But this year they are 21st out of 32 teams in GF/60 at 5v4, and 22nd in goal differential per 60 at 5v4. It's on the bad end of the middle of the pack, and for a team with Ovechkin on it that's not good enough.
For a team that can't really dominate at even strength any more I think they really need to look at optimizing the power play to the extent possible in order to remain competitive next year. The current approach isn't really working. They need to steal more elements from teams like the Oilers and Lightning even if they can't reproduce the exact level of success.