2020–21 Washington Capitals season

The 2020–21 Washington Capitals season was the 47th season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on June 11, 1974. This was 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 played this season in the East Division and played against only the other teams in their new division during the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.
On April 29, the Capitals clinched a playoff berth after a 5–4 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. As a result of the Capitals winning in overtime against the Philadelphia Flyers while the Penguins won in regulation against the Buffalo Sabres on May 8, the Penguins won the East division title, and the Capitals failed to win the division for the first time since the 2014–15 season.
==Standings==
===Divisional standings===
==Schedule and results==
===Regular season===
The regular season schedule was published on December 23, 2020.
2020–21 game log	2020–21 game log	2020–21 game log	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
January: 6–0–3 (Home: 4–0–1; Road: 2–0–2)
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%; text-align:center;"	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 	
===Playoffs===
2021 Stanley Cup playoffs	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs	2021 Stanley Cup playoffs	 	 	 	 	 	 	
East Division First Round vs. (E3) Boston Bruins: Boston won 4–1
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%; text-align:center;"	Game 	Date 	Opponent	Score	OT 	Decision	Attendance	Series	Recap
1 	May 15 	Boston 	3–2 	OT 	Anderson	5,333 	1–0 	Recap 	
2 	May 17 	Boston 	3–4 	OT 	Anderson	5,333 	1–1 	Recap 	
3 	May 19 	@ Boston 	2–3 	2OT 	Samsonov	4,565 	1–2 	Recap 	
4 	May 21 	@ Boston 	1–4 	 	Samsonov	4,565 	1–3 	Recap 	
5 	May 23 	Boston 	1–3 	 	Samsonov	5,333 	1–4 	Recap 	
==Player statistics==
===Skaters===
Regular season
Player	 	 	 	 	 	
 	55	15	38	53	0 	14
 	52	10	34	44	−5 	12
 	53	22	21	43	−3 	18
 	45	24	18	42	−7 	12
 	47	13	20	33	+1 	96
 	41	9 	20	29	+7 	18
 	46	3 	24	27	+12	10
‡ 	39	11	14	25	+9 	8
 	44	8 	15	23	−1 	21
 	53	14	8 	22	−1 	14
 	51	8 	14	22	+16	20
 	42	13	7 	20	+7 	12
 	56	2 	17	19	+15	49
 	56	6 	12	18	+7 	66
 	56	6 	10	16	+7 	19
 	56	11	4 	15	+4 	31
 	53	2 	12	14	+5 	14
 	55	2 	8 	10	+5 	44
‡ 	36	3 	6 	9 	−9 	16
† 	14	4 	4 	8 	0 	8
† 	10	1 	2 	3 	+1 	7
 	20	1 	2 	3 	−1 	2
 	5 	0 	2 	2 	+2 	0
 	6 	0 	1 	1 	−2 	2
‡ 	7 	0 	0 	0 	−3 	2
 	1 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	2 	0 	0 	0 	−2 	0
 	1 	0 	0 	0 	0 	2
 	2 	0 	0 	0 	−1 	0
Playoffs
Player	 	 	 	 	 	
 	5	2	2	4	−2	2
 	5	1	3	4	−2	0
 	5	2	1	3	+2	4
 	5	0	3	3	−1	6
 	5	2	0	2	+1	4
 	5	1	1	2	−3	6
 	5	0	2	2	−2	6
 	5	0	2	2	0 	6
 	5	1	0	1	−4	0
 	5	1	0	1	−4	2
 	3	0	1	1	0 	4
 	5	0	1	1	−2	0
 	5	0	1	1	+1	0
 	4	0	1	1	0 	0
 	3	0	0	0	−1	0
 	1	0	0	0	0 	2
 	5	0	0	0	0 	2
 	4	0	0	0	−2	4
 	5	0	0	0	+1	2
 	5	0	0	0	−2	2
===Goaltenders===
Regular season
Player	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	37	36	2,115:29	21	10	4	95	2.69	1,031	.908	2	0	0	0
 	19	18	1,092:49	13	4 	1	49	2.69	499 	.902	2	0	1	0
 	4 	2 	168:44 	2 	1 	0	6 	2.13	71 	.915	0	0	0	0
Playoffs
Player	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	2	1	112:10	1	1	5 	2.67	70	.929	0	0	0	0
 	3	3	200:55	0	3	10	2.99	99	.899	0	0	0	0
 	1	1	13:10 	0	0	1 	4.56	4 	.750	0	0	0	0
†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Capitals. Stats reflect time with the Capitals only.
‡Denotes player was traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with the Capitals only.
Bold/italics denotes franchise record.
==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)
==References==
==Notes==
Category:Washington Capitals seasons
Capitals