Capitals driven by veteran culture setters, owner says

MANALAPAN, Fla. -- Ted Leonsis is loving that his Washington Capitals are doing what so few in the hockey industry thought they could do this season.

“No [Nicklas] Backstrom, no T.J. Oshie, no Alex Ovechkin, no player named to a 4 Nations [Face-Off] team, probably no All-Star,” Leonsis, the Capitals owner, told NHL.com on Monday. “To have the most points in the League right now, it goes to show you what all the experts know.”

The Capitals, entering Tuesday, had 40 points, tied with the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets for the NHL lead. Their .741 points percentage was tied for first with the Wild. They were first with 109 goals and their plus-35 goal differential was also tops in the League.

They started the season 13-4-1 and averaging 4.33 goals per game through 18 games with Ovechkin in the lineup scoring 15 goals before he fractured his fibula on Nov. 18.

They’re 6-2-1 and averaging 3.44 goals per game without Ovechkin, who is skating again and could be 2-3 weeks away from returning, Leonsis said.

“That’s the beauty of the NHL, that it really is a team game,” Leonsis said following Day 1 of the NHL Board of Governors meetings here. “We added a lot of depth, made big changes this year, but we also have made such investments and have such a great partnership with our AHL team, the [Hershey] Bears, and they have been the most consistent winner in the AHL. So, a lot of these kids and the coaching staff have come up through that, and they have a sense of purpose. They know what it takes to win. I think they’ve been a big secret part of our cultural ongoing success. They just expect that we’ll win and play well.”

Last season, the Capitals snuck into the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second wild card from the Eastern Conference with 91 points (.555 points percentage). They were swept out of the playoffs by the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference First Round.

Ovechkin finished with 31 goals, but he had just eight in the first 43 games through Jan. 24. The Capitals averaged just 2.63 goals per game. They had a minus-36 goal differential.

But they remade the roster in the offseason, acquiring forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois and Andrew Mangiapane, defenseman Jakob Chychrun and goalie Logan Thompson in four separate trades, and signing forwards Taylor Raddysh and Brandon Duhaime, and defenseman Matt Roy.

They had a seamless change in management, with Brian MacLellan becoming solely the president of hockey operations and Chris Patrick taking over his role as general manager. Patrick, who was the associate GM last season, is also a senior vice president of hockey operations.

They then signed forward Jakub Vrana to a one-year contract on Oct. 8 and acquired forward Lars Eller in a trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Nov. 12. Both had previous stints in Washington and are familiar with the team and organization.

“‘Mac’ has always liked a big, heavy, talented team, and I think we’re back to that,” Leonsis said. “Last year we made the playoffs and we didn’t like how we ended. It just has a whole different feel this year.”

Leonsis said the new players have fit in largely because culture-setting veterans like Ovechkin, John Carlson and Tom Wilson have made them feel welcome.

“What I do when we bring in a new player is I sit with them and say, ‘You played for other teams, tell me what we do well, tell me where we need improvement, tell me your initial thoughts and reactions,” Leonsis said. “Dubois is a good example. He bounced around a bit, he’s having a great season, and I said to him, ‘What do you like so far?’ He said, ‘Well, two minutes after we announced the trade Alex Ovechkin called me and said welcome to the team, you’re going to love it here, you’re going to love Washington D.C.’

“He said, ‘Tom Wilson then called me and said we’re probably going to play together so I’ll come pick you up at the airport and my wife will talk to your girlfriend, and we’ll talk about the community.’ He said John Carlson called him, and he said, ‘When your bedrock guys on the team make you feel immediately a part of something, that’s how you can identify culture.’ The guys really like each other, and we have a great, great room. And the coach [Spencer Carbery], he’s kind of magical right now. He just has this charisma. He’s very leaning in, very positive. So, we’ve got it going right now, but it could all change tomorrow, right.”

What will eventually change for Washington is No. 8’s status. It won’t happen tomorrow, but Ovechkin will return to the lineup, which in theory should only make the Capitals better.

He is 27 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record for most goals all time (894). Leonsis said he could see the spark in Ovechkin’s game before the injury, but he knows chasing the goal record is only part of the reason for it.

“He was flying, but he’s always said to us, ‘I don’t want to just break the record; I want to have a good team around and then I can break the record,’” Leonsis said. “You could see that he was just really passionate about going for it because the team was playing so well. It’ll be interesting getting him back. He’s probably still got two or three weeks. I don’t want him to rush it.

“But you can just see in the crowd, you can see it in the city that we have a really good team and Alex could break the record this year. So, there’s a heightened set of expectations and ‘Mac’ and Chris really did a good job. The players fit. The coach from Day 1 told them what was expected of them and there’s a super buy-in right now.”