Capitals are 1st NHL team to clinch a playoff spot this season after being last to get in last year

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals became the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot this season, doing so after winning in their 69th game and getting the help they needed elsewhere around the league.

They are the only team since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1979-80 to be the first to clinch after being the last to get in the previous season.

“Our goal was to make the playoffs this year," Ovechkin said after scoring his 888th career goal to help beat Philadelphia 3-2 on Thursday night. "It’s hard. Every game, it’s hard, especially at the end because every team is fighting. That’s why in the beginning of the year and the middle of the year it’s very important to (be) collecting the points and feel comfortable at the end. Last year it took us 82 games to clinch it and since 20 games left last year, it was playoffs for us already. We take it and move on.”

Ovechkin, Tom Wilson, John Carlson and the core of the roster is still intact. Offseason acquisitions of center Pierre-Luc Dubois, wingers Andrew Mangiapane, Taylor Raddysh and Brandon Duhaime, defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy and goaltender Logan Thompson have all worked as well as could be expected.

The Capitals are atop the NHL with 100 points, leading the Eastern Conference by 13 and cruising toward the playoffs.

“It’s been great," Mangiapane said. "Obviously I think we have a really deep team: All four lines are great hockey players, the D pairings, all of them all make plays and our two goalies in net have been awesome. It’s a really deep team, and that’s why I think we’ve been consistent throughout the whole year. Any given day any player could step up and make great plays to help us win games.”

Now seven years removed from hoisting the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history, Ovechkin, Wilson and Carlson — and Lars Eller, who was traded and reacquired since — are the only players left from that 2018 championship team. Center Nicklas Backstrom and winger T.J. Oshie have been sidelined by career-ending injuries but have watched closely and marveled at what the Capitals have done this season.

“This team has just been playing outstanding the whole year,” Backstrom said Friday. “I just feel like they have some sort of calmness back there, which you can see every game. There’s never any panic. They’re working for each other, and they’re playing for each other, which is a nice thing to have going into the playoffs.”

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