“We have higher expectations for our team, and we felt a fresh approach in leadership was needed,” MacLellan said in a statement. “We want to thank Todd for all his hard work and efforts with our organization. Todd has been a big part of our team for over half a decade, including our Stanley Cup run in 2018, and we wish him and his family all the best. forward. “
A replacement has not yet been named.
“I think we need a skilled coach,” MacLellan said in a Sunday afternoon conference call with media. “We have a talented group. We need someone who can come and push some buttons on some players – some good players.
“We will try to find the best man we can. Experience will be a factor, and one that can hold people accountable and work within a team concept.”
Reirden spent six seasons with the Capitals, the first four as assistant – and later associate – coach under Barry Trotz. When Trotz left for the Islanders shortly after winning the Washington’s Cup in June 2018, Reirden was the clear and likely heir, and he was named to the post 11 days after Trotz’s departure.
In his two seasons at the helm, Reirden led Washington to a few division titles and he was the coach of the Metropolitan Division both years at the NHL’s All-Star Game in both 2019 and 2020. He leaves with a regular season coaching mark of 89- 46-16, and his .642 points percentage ranks third on Washington’s all-time franchise ledger, behind Trotz (.677) and Bruce Boudreau (.655).
Reirden’s dismissal marks a disappointing punctuation mark on a season that began amid much hope for a second Stanley Cup title in three years, only to degenerate into a medieval morality of mediocrity whose capitals could not expand. Despite a road-heavy schedule in the first month of the regular season 2019-20, the Caps roared out of the gates last October, following a first-round playoff defeat in the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes in the spring of 2019.
Fueled by a 7-1-1 road record in the month of October, the Caps owned the league’s best record – 26-6-5 – just days before the NHL’s annual holiday break last December. But from that point until the Pope of the League in mid-March, the Caps were at their best in the middle. They posted a 15-14-3 mark over the last 32 games of the regular season.
On July 13, the Caps were again called up for training camp prior to the return of the NHL to play this summer. Given their recent Cup title, the level of experience on the roster, and the continued presence of the team’s core players Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson en Braden Holtby in Washington, expectations were circulating that the Caps could compete for another trophy.
“Sure, there were some points in the season where we’re playing pretty good hockey, and those will be some of the things we’re referring to,” Reirden said in a July 13 Zoom conference conference with the media, after the Caps’ first full team practice in preparation for returning to play. “Of course we spent some time in areas where we wrestled, went on break. But again, I have a lot of confidence in those players. Our leadership is so strong in terms of the things they do. in our room and on the ice, and apparently the family tree that some of them have after they won the Stanley Cup a few years ago.
“I think this time away has really stimulated our team and they are excited for the opportunity, but knowing that there will be some curveballs coming our way, there will be some setbacks, there will be something unpredictable, and it’s how we deal with those challenges that really decides how our team performs. “
Asked on July 31 whether he believed the Caps had as good a chance of competing for a cup in 2020 as they did in 2018 when they won it, MacLellan replied in the affirmative.
“I do,” he said. “I think we have a lot of the same elements. I think our four lines are well balanced, and our bottom six could contribute offensively, I think we have a good penalty kill. Holtby has a championship, a Vezina – “one of the best goals in the league. I think all the elements are there for us to compete for a championship.”
That contradiction of which Reirden spoke came, certainly enough, in the form of injuries to goaltenders Ilya Samsonov (for the return to play), Carlson (in the exposure game prior to returning to play) and Backstrom (in Game 1 of the series with the Islanders). The Caps were also without center Lars Eller for the final round game as well as for the series opening against New York.
While the lack of these players – and their diminished chances at return – did not help matters at all, the Caps never looked as good as in sync at any point during their return to play, and they saw much more than the capitals of January- March then the group October-December. Washington was the league’s second-best offensive team in the regular season, finishing fourth overall in 5-on-5 goals, just four of the pace set by Tampa Bay and Toronto. But the Caps attack was immediately anemic in return for playing.
The bottom six scored MacLellan referred to – such a significant part of Washington’s Cup run in 2018 – never manifested. In eight playoff games – including three round robin games – the Caps scored only once three goals, a 3-2 victory in Game 4 of the Isles series, a victory that extended their playoff life and her departure from Toronto delayed two days of bubbling.
Washington scored a total of eight goals in five games against Trotz’s Islanders, of which only three of them came in at 5-on-5. Only three different caps – Ovechkin, TJ Oshie en Evgeny Kuznetsov – could light the lamp in that five-game series. Through the eight playoff games, the Caps were rarely able to showcase continuous streaks of the dominant, physically offensive market of hockey that brought them a championship two years ago and that ensured the team’s strong start in 2019-20.
Video: Brian MacLellan | August 23
“One thing that happened to us in the bubble was our structure not being there,” MacLellan says. “I know individuals work hard, but a [lack of] team structure was a major cause of our performance in Toronto. That we will need someone who can come and establish that as a big part of our identity. I think teams in our division – Philadelphia has made great strides in that department and New York obviously does the same thing – we’ll have to agree on that [structure] and the work ethic of those teams as well. “
With each member of the core of the Caps now in his thirties and with Holtby becoming an unlimited free agent prior to next season, there is a lot of organizational urgency to continue to compete for the Stanley Cup, while the team’s best players are still at or near the tops of their respective strengths, and a second straight finish from the first round proved to mark the end of Reirden’s banking association in the District. His post-season record as a coach was 5-9-1.
“We are a team that wants to compete for a championship every year,” MacLellan reiterated. “We have some older players in their thirties who are nearing their best years. I think we should at least be able to compete for a cup or championship over the next few years.
“We’re going over [defense] a little with some young boys and with a young goaltender coming in. But I think we are also injecting some youth. Ideally, we want to have a good mix of youth and our core players. That is our hope, to achieve that, and to play at a high level next year.
In the minutes following the disappointing early relegation of the Caps from the playoffs last week, Reirden briefly reflected on the misery of his team.
“We’ve apparently had success in the regular season,” he said, on the pop stage after the loss of Game 5, “and both divisions of our division win and do some things that way, but in these playoff situations we did not has been our best hockey player.Of course this scenario is different from last year with how things were set up, but that is obviously not acceptable.I’m disappointed with the organization, I’m disappointed with the fans – our great fans who we have in Washington – and for us that we can not come again this year. “
Later on Sunday afternoon, Reirden issued a statement of his own, following his dismissal:
“I want to thank the Washington Capitals organization for allowing me a chance to coach this team, our players for their commitment and confidence, and the fantastic fanbase for their support, not only of me but also of my family. I’m disappointed we could not bring another championship to DC, I will always cherish my six years with this organization and our memorable run in 2018. I wish this team nothing but success in the future. “- Todd Reirden
Like many coaches who preceded him in Washington, Reirden had a lot of regular seasonal success with the Caps, but found it going a little harder in the offseason. Among teams that have been in the NHL continuously since the start of the 1982-83 season, when the Caps made the Stanley Cup Playley for the first time, Washington has the third-best regular season record (via points percentage) , behind only Boston and Philadelphia. But deep playoff runes are hard to come by in the District; the Caps have advanced only three times in the third round of the playoffs (1990, 1990, 2018) in that span.
It’s now almost two decades since the last time the Caps suffered consecutive first-round oysters, and within three years of the second of those oysters in 2001, the team was completely in fire / rebuilding mode. It tries to avoid a similar scenario this time around, and if it does, it accuses some of its culture and it’s in order.
“I think we’ve had good culture here, and it’s starting to slip,” MacLellan says. “And I think we have to pick it up and get back to where it was. I think there has to be some consistency in our game, and that’s with our good players as well. I think we’ve developed the habit of thinking that we can play well if we have to play well, against ‘Let’s develop good habits, and that consistency with our good habits, the games take care of themselves.’ “
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