Stop me, Washington Capitals fans, if you’ve heard a tale like this one before: 

The team pulls off a dramatic and inspiring late-season surge, fights to the end of a supremely exciting playoff round, and enjoys all of the accolades, local community and national attention, and momentum that the Cinderella run richly deserves. 

A new head coach, seemingly out of nowhere, leads the team to great heights (though not to the greatest height), and the squad is largely intact for next season.  Expectations are high, and the fan base dreams big dreams. 

Then, a sudden rash of injuries relentlessly chops away at the trunk of the wishing tree, and all of those great hopes are dashed, flooded by a tide of bad breaks and insurmountable health-related setbacks.

Instead of forging on deep into May, the team finishes near the bottom of the division (but still ahead of Tampa Bay), the playoffs well out of reach.

In 1998-99, the Caps seemed poised to at least approximate, if not repeat, the heroics of the 1998 playoff run to the Stanley Cup Finals, the first and only time that the team has made it to round four.  Injuries had befallen the club in 1997-98, to be sure, but the number of aches and breaks the following season was legendary, and resulted in a 31-45-6 record, good for third in the Southeast Division, ahead of only TB, and 12th in the Conference.

The 1998-99 Caps team suffered 511 man games lost to injury, and missed an average of 6.23 players per game (The NHL average that season was 2.98).  Oh, and it was so bad that the training staff was overhauled, and a new head of staff appointed.

Here’s a rundown of the injuries suffered in that season:

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As you can see, that list included the team’s leading scorer, top line center, rugged, ugly-goal scoring winger, five regular defensemen, and a collection of other guys who were significant contributors in the previous season, all lost for more than 10 games each. 

This 2008-09 season has already seen injured our top scorer, Alex Semin (5 games to date), a playmaking center and PP distributor in Sergei Fedorov (8 games to date), our top defenseman and other PP leader in Mike Green (3 games to date), his pair mate in Shaone Morrisonn (6 games), another top-four backliner in Tom Poti (5 games), and a top line winger in Viktor Kozlov (5 games).

And now another top-four defenseman in Jeff Schultz who, with a broken finger, will lose at least three weeks, I’d have to think.  [Update:  Schultz will be out 4-6 weeks, per Tarik.]

Through 21 games, and not counting Schultz’s new ailment, these Caps are on a pace to accummulate only 133 man games lost to injury.  It just seems like that number should be larger.  But it could get larger quickly.  

It’s no coincidence that the floodgates are opening to the tune of an average of 5 GA/G in the last five contests, as the injuries to the D corps mount.

A few thoughts:  First, the depth in the organization is much deeper than was the case in 1998-99.  Your “Future Capitals” then featured the likes of Patrick Boileau, Miika Elomo, J.F. Fortin, Glen Metropolit, Barrie Moore, Ryan Mulhern, Jeff Nelson, Mike Peluso, Steve Poapst, Jason Shmyr, Mike Siklenka, Dean Stork, Trent Whitfield, and, oh yes, Alexandre Volchkov.

Second, this current Capitals team is decidedly younger than the 1998-99 team.  Five of the top seven defensemen in that earlier season were age 31 or older.  Adam Oates, Dale Hunter, and Michal Pivonka were all over 32.  Which augurs well for injury recovery.

Third, that 1998-99 team never really got off the ground.  The current Caps record of 11-7-3 is still quite respectable, and miraculously still good for first place in the SE.

Perhaps I am just overreacting to the frustrating results of the latest road trip.  But will this parade to the doctors’ offices and trainers’ room this season ever slow?  Regardless, will current organizational depth hold the fort?  Or could this team be doomed just as it was 10 years ago?