2020–21 Washington Capitals season

2020–21 Washington Capitals
Division	East
2020–21 record	6–2–3
Home record	4–1–1
Road record	2–1–2
Goals for	40
Goals against	38
Team information
General manager	Brian MacLellan
Coach	Peter Laviolette
Captain	Alexander Ovechkin
Alternate captains	Nicklas Backstrom John Carlson
Arena	Capital One Arena
Minor league affiliate(s)	Hershey Bears (AHL) South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL)
Team leaders
Goals	Nicklas Backstrom (5)
Assists	Nicklas Backstrom (9)
Points	Nicklas Backstrom (14)
Penalty minutes	Brenden Dillon (16)
Plus/minus	Justin Schultz (+9)
Wins	Vitek Vanecek (5)
Goals against average	Vitek Vanecek (2.95)

The 2020–21 Washington Capitals season is the 47th season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on June 11, 1974. This will be the first season for Peter Laviolette as head coach of the Capitals after their former head coach Todd Reirden was fired from the team on August 23, 2020. On December 20, 2020, the league temporarily realigned into four divisions with no conferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing closure of the Canada-United States border. As a result of this realignment, the Capitals will play this season in the East Division and will play games against only the other teams in their new division during the regular season and potentially the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Standings

Divisional standings

East Division

Pos	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	RW	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	y – Pittsburgh Penguins	56	37	16	3	29	196	156	+40	77
2	x – Washington Capitals	56	36	15	5	29	191	163	+28	77
3	x – Boston Bruins	56	33	16	7	25	168	136	+32	73
4	x – New York Islanders	56	32	17	7	24	156	128	+28	71
5	e – New York Rangers	56	27	23	6	24	177	157	+20	60
6	e – Philadelphia Flyers	56	25	23	8	17	163	201	−38	58
7	e – New Jersey Devils	56	19	30	7	15	145	194	−49	45
8	e – Buffalo Sabres	56	15	34	7	11	138	199	−61	37

Source: National Hockey League
Rules for classification: 1) Fewer number of games played (GP, only during regular season); 2) Greater number of regulation wins (RW); 3) Greater number of wins in regulation and overtime, excluding shootout wins (ROW); 4) Greater number of total wins, including shootouts (W); 5) Greater number of points earned in head-to-head play; if teams played an uneven number of head-to-head games, the result of the first game on the home ice of the team with the extra home game is discarded; 6) Greater goal differential (GD); 7) Greater number of goals scored (GF)
e – Eliminated from playoff contention; x – Clinched playoff spot; y – Clinched division

Schedule and results

Regular season

The regular season schedule was published on December 23, 2020.

2020–21 game log
January: 6–0–3 (Home: 4–0–1; Road: 2–0–2) Game Date Opponent Score OT Decision Attendance Record Points Recap 1 January 14 @ Buffalo 6–4 Samsonov 0 1–0–0 2 Recap 2 January 15 @ Buffalo 2–1 Vanecek 0 2–0–0 4 Recap 3 January 17 @ Pittsburgh 3–4 SO Samsonov 0 2–0–1 5 Recap 4 January 19 @ Pittsburgh 4–5 OT Vanecek 0 2–0–2 6 Recap 5 January 22 Buffalo 4–3 SO Vanecek 0 3–0–2 8 Recap 6 January 24 Buffalo 3–4 SO Vanecek 0 3–0–3 9 Recap 7 January 26 NY Islanders 3–2 Vanecek 0 4–0–3 11 Recap 8 January 28 NY Islanders 6–3 Vanecek 0 5–0–3 13 Recap 9 January 30 Boston 4–3 OT Vanecek 0 6–0–3 15 Recap
February: 0–2–0 (Home: 0–1–0; Road: 0–1–0) Game Date Opponent Score OT Decision Attendance Record Points Recap 10 February 1 Boston 3–5 Vanecek 0 6–1–3 15 Recap 11 February 4 @ NY Rangers 2–4 Vanecek 0 6–2–3 15 Recap 12 February 7 Philadelphia – 13 February 9 Philadelphia – 14 February 11 @ Buffalo – 15 February 13 @ Buffalo – 16 February 14 @ Pittsburgh – 17 February 16 @ Pittsburgh – 18 February 20 NY Rangers – 19 February 21 NY Rangers – 20 February 23 Pittsburgh – 21 February 25 Pittsburgh – 22 February 27 @ New Jersey –
March: 0–0–0 (Home: 0–0–0; Road: 0–0–0) Game Date Opponent Score OT Decision Attendance Record Points Recap 23 March 1 @ New Jersey – 24 March 3 @ Boston – 25 March 5 @ Boston – 26 March 7 New Jersey – 27 March 9 New Jersey – 28 March 11 @ Philadelphia – 29 March 13 @ Philadelphia – 30 March 15 NY Islanders – 31 March 16 NY Islanders – 32 March 19 NY Rangers – 33 March 25 New Jersey – 34 March 26 New Jersey – 35 March 28 NY Rangers – 36 March 30 NY Rangers –
April: 0–0–0 (Home: 0–0–0; Road: 0–0–0) Game Date Opponent Score OT Decision Attendance Record Points Recap 37 April 1 @ NY Islanders – 38 April 2 @ New Jersey – 39 April 4 @ New Jersey – 40 April 6 @ NY Islanders – 41 April 8 Boston – 42 April 10 Boston – 43 April 13 Buffalo – 44 April 15 Buffalo – 45 April 17 @ Philadelphia – 46 April 18 @ Boston – 47 April 20 @ Boston – 48 April 22 @ NY Islanders – 49 April 24 @ NY Islanders – 50 April 27 @ Philadelphia – 51 April 29 Pittsburgh –
May: 0–0–0 (Home: 0–0–0; Road: 0–0–0) Game Date Opponent Score OT Decision Attendance Record Points Recap 52 May 1 Pittsburgh – 53 May 3 @ NY Rangers – 54 May 5 @ NY Rangers – 55 May 7 Philadelphia – 56 May 8 Philadelphia –
Win (2 Points)   Loss (0 points)   Overtime/shootout loss (1 point)

Player statistics

As of January 28, 2021

Skaters

Regular season

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
Nicklas Backstrom	8	4	6	10	−1	2
John Carlson	8	3	6	9	−2	2
Tom Wilson	6	4	3	7	+2	4
T. J. Oshie	8	2	5	7	+1	8
Jakub Vrana	8	3	3	6	+4	2
Justin Schultz	8	2	4	6	+9	0
Alexander Ovechkin	4	1	4	5	+1	0
Brenden Dillon	8	1	3	4	+6	9
Nic Dowd	8	2	1	3	+5	8
Conor Sheary	6	2	1	3	−1	4
Garnet Hathaway	8	2	1	3	+5	2
Zdeno Chara	8	1	2	3	+7	4
Evgeny Kuznetsov	4	1	2	3	+1	4
Daniel Sprong	6	1	1	2	−1	0
Lars Eller	7	1	1	2	−1	4
Richard Panik	8	0	2	2	0	2
Carl Hagelin	8	0	1	1	+3	2
Daniel Carr	2	0	1	1	+1	0
Nick Jensen	5	0	1	1	+1	2
Michael Sgarbossa	2	0	1	1	+1	0
Dmitry Orlov	4	0	0	0	−4	2
Jonas Siegenthaler	4	0	0	0	−2	2
Trevor van Riemsdyk	3	0	0	0	−1	0
Brian Pinho	2	0	0	0	−2	0
Connor McMichael	1	0	0	0	0	2

Goaltenders

Regular season

Player	GP	GS	TOI	W	L	OT	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO	G	A	PIM
Vitek Vanecek	6	6	371:08	4	0	2	17	2.75	200	.915	0	0	0	0
Ilya Samsonov	2	2	125:00	1	0	1	7	3.36	53	.868	0	0	0	0

Draft picks

See also: List of Washington Capitals draft picks

Below are the Washington Capitals' selections at the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, which was originally scheduled for June 26-27, 2020 at the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec, but was postponed on March 25, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 6-7, 2020 the draft was held virtually via Video conference call from the NHL Network studio in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Round	#	Player	Pos	Nationality	College/Junior/Club Team (League)
1	22	Hendrix Lapierre	C	Canada	Chicoutimi Sagueneens (QMJHL)
4	117	Bogdan Trineyev	RW	Russia	Dynamo Moscow 2 (MHL)
5	148	Bear Hughes	D	United States	Spokane Chiefs (WHL)
6	179	Garin Bjorklund	G	Canada	Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL)
7	211	Oskar Magunsson	LW	Sweden	Malmo Redhawks (SHL)

Roster

Updated April 29, 2024

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
27		Alexander Alexeyev	D	L	24	2018	St. Petersburg, Russia
96		Nicolas Aube-Kubel	RW	R	28	2022	Slave Lake, Alberta
19		Nicklas Backstrom (A)	C	L	36	2006	Gävle, Sweden
25		Ethan Bear	D	R	26	2023	Regina, Saskatchewan
74		John Carlson (A)	D	R	34	2008	Natick, Massachusetts
26		Nic Dowd	C	R	34	2018	Huntsville, Alabama
42		Martin Fehervary	D	L	24	2018	Bratislava, Slovakia
3		Nick Jensen	D	R	33	2019	Rogers, Minnesota
35		Darcy Kuemper	G	L	34	2022	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
79		Charlie Lindgren	G	R	30	2022	Lakeville, Minnesota
47		Beck Malenstyn	RW	L	26	2016	Delta, British Columbia
24		Connor McMichael	C	L	23	2019	Scarborough, Ontario
15		Sonny Milano	LW	L	28	2022	Massapequa, New York
77		T. J. Oshie (A)	RW	R	37	2015	Mount Vernon, Washington
8		Alexander Ovechkin (C)	LW	R	38	2004	Moscow, Soviet Union
67		Max Pacioretty	LW	L	35	2023	New Canaan, Connecticut
21		Aliaksei Protas	C	L	23	2019	Vitebsk, Belarus
38		Rasmus Sandin	D	L	24	2023	Uppsala, Sweden
23		Michael Sgarbossa	C	L	31	2018	Campbellville, Ontario
17		Dylan Strome	C	L	27	2022	Mississauga, Ontario
57		Trevor van Riemsdyk	D	R	32	2020	Middletown, New Jersey
43		Tom Wilson (A)	RW	R	30	2012	Toronto, Ontario