This is a team at a crossroads.

As noted by certain very intelligent columnists when they signed Alexander Ovechkin to a five-year contract with a $9.5-million AAV, the Capitals are simply not set up to compete meaningfully in the Eastern Conference anymore. They are a perfectly good team, and not much more than that.

That they were able to hang with a regular season juggernaut like the Florida Panthers for six games plus a couple of overtimes speaks to how dangerous they can be at times. But the fact that they won only two games out of six and were really only able to make hay on special teams speaks to their clear deficiencies.

And like it or not, they’re going to be getting the band back together for the foreseeable future.

Ovechkin and John Carlson are signed through 2026. Nicklas Bäckströ