Capitals are scoring by committee with their forward depth
The Washington Capitals were arguably the most popular pick in the NHL to go from missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year to earning their way back in in the 2026-27 season.
After adding forwards this summer like Jordan Kyrou, Alex Tuch and Boone Jenner, the Capitals suddenly boasted one of the deepest forward groups in the league. Through seven games, while the team’s defense has struggled and no single player is producing at a point-per-game pace, it’s been that depth that has kept them afloat, taking them to a 4-3-0 record.
Seven different forwards in the lineup have notched between four and six points, and on Wednesday, Washington got goals from Tuch, Kyrou and promising prospect Ivan Miroshnichenko to pick up a thrilling 5-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed how the Capitals’ depth and by-committee approach to scoring will be instrumental to their ability to possibly contend for the Stanley Cup this season.
Tyler Yaremchuk: You know whose offense is humming to start the year? That’s the Washington Capitals. Alex Tuch scores twice, he’s up to five goals on the season, so the early retruns of that big free agency add are certainly coming in nicely for the Caps. Listen, they’re 4-3-0, that’s not an amazing start to the season by any stretch, but I do think this Caps team is definitely kind of looking as advertised. They’ve scored [24] goals, I believe, this season. Obviously, Tuch leads the way with five of them. When you look through the depth… 14 different goalscorers have found the back of the net for them this year, and for a team who kind of spent all this money and added all these young pieces over the last couple years, the goal kind of always was as Ovi declines, they’re going to replace that production sort of by committee, and so far that’s exactly what the Caps are doing.
Carter Hutton: And I think that’s an important factor here, as advertised. They have such depth in this lineup, right? So the offense has been there. I think what we’re going to judge this team on is when I look back on the losses to a team like Carolina, and Seattle is when you’re playing a team that’s going to play a little more defensive and make it harder on you, are you going to be able to create offense and continue to grind in these games? That’s the question here. They’re going to get good goaltending.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…
