Barry Trotz helped the Capitals just three seasons ago make their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Now, he will have to come through his former team to have any chance of the Islanders’ fifth.
With a 2-1 victory over the Bruins on Sunday afternoon, the Capitals secured the third seed in the 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs and will take on the next sixth Islanders in the first round early next week.
“It will be a great challenge because I know the people involved,” Trotz said in a Zoom call to the Islanders’ practice Sunday.
And he knows them well. There are 12 current Capitals players who were on the team that coached Trotz to the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals against the Golden Knights, a series that Washington won in five games.
Despite resigning, however, less than two weeks after the championship parade, he and general manager Capitals Brian MacLellan could not agree on a contract extension. Right away Trotz made one of the four NHL coaches in the past 40 years to not return to her team after winning the cup.
“I think it’s going to be a hell of a series,” said Trotz, who coached four seasons in Washington before joining the Islanders in June 2018. “Both teams are well equipped to go together.”
Despite acknowledging just how familiar he is with the Capitals’ arsenal, he added that his former coach “gives him some insight into some of their tendencies.” He mentioned that he plans to prepare his team for the Capitals’ power play and “top notch” games for special teams.
“That group has a lot of pedigree, they have a lot of dying power and they have won championships,” he said. “They are well equipped in many areas.”
Washington finished second in the Metropolitan Division in Trotz’s first season with the club in 2014-15 before taking first in each of the three seasons. He compiled a regular season record of 205-89-34 and together with the trophy collected two Trophies of Presidents and was the winner of the Jack Adams Award 2016 – given to the coach who contributes the most to the success of his team .
But Trotz noted that there are some new faces on the capitals of 2020, including veteran Ilya Kovalchuk, who told the islanders they were interested in this year’s trading deadline.
The Islanders went 2-2 against the Capitals in the regular season 2020-20, with both teams scoring 14 total goals on each other. The Capitals finished top of the Metro this year with 90 points, just one point ahead of the Flyers, who defeated Washington 3-1 last Thursday en route to undefeated in round-robin play.
Trotz recalls his emotional first time back at Capital One Arena last year and the touching tribute that was played for him and his two assistants, Lane Lambert and Mitch Korn, who followed Trotz to Long Island.
But there was no noticeably soft spot in Trotz while he was discussing his former team, it sounded more like fixation.
“The biggest challenge is to play them yourself and play hard,” Trotz said. “And they will do the same, because I know a lot about this group.”
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