Next season’s defending champion Washington Capitals will look a lot like the group that won the Stanley Cup last month.
They re-signed defensemen John Carlson and Michal Kempny and forward Devante Smith-Pelly and have so far only lost fourth-line center Jay Beagle and backup
goaltender Philipp Grubauer from their title-winning roster.
Yet the few changes could be substantial for the Capitals
Markus Wheaton Color Rush Jersey , most notably new coach Todd Reirden taking over for Barry Trotz with a roster that is so similar that the
expectation will be another deep playoff run.
”There’s going to be many things that stay the same, but there’s gonna be some things that I think I have to be cognizant of,” Reirden said as he was
introduced Tuesday. ”I want to create an environment where players are going to
continue to be challenged with new ideas and new ways to improve their
games.”
Based on the continuity of promoting a four-year assistant, general manager Brian MacLellan and Reirden expect this to be a ”seamless transition.” Set aside
the awkward circumstances of Trotz’s departure and the Capitals had been
grooming Reirden for a head coaching job somewhere in the NHL for some time
now.
Reirden was the finalist for Calgary’s job two years ago and in retrospect is glad that didn’t work out. His first NHL head coaching job happens to be this
one, as just the fourth coach in the past 30 years to assume control of a Cup
champion.
With the vast majority of the roster back, Alex Ovechkin coming off a playoff MVP performance and almost the entire defense he helped develop back to try to
repeat, the pressure is on.
”Todd’s at that point in his career where he’s earned a head coaching job,” MacLellan said. ”He’s put in all the work. He’s got all the experience. It’s
just a matter of seeing him take control. I have all the faith in the world that
he can accomplish it. He’s just ready to do it right now.”
Beagle signed a four-year
http://www.raidersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-kolton-miller-jersey , $12 million contract with the Canucks, and the Capitals traded Grubauer and
defenseman Brooks Orpik to the Avalanche to clear the cap space they needed to
ink Carlson to a $64 million, eight-year deal. Orpik could still return after
Colorado bought him out and made him a free agent, which could mean 18 of 19
players who skated in the Cup-winning Game 5 against Vegas are on the roster to
begin next season.
”It’s one of those offseasons where you’re not trying to make a change because you like what you have culturally,” MacLellan said. ”This group really
seems to like playing together and there’s a good chemistry there, so I think it
was our decision to try to (keep) as much as we could.”
That did not extend to Trotz, who wanted to be paid closer to market value for a Cup-winning coach than the automatic extension that kicked in with a small
raise from his previous salary. MacLellan believes Reirden can build on what
Trotz started, and the 47-year-old new Capitals coach is confident in his
abilities because of how much responsibility he had the past two seasons as
associate coach.
”We all had input in it in what our decisions were made
Calvin Ridley Color Rush Jersey ,” Reirden said. ”I feel strongly about the direction of our team and the style that we played during the year that it
wasn’t necessarily just one person’s idea, but it was our whole staff that had
large input into how our team was going to play.”
The Capitals will need one assistant coach to replace Trotz choice Lane Lambert, but will keep the rest of the staff intact. They’ll look to Travis Boyd
or recently signed Nic Dowd to replace Beagle. And if they can’t bring back
Orpik, they’ll likely find a veteran defenseman to play on the third pair.
That’s about all that’s different when the Stanley Cup banner is raised to the rafters Oct. 3, which is no accident.
”We’re always looking to improve certain areas,” MacLellan said. ”We always look at, `We’ve got a hole here. We need to fix that.’ Or, `This is a way we can
get to that next level.’ We’ve always had that type of attitude. This
year
http://www.jaguarsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-ronnie-harrison-jersey , it’s trying to maintain what we had.”
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The Colorado Avalanche will try to move ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for the first wild-card spot from the Western Conference when they play Monday night
at Staples Center.
The Avalanche (42-28-9) missed a chance to pull even in points with the Kings (43-28-8) when they let a 3-1 lead slip away in the third period Sunday night at
the Anaheim Ducks and lost 4-3 in overtime.
Colorado enters Monday one point behind the Kings and three points behind the Minnesota Wild for third in the Central Division with three games remaining.
“The only time the standings matter is Saturday,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s disappointing we didn’t get two (points) because we played OK for a
lot of that game.”
Kings forward Alex Iafallo, who had been playing wing on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, was a late scratch Friday night against the Ducks
because of an upper-body injury, and top-four defenseman Jake Muzzin has missed
the past two games with an upper-body injury.
Iafallo did not practice on Sunday and Muzzin came on the ice at the end of practice.
The Kings matched their biggest margin of victory against the Avalanche on March 22, cruising to a 7-1 victory in Colorado.
Los Angeles coach John Stevens told Fox Sports West after practice Sunday that the loss should be fresh in the minds of the Avalanche.
“I’m sure they’ll be reminded of it and, if anything, it’ll be a little bit of a motivator for them Josh Allen Jersey Elite ,” Stevens said. “With the schedule, the way it is, you’re going to get games where you’re caught a little off-guard, things don’t
go quite your way. … They know that they’re going to have to play better than
they did in that game.”
The Kings are 20 for 20 on the penalty kill over the past eight games to raise their league-leading rate to 85.1. Stevens said that’s a big reason Los
Angeles is also No. 1 in the league in goals-against average (2.44).
“The big key for us is goals-against, keeping it down,” Stevens told Fox Sports West. “It’s funny how that works with our penalty kill. When our penalty
kill slipped, our goals-against climbed. I know it’s obvious it’s directly
related, but it’s a reflection of our commitment without the puck.”
Colorado went 3 for 3 on the power play in a 5-0 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday and 1 for 4 against the Ducks.
Bednar said he plans to come back with Jonathan Bernier as the starting goalie.
Bernier took over for Semyon Varlamov http://www.buccaneersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-ryan-jensen-jersey , who sustained a season-ending lower-body injury on Friday and made 38 saves
against Anaheim.
Bednar has also been pleased with the line of Tyson Jost, J.T. Compher and Alexander Kerfoot, who combined for all three goals against the Ducks and
another in the win against the Blackhawks.
“That line has stepped up two games in a row,” he said.
.
