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

Hall Of Famer Rod Langway thinks the Caps are close to being a Stanley Cup winner

Buffalo Sabres v Toronto Maple Leafs

TORONTO, ON - NOVEMBER 06: Rod Langway attends a ceremony prior to the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres at the Air Canada Centre on November 6, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Getty Images

When you’re a Hockey Hall Of Fame member, your opinions tend to carry a bit more weight than the regular guy. When you’re Rod Langway and you’re talking about the Washington Capitals’ chances of winning the Stanley Cup, you’re going to command a bit more attention than that still.

Such is the case as Langway was asked about what he felt about the team during a charity function in Baltimore. Langway, a former Capitals star in his own right, can sympathize with the misfortunes of the current Caps team as Langway never got to play in the Stanley Cup finals while playing in Washington, something these Caps have yet to do as well.

So what does Langway see as the problem? You’d better not be pointing the finger at coach Bruce Boudreau as CSNWashington.com’s Chase Hughes found out.

Langway said the problem isn’t Bruce Boudreau and defended the coaching staff as a whole as “excellent.” He instead said the problem is a lack of playoff experience and general health when the playoffs come around.

“I think it’s wear and tear on a lot of players playing a lot of ice. When you have Ovechkin and players like [Mike] Green, I think the last two years they’ve been hurt or injured and playing hurt. You can’t play in the playoffs with your best players just playing on one leg or having to really struggle to get through the game,” he said.

“They’ve got to be healthy going down the stretch, and experience really helps in the playoffs because it is a whole different game.”


Health? That’s a new one.

Langway says he likes the moves the team made in the offseason including landing Roman Hamrlik to help on defense and, of course, getting Tomas Vokoun to play goal. That veteran experience is the exact sort of thing that Langway was talking about the team needing to help them get to the Stanley Cup finals. The additions of Joel Ward and Troy Brouwer as well will be a boost to their forward units and Brouwer brings with him the recent experience of winning it all with the Blackhawks in 2010.

Will Langway’s Hall Of Fame smarts prove to be correct for the Capitals when it comes to the playoffs? We’ll find out, but with the way Washington is built now you have to like their chances of being able to win it all a bit more heading into the season.