration of poor officiating. I do. But suggesting a conspiracy by not suggesting it is bush league stuff. And McPhee backing Ovechkin’s comments with his own the next day to me was very disheartening. I’m a big McPhee fan, but corroborating Ovi’s Soviet-era conspiracy suggestions about the league wanting to do the Caps in was really tough to listen to.

You know how you handle a loss in the playoffs? You own up to it. “We didn’t play well/hard enough.” “They were the better team.” “We have to figure out how to be better.”  Otherwise, you’re just losing respect in the eyes of the fellow players and administrators across the league, and inviting more scorn in the eyes of the Canadian media — something they don’t have to be talked into.

There’s a pattern of disbelief and lack of accountability from the Caps players – and organization – following these playoff ousters in the Ovechkin Era. At some point, you are what your record says you are. These Caps aren’t good enough to get past the first round or two. Part of the problem is they don’t, won’t or can’t own up to it and won’t advance further until they acknowledge that they, themselves, are the problem. Not hot goalies. Not no-talent shot blockers. Not poor officiating. Themselves.

ABRAM: Blowing the 2-0 series lead over the Rangers to lose in the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2010. Since that should be a unanimous decision, second place is the team’s inability to find a healthy top six left winger for the second line, even after betting the farm on Martin Erat filling that role.

KATIE: Obviously, the team’s early exit from the playoffs for yet another year. Though the team has been able to make the postseason for the last six seasons, the Capitals perennially fail to live up to their potential in the playoffs. It would have  been encouraging to see a team that began the season at literally the bottom of the rankings in the NHL, rallied to win a division title a make the playoffs actually make a serious postseason run. However improbable that may have been, there is no doubt in my mind that the Capitals, who have surprised just about everyone this season, would have been able to at least break the first and second-round playoff exit curse they seem to be plagued by. Mike Green said after the Capitals Game 7 loss that all the team needed was “one thing to get them going.” Because sometimes all it takes is one thing to turn a team’s fortunes, to spark a team’s comeback, but the Capitals still have yet to figure that out, and it’s a shame.

SKY: Lack of postseason success, again.

TED: The playoffs were another disappointment for Washington, particularly scoring just 2 goals in the team’s final 3 games en route to a first-round exit. The Capitals came unglued in Games 6 and 7 and were unable to adjust to the Rangers and create sufficient pressure on New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist.

ADAM: For me, the biggest disappointment this season was not necessarily being ousted early from the postseason again, but how the Capitals handled it.

HARRY: The biggest disappointment to me was the way that management handled the trade deadline.  I didn’t think before or after “the surge” that saw Washington climb back in to playoff contention that they were true contenders for the Stanley Cup, and that they should treat the trade deadline accordingly.  Instead, they went out and traded for Martin Erat in what seemed like an attempt to “win now.”  Erat is a perfectly good player, and no one could have foreseen his injury, but he wasn’t (and isn’t) the player to put the Capitals over the top and he cost George McPhee one of his best prospects.  Now, Washington will likely lose center Mike Ribeiro to free agency and July because of a cap crunch and will once again lack a second-line pivot, despite the presence of some top-six wingers.  Some of the future is gone, all for another first-round exit.

Our panel: Dave Nichols, Editor-in-Chief of DSP; Abram Fox, Caps Team Editor of DSP; Katie Brown, Caps Beat Writer for DSP; Sky Kerstein, 106.7 The Fan and DSP contributor; Ted Starkey, SBNation.com and DSP contributor, Adam Vingan, NBCWashington.com; and Harry Hawkings, RocktheRed.net.

PART I: What was the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment this season?

DAVE:  The Capitals overcame tremendous odds after their near-fatal start to win the division and earn the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, and the biggest accomplishment of the season triggered that impressive run: getting Alex Ovechkin back to being an elite goal scorer. The winger looked as lost as anyone the first three weeks of the season, and coach Adam Oates even resorted to playing him on a line with Jay Beagle and Joey Crabb, hoping their work ethic would rub off on the captain.

Success first came on the power play, where Ovechkin set up in his sweet spot in the left wing face-off circle. Once Ovi’s confidence was raised it spread to the rest of his game. He scored 23 goals in his last 23 games, resurrecting his reputation and the Caps’ playoff hopes. This team is only as good as their best player, so hopefully whatever Oates was able to do to get high production out of Ovechkin sticks around next season, as the Caps path to the playoffs will only get tougher with the move to the new division.

Ovechkin doesn’t have to score at a 50-goal pace — those days are gone — but the way the Caps are built he does have to be The Great Eight, and not just another forward, in order for the team to have success.

ABRAM:  Recovering from the wretched start to win the Southeast Division and finish with the fourth-highest point total in the Eastern Conference.

KATIE: It’s hard to point to one thing in particular, because many would argue an early playoff exit negates anything accomplished during the regular season. I think it’s important to recognize where Adam Oates was able to take this team in a short amount of time. They started 2-8-1 and were in the bowels of NHL rankings but rallied and went on to win their division and take the third seed in the Eastern Conference.

That seems like small potatoes next to the possibility of a deep playoff run, but I think where Oates was able to take this team is worth recognition. In summation, the Capitals’ biggest accomplishment was being able to bounce back from a terrible start, overcome injuries to their blue line and make the postseason, as well as benefit from Adam Oates’ system which I think is something that will translate to long-term success as well.

SKY:  Making the power play a strength and getting Ovechkin to buy into Adam Oates’ system/playing right wing. 

ADAM:  I think that’s fairly simple. The fact that the Capitals, left for dead by many at 2-8-1, were able to rebound and claim the Southeast Division with two games to spare is a feat in itself.  Consider this: From February 8 (the day after Washington’s 6-3 loss to Pittsburgh that dropped the former to 2-8-1) to the end of the regular season, only two teams earned more points than the Capitals — the aforementioned Penguins and the Blackhawks.

Of course, you know all this already.

During the Ovechkin Era, the Caps have been eliminated from the playoffs in eerily similar fashion. They run into a hot goalie, and teams game plan to frustrate the Caps’ talented players by blocking shots and clogging up the neutral zone and passing lanes.

These teams: the Flyers, Canadians, the Penguins, the Rangers — twice (the Lightning sweep in ’11 doesn’t count), have simply shown more patience than the Caps and waited them out.  Eventually, and ultimately, the Caps shoot themselves out and their opponent waits and waits and counterpunches when the Caps run themselves out of the building. It’s not unlike a heavyweight boxing match when a lesser-skilled boxer will allow his opponent to wear himself down punching, then sneak in when he gets tired.

It happened in Game 7 again.

Look no further than the number of shots. Not on goal, but overall number of shots taken. The Caps attempted a grand total of 79 shots. 35 made their way to Lundqvist, and yes, he turned them all away. But Washington also had 27 attempts blocked by Rangers defenders and another 17 missed their mark altogether. The Rangers attempted 47 shots, 27 on goal. Five went in.

Every year the Caps are bounced after a grueling series and we hear the same things from the losing locker room. “We ran into a hot goalie.” “We thought we were the better team.” “We’re frustrated with the result.” I could go back and look up quotes but you know them as well as I do.

Here are this years:

“You can see one guy beat us. Of course they have good team, great players, great defensive team, but the goalie out there was unbelievable. That’s why he’s best in league,” said Ovechkin. “In my mind it was Lundqvist. They have great team, no doubt about it, but Lundqvist was unbelievable. Just unbelievable.”

And:

“It’s the same thing as previous years, I would say,” said Nicklas Backstrom. “We came back regular season then playoff came and we’re not good enough. I can just talk for myself and my effort. Not good enough. No excuses. It’s just a bad effort.”

And:

“We threw the kitchen sink at him at times and he stood there and defended,” Mike Green said. “He’s a great goaltender we knew that, we talked about it before the series how to beat him and the times that we did score was what we talked about. At times I thought we kind of got away from that. I’m at a loss for words.”

But it’s much deeper than that. Yes, Lundqvist is a world class goalie. Yes, Jaroslav Halak stood on his head for three weeks that spring. But the real reason these goalies have so much success over the Caps is that the shots that get through are lesser quality — from farther away — and from less dangerous areas of the ice. Look at the shot chart. You’ll see where the goals are scored during the playoffs.

The Caps got a grand total of 226 shots on goal in the seven game series, an average of over 32 SOG per game. That’s good. But they scored just 12 goals, a shooting percentage of just 5.3 percent. That’s beyond bad. It’s also a testament of where those shots are coming from. In the regular season, the Caps had ten players with a shooting percentage higher than 10 percent. In the series, that number was four.

Ovechkin, obviously, led the team in shots with 30 and scored once, for a shot percentage of 3.3 percent. Ugh. Is that the result of suffocating defense? A hot, world class goalie? An injury? Bad luck? Even during the period of Ovi’s toughest struggles the last couple of seasons, that kind of shooting percentage is simply anomaly.

But here’s the kicker: the next three highest shot totals in the series all came from defensemen. Karl Alzner, of all people, tied for third on the team in shots on goal with 19 (he was 15th on the team in the regular season with 39). Those are shots from the deep perimeter that have a very low chance of going in. And a team with Karl Alzner pacing them in shots on goal isn’t going to win very many series — no offense to Karl. He isn’t paid to light the lamp.

The Capitals are, essentially, a perimeter team. Ovechkin prefers to carry the puck and rush at the goalie, or get fed for one-timers at the face-off dot. Green shoots from the point. He has a wicked shot, but it’s from outside the circles, nonetheless. During the regular season, when defensive players are less apt to “sell out” to block shots during a grueling 82-game schedule, they have success shooting from their outside spots, with talented finesse playmakers like Nick Backstrom and Mike Ribeiro setting them up.

But during the playoffs, the book is out on the Caps. If you clog up the box, put all five skaters inside the circles to jam up the shooting and passing lanes, the Caps will get frustrated. Oh, they have a modicum of success early in the series, winning games early in the series until the opposition realizes the deal and really buys into it. But as the games creep closer to elimination, it works without fail.

There’s not enough room to operate between the circles. That’s one of the big reasons players like Backstrom and Ribeiro are neutralized in the playoffs. That’s often why you see players like Brian Boyle score in the playoffs: they’re willing to go to the net. But the Caps lack enough of these types of players. Just look at the shot totals from the series from the forwards on this team not named Ovechkin. No forward had more than one goal. Jason Chimera was the next highest forward in shots with 15. That’s barely two shots per game. And he was the best of the forwards named Ovechkin.

Look at the goals from the games the Caps won in this series.

– Game 1: Ovechkin scored his only goal of the series on a put-back off the back wall. Marcus Johansson on a breakaway on a great spring pass and defensive breakdown. Jason Chimera though a screen.

– Game 2: Mike Green on the power play in overtime from inside the top of the faceoff circle.

– Game 5: Ribeiro, at the top of the crease.

Only Johansson’s can be called a “pretty’ goal, and that was caused by a spectacular breakdown by the Rangers defense.

Philadelphia. Montreal. Pittsburgh. New York. These are all series where the Caps had home-ice advantage and lost Game 7. They all used the same script against the Caps. It matters not when the book is so clearly out on these Capitals. Stuff the box and they have no other way to score. And the Capitals will be moving into a division with three of the four next season, along with New Jersey and the up-and-coming Islanders. Their path to hockey’s holy grail just got infinitely more difficult.

I’m not advocating the Caps go back to playing Dale Hunter hockey. Far from it. These teams that play hyper-defensively do it because they don’t have the offensive capabilities of the Capitals. You don’t win a Stanley Cup playing that way, you’ll eventually run out of energy or bodies. You need to have a balanced approach, be able to make adjustments when presented with challenges and be willing to sacrifice both in the defensive and offensive zones. The Caps, simply, don’t have enough of those players yet.

The other part I want to mention is the whole “woe is us” mentality following these playoff ousters. Ovechkin’s comments about the officiating, the lack of calls in Game 6, and someone wanting to see a Game 7 were ridiculous and smelled of sour grapes.

“The refereeing… You understand it yourself. How can there be no penalties at all (on one team) during the playoffs?

“I am not saying there was a phone call from (the league), but someone just wanted Game 7. For the ratings. You know, the lockout, escrow, the League needs to make profit… I don’t know whether the refs were predisposed against us or the League. But to not give obvious penalties (against the Capitals), while for us any little thing was immediately penalized…”

For his part, Ovechkin also said that he, the other stars on the team, and the team in general simply didn’t play well enough, but offered no specifics in how or, more importantly, why.

GM George McPhee backed his superstar in his comments to the media Wednesday.

“I don’t think there’s a league conspiracy but it sure didn’t feel right. Alex wasn’t wrong,” McPhee said when asked directly about Ovechkin’s comments. “I talked to them during the series but at some point you stop. They’ll referee the way they want to referee.”

“I didn’t like the refereeing, but if you complain about it during the series and you’re accused of trying to gain an edge. If you complain about it after a series is over, then it’s whining and sour grapes.”

But Ovechkin’s not the only one wondering what happened. Here’s Eric Fehr, talking about both the points I’ve been trying to make.

“The Rangers must have blocked a hundred shots. It was crazy how well they kept us on the outside,” veteran Eric Fehr said. “They do a good job of it, and they are allowed to do a very good job . . . Holding and pushing, they are allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted to do in front of the net.”

Every year teams complain about the officiating. It’s an NHL tradition as think as growing playoff beards. At some point though, these Capitals have to stop feeling sorry for themselves and take matters into their own hands. The way they collapsed after the power play ran dry at the start of the second period of Game 7 was palpable and disheartening.

The biggest difference between the Caps and the Rangers was evident in the third period. After the fourth goal, the Caps were skating at half speed, trying to get off the ice as fast as they could, and the Rangers were still blocking shots with a four, then five, goal lead.

I think Adam Oates has a pretty good idea what constitutes good hockey. He’s lauded as one of the smartest guys to ever play in the league. It took a little while this season, but he was able to find the way to rejuvenate Ovechkin and get him to play his best hockey in years. And not just scoring, but all-around. He was a better playmaker this year. He brought his physical game back. He skated better. Will that be sustainable? Caps fans have to hope so, because the success of this franchise is directly tied to Ovechkin being the “Great Eight”, not the mediocre or league-average Eight.

I also think that Oates still doesn’t have the roster he wants or needs to be successful. After Ovechkin and Backstrom, there’s a serious drop-off in talent. There’s also a significant lack of power forwards on the team. Why did the Caps turn to 19-year old Tom Wilson in Game 5 of the series to make his NHL debut? His size and willingness to play in front of the net. There is a dearth of that on this team. The Caps hope and pray Wilson turns out to be their Brian Boyle or Milan Lucic, and could stand to add another player or two like him.

This column might sound like I’m down on the Caps. I’m not. The last 35 games of this season showed that they can be a force to be reckoned with in the NHL. They didn’t do it with smoke and mirrors, they did it by outplaying the teams on their schedule. But there are significant holes in the roster. Their level of competition will get higher next season. And they are fundamentally flawed when the ice gets shorter in the playoffs.

The Caps have a little under $6 million available under the cap for next season, and that’s before trimming some dead weight off the roster and evaluating their own free agents. We’ve said this for a while, but it’s a crucial off-season for GM George McPhee. Coming into this year, it looked like the Caps weren’t counting on having a season at all with the lockout. The turnaround showed promise after the near-fatal start, but there’s lots to do this summer.

The almost-free path to the playoffs that the Caps’ Southeast Division schedule afforded them is gone. That playoff revenue is critical to the Capitals organization, and it just became much more difficult to obtain.

Oh, and I didn’t even mention the goaltending, which I’m not completely sold on. But that’s a post for another day.

The Washington Capitals held their final media availability Wednesday after their ouster from the playoffs by the New York Rangers for the second year in a row. Below is raw audio of George McPhee and Adam Oates’ press conferences.

“I don’t think there’s a league conspiracy but it sure didn’t feel right. Alex wasn’t wrong,” McPhee said when asked about Ovechkin’s comments about the officiating. “I talked to them during the series but at some point you stop. They’ll referee the way they want to referee.”

“I think over the course of the summer you’re gonna think about a lot of little things and evaluate yourself,” Adam Oates said about his first season as a head coach in the NHL. “You try to think of mistakes and what you could have done better and all the little things.”

05-15-13 George McPhee Presser 1

05-15-13 George McPhee Presser 2

05-15-13 George McPhee Presser 3

05-15-13 George McPhee Presser 4

05-15-13 Adam Oates Presser 1

05-15-13 Adam Oates Presser 2