Bitter taste will linger
By: Brian McNally
Examiner Staff Writer
May 15, 2009
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| Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals skate off the ice after their 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 Wednesday night. (Getty Images) |
Capitals will have to wait until next season to make a deep championship run
The sting will last for months. The Capitals know this from experience now.
Their bodies need the rest after two exhausting Stanley Cup playoff series. But as the bumps and bruises -- and in some cases injuries far more serious -- heal over the next few weeks, it is the slow passage of time that will frustrate them the most.
As the Caps recuperate in places as disparate as Moscow and Regina, Saskatchewan, Gavle, Sweden and Bedford, Mass. they will catch up with friends and family back home. They will travel. Soon enough they will begin to train again for next season. But it can be an agonizing wait until training camp begins in September and a Stanley Cup run can begin anew. That's what the Caps are in store for after a shocking 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Wednesday night.
"It's not the [one] loss [in Game 7]. It's the whole series," said Caps forward Viktor Kozlov, one of the team's four unrestricted free agents. "It's hard to end this way. It would be easier if it was a different way. But it is what it is. Nothing can change. You have to live with that until next year."
After a 108-point regular season -- the best in team history -- and a second straight Southeast Division title, the Caps established themselves as one of the NHL's top teams. But even clubs as talented as the San Jose Sharks -- who had the most points in the league this season yet lost in the first round -- have found making the final leap to a championship can be maddening.
Caps general manager George McPhee and his staff have an elite offensive team with stars galore, a solid crop of role players and young goalie who had a breakout postseason. Now they must decide which parts to retain and what missing ingredient to add that will allow Washington to take the next step to the Eastern Conference finals -- and beyond. It's easier said than done. The league's salary cap is a confining presence and it isn't clear yet if it will rise or fall from this year's $56.7 million ceiling.
"We're very close to being a very good team. And maybe all it is is a little bit more maturity in some areas," said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. "And I think we'll be able to make that step. I believe next year we'd be very disappointed if we weren't in the final four."
