Why 14 Wins In A Row Means Jack Squat

The Washington Capitals…yes…THOSE Washington Capitals…have won 14 consecutive games.

It’s a franchise record and it’s three short of the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins league record mark of 17 straight W’s. Undoubtedly, it has been one of the most interesting and breathtaking runs in National Hockey League history.

So, at this point, let’s take a step back and give the Caps their due and their fans a few moments to “Rock The Red.”

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

You guys done? Excellent. Because I’m hanging out just around the corner, waiting to be your epic buzz kill.

When a team gets super hot in any sport at the two-thirds poll of their regular season, it’s a dangerous precipice. Ask those Penguins, who lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs that year to the New York Islanders, ending their reign as back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Or the San Jose Sharks, who rattled off 11 straight in 2008 before fizzling in the semifinals to Dallas.

The regular season is the regular season for a reason, especially in the NHL. Every real hockey fan knows that once mid-April rolls around, it’s a completely new season – one that totally disregards what happened over the previous seven months of action. Just ask all those #1 seeds like Detroit (a few times), Quebec, New Jersey, St. Louis and San Jose what it’s like to get hit by an eighth-seeded buzzsaw.

There’s no doubt that the Capitals are great. Very, very great. There are few teams in recent memory in this league that boast as much talent up and down the roster as this year’s Washington squad. Between Mike Green, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, a ridiculously strong corps of role players and some Russian kid named Ovechkin, the 2009-10 Capitals probably boast the strongest 18 guys that suit up night in and night out in the NHL.

It’s a shame that these 14 wins are coming in February though and not May, when they really matter. It really is.

You see, it’s not that often that a team in the league sets their franchise record for consecutive wins and claims the Stanley Cup in the same year. In fact – it has only happened six times. Since 1917, only the 1939-40 New York Rangers (yes, THE 1940 Rangers), 1954-55 Detroit Red Wings (their last Cup until 1997), 1967-68 Montreal Canadiens, 1981-82 New York Islanders, 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning and 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes have pulled the feat.

Even that stat is pretty flawed – the Rangers and Red Wings pulled it off in the Original Six era when only four teams made the playoffs, the Habs did it in the first year of the 12-team NHL and the Islanders at that time had no one in the NHL within arms reach of their skill.

The Lightning and Hurricanes…I don’t have an excuse for.

Even those 92-93 Penguins, who that year arguably had their strongest team in franchise history, even better than their 1991 and 1992 championship teams, rattled off a ridiculous winning streak and fell flat in the playoffs. In fact, they had a 3-2 lead in their Patrick Division Final against the Isles before losing game 6 in Uniondale and then game 7 in overtime. David Volek is still a dirty word in the Steel City because of that game-winning goal.

I should point one thing out. I’m not one of those naysayers who thinks that it’s good for a team to have a loss or two on their resume to “build their character” before heading into the games that matter. That’s a load of you-know-what. However, I’m a big proponent of being hot at the right time.

For all we know, the Capitals might just carry this winning streak straight into April. Or, more likely, the law of averages will kick in and the Fighting Ovechkins will drop a few en route to the playoffs.

Perspective must win the day though and that perspective should dictate that once the Caps winning streak is broken, it has to be forgotten about immediately and a new streak must begin. Because as we’ve seen all too often in the NHL, there are no guarantees that the league’s top regular season team will do anything in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.