Todd Reirden is out as Head Coach

Unsurprisingly, after capping off an embarrassing playoff series by getting shut out, Head Coach Todd Reirden was fired.  Seeing as it is nearly a given that Braden Holtby will move on, 2019-20 was widely seen as the last run with the 2018 Stanley Cup roster largely in place.  Thus, with Reirden failing to capitalize on that momentum and guide the team to at least the second round, and with significant roster overhaul on the horizon, it was only logical to officially move in another direction at bench boss.

The question then becomes who next?  Before answering that, Seattle will have the pick of the litter.  Though it is hard to envision a scenario in which the Capitals are not the second best destination, the Kraken will present a unique situation for a veteran coach to help shape a roster in his image.  Therefore, the Capitals coaching pool will almost assuredly be three of the following four:

*Peter Laviolette

*Gerard Gallant

*Mike Babcock

*Bruce Boudreau

Two Cup winners, one Cup loser, and one guy who failed to push to the next level everywhere he went.  Of the four, this blog would vastly prefer Laviolette or Gallant, as Babcock would probably badly misuse some of the Capitals talent (Tom Wilson, namely), and we have seen where the Boudreau train takes us, and it always comes up short.

Laviolette is a master tactician, establishing a solid system everywhere he has coached, including leading each of his last three teams to the Stanley Cup (winning in Carolina).  He seems to favor a more east-west game than is currently in vogue, but so does Barry Trotz, and this heavy, hard-hitting roster is built more for this style of play.

Gallant, on the other hand, after being treated like absolute dogshit by a dogshit Florida Panthers franchise, is an incredible motivator and unifier.  He brought together a team of [highly talented] castoffs and marched them to the Stanley Cup (where they lost to your favorite squad).  He forged an identity from this ragtag bunch and far exceeded expectations.  Things unraveled this season - this blogger does not watch enough Knights games to opine - but he was foundational in establishing the team's respectability and charting a path forward.  This latter point is why we think he will end up in Seattle.

Whichever coach Seattle signs, the Capitals should be left with an amazing, Hall of Fame caliber coach with much of his career ahead of him. 

Well that sucked

Your favorite team got rolled up by a stingy Islanders squad led by former Capitals HC Barry Trotz and goaltender Semyon Varlamov. And it wasn't pretty. Nor was it close. 

A few thoughts, before a deeper analysis (coming maybe this weekend. Maybe):

- John Carlson is not very good. He is great offensively. He is an excellent passer. He is barely a top four in the defensive zone, and got burned by the Isles time and time again, including getting pyloned on the second goal of game five, which really seemed to deflate the team

- Secondary scoring sucked. It did not exist. Not just in this series, but also in the round robin. The third line, as built with Hagelin, Eller, and Panik, earns a combined $9 million and contributed a grand total of 3 points in 21 games played (Eller missed 3 because of a child birth- but also played on the second line because of an injury to Nick Backstrom, and he STILL failed to produce). This is unacceptable.

- Primary scoring also sucked. Vrana laid a goose egg. Zero points in 8 games. Oshie scored 3 goals and 0 assists. Backstrom had just a single assist in 5 games. Wilson had 3 points in 8 games. That's not going to cut it (obviously, or else this post wouldn't have been written).

- Only six players scored goals. In 8 games. Including 0 from the blue line.  You cannot expect the same guys to carry the water all the time. 

- Holtby was solid, not that he had a choice, with Vanecek less likely to play than McMichael. He made some mistakes, especially in Game 1, which turned the momentum, but he was not the problem. It is a team sport, and the team in front of him was not good enough. 

- Is this an embarrassing enough loss to cost Todd Reirden his job? It is hard to say- especially before Seattle names its head coach. One has to think that a couple of big names out there on the coaching market are holding out until that job is filled. Namely, Laviolette and Gallant. Reirden was thoroughly outcoached, and if he is with the team at the start of the year, he will certainly have a short leash, but if one of those guys is still available, one would expect McLellan to look really hard at moving on to a proven winner to try to extract at least one more run with Ovechkin and Backstrom.