"My mindset would be is we're not as aggressive as we normally are," MacLellan said Wednesday. "I think it really has to make sense. At the beginning of the year, I would say we're a legit contender. There's probably three, four teams that are at the next level, but we're not next level. We're at the high end of that next level of teams.
"Now I'd say that we're at the low level of that next level of teams, and we need to improve. We need to get back to where we were."
On Dec. 31, Washington (28-18-9) was tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning (20-6-7) for first in the NHL. The Capitals are 8-12-2 since then, including three straight losses, and hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference heading into their game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday (7 p.m. ET: ESPN+, HULU, NHL LIVE).
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One of the Capitals' biggest issues has been goaltending, with Ilya Samsonov inconsistent and Vitek Vanecek missing four weeks with an upper-body injury he sustained Feb. 1 before returning Monday. Vanecek is 4-3-0 with a 2.06 goals-against average, .926 save percentage and two shutouts since Jan. 1. Samsonov is 4-7-1 with a 3.48 GAA and .891 save percentage.
MacLellan acknowledged that Vanecek, 26, and Samsonov, 25, are inexperienced. Vanecek is in his second NHL season and has played 62 NHL games. Samsonov is in his third season and has played 77.
The Capitals have found the market for experienced goalies to be limited.
"We called around earlier," MacLellan said. "It's
(shoulder). Backstrom and Oshie are healthy, and Mantha might return Thursday.
But the third line remains a question mark other than center Lars Eller, who has played with numerous combinations of wings throughout the season.
"That line specifically, the identity has been missing there," MacLellan said. "What is the purpose of that line? So after the deadline, we have to figure out how we're constructing that line."
After going all-in before past trade deadlines when the Capitals were top-tier contenders for the Stanley Cup, MacLellan said they must look beyond this season and he'd be "less inclined to trade prospects."
"Like I said, I don't know that we're going to be as aggressive as we've been in the past," MacLellan said. "Sometimes just to add depth pieces we might overpay a little bit because we felt we have a good team and we're going to a long way and we just need players. I don't know that we're in that mode, but we'd still like to improve the team."
