Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Is it ‘only a matter of time’ until the Washington Capitals win a Stanley Cup?

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for ted leonsis.jpg

Swagger is a great - if intangible - thing for a sports team to have. It’s not just a clever marketing slogan to sell Old Spice. Still, there’s a fine line between being confident and laughably puffing out your chest.

You’d think the Washington Capitals would learn to bite their tongues a little bit more as an organization after last season. The team was not shy about showing their absolute self-confidence as they ran away with the Presidents Trophy, but that brashness evaporated after Jaroslav Halak stood on his head in the first round of the playoffs.

While their is a little more humble talk around D.C. this off-season, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis isn’t shy about his expectations. Just read the quotes he provided Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post.

“I believe that if the Caps can qualify for the playoffs, 10 or 15 years in a row, and we have a really good team that’s young and has upside, that with that continuity and that knocking on the door enough, that we’ll get our fair share of Stanley Cups. That’s what I believe and I have to believe.

“I promised the fan base we wouldn’t create a team that would get to the Finals and then not make the playoffs, or make the playoffs barely then [not] make the playoffs the next year. That we’d be generationally great and would win the Cup. Well, I think we’re on our way to having a really really good team. We got younger this offseason. The players who made the team that we think are better players than we had are younger, they’re our prospects in goaltending and defense. That augers so well for our future.

“At the same time, we want to win today. I do think we’re positioned very very well. We’ve managed the cap well. We have our bedrock players signed for the most part for long-term deals....The fan base has confidence, and it’s just a matter of time, I believe, until we win the Cup.”

So, let me get this straight: the Capitals will make the playoffs every year for
at least the next decade and it’s just a matter of time before the team wins a Cup? Well, let’s give Leonsis credit: he certainly doesn’t seem afraid of providing opponents with bulletin board material.

There’s plenty of youth, talent and competence within the Capitals organization, even if their front office occasionally gets accused of some underhanded behavior. You must wonder if their confidence is an example of “too much of a good thing” but I wouldn’t be surprised if they indeed win a few Cups going forward.

They’re not going to fly under the radar in the process, though, obviously.