Capitals to be more ‘open-minded’ in assessing trades involving core, finding new coach

Alex Ovechkin can pinpoint the moment the Washington Capitals’ season started to fall apart. The night was Dec. 23 and in a game against the Winnipeg Jets, John Carlson was blasted by a puck to the face — fracturing the defenseman’s skull and leaving a trail of blood on the ice. 

By the time Carlson returned from a 36-game absence in March, the chances of Washington making the playoffs were slim.

“When your best D is out for long term, it sucks,” Ovechkin said over the weekend. “Everything is changed.” 

Carlson’s injury may not have been the sole reason that the Capitals missed the playoffs this year for the first time since 2014.  The Capitals, after all, were the oldest team in the league, weren’t consistent as in past years and had several other significant injuries throughout the year. The team finished with a 35-37-10 record. 

But that game against the Jets proved to be a perfect snapshot of where the Capitals are at as a franchise: That night, Ovechkin passed Gordie Howe to become the NHL’s second-leading all-time goal — but Washington, as a team, didn’t have the talent to withstand the loss of a player like Carlson in the long run.

Now, months later, the Capitals enter a pivotal offseason having to find a new coach — and players that can reposition Washington as contenders in the final years of Ovechkin’s career. Otherwise, Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s scoring record could perhaps look a lot like LeBron James’ chase of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the NBA. 

On Feb. 7, when James surpassed Abdul-Jabbar to become the NBA’s all-time points leader, the Lakers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder to fall five games below .500. 

Ovechkin is 73 goals from breaking Gretzky’s record. General manager Brian MacLellan’s goal is to keep the Capitals competitive as the team’s captain attempts to make history. 

“Trying to stay competitive while getting younger is going to be challenging, yes. But that’s the stage we’re at,” MacLellan said. “That’s the decision we’ve made here. We want to finish out a couple careers of important players in our organization and we want to stay competitive, but we also want to get younger. 

“So it’s a challenge to be in position to have all three of those things, but we’re going to try.”

First, MacLellan will have to find a new coach. The team and Peter Laviolette agreed to part ways Friday — a decision that MacLellan said happened faster than expected. Washington planned to evaluate Laviolette’s future over the coming days, though a split became clear when MacLellan and Laviolette met for a conversation Friday. Laviolette, the coach of the Capitals the last three seasons, departs on an expiring deal and will likely be in the mix for other vacancies. 

When the Capitals last had an opening, MacLellan said finding a veteran coach was a priority for Washington’s core. But the general manager made no such declaration this time— telling reporters he’s “more open” to a wide array of candidates. MacLellan said he wants someone who can work with Washington’s aging core and mentor younger players. “It’s going to be a challenge to find the right guy for that,” he said. 

Beyond that, MacLellan made clear that upgrading Washington’s top six is a priority. The Capitals failed to get consistent production from those like Evgeny Kuznetsov (12 goals), Anthony Mantha (11) and Nicklas Backstrom (7) — the latter of whom was coming off a serious hip injury and didn’t make his season debut until January. 

To add more top-end talent, MacLellan may have to be willing to shake up Washington’s core. There are only six players left on the roster from the Capitals’ 2018 Stanley Cup run: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, Carlson, T.J. Oshie and Tom Wilson. 

Would he really look to break the group apart? 

“We’ll look at some things for sure,” MacLellan said. “Sometimes making change just to make a change is not right, but we’re going to look for opportunities. … We would be more open-minded to opportunities that present themselves this year would be the way to put it for me.”

On Saturday, MacLellan and several players said the Capitals want to get faster next season. By that, they don’t mean in terms of just pure skating speed but rather how fast they can move the puck and make split-second decisions. That’s something the Capitals struggled with this past season as the team finished 20th in goals per game. 

“But players and MacLellan all seemed to share one opinion: the Capitals aren’t far from being able to contend once again.

“The core group, the older guys that they’ve been the superstars for this team for so long and they still got game,” Wilson said. “So, hopefully, we can switch a couple things up and, like I said, hopefully not too far from getting back to playing really good hockey.”