The most important answer to the question presented in this article’s headline is this: The Capitals are the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
Now while that answer satisfies almost every question we have about the team, we are still in the business of peeling back the onion a bit. A while back we researched when performance metrics begin to resemble end-of-season results, and came up with 38 games as a tentpole. To date, the Capitals have played 39 games, so we should feel pretty good about having a grip on the character of this team.