Last season’s debacle still fresh in memories
It has been 163 days since the Capitals last played a game that mattered. The awful memories of that Game 7 loss to Montreal in the playoffs last spring will never be erased completely. But on Friday night they at least can lose themselves in the grind of another NHL season.
“I know for myself I just want to play that first game and roll from there,” Caps defenseman Mike Green said.
Washington will open the 2010-11 season in Atlanta on Friday night, facing the revamped Thrashers, who have a new coaching staff and several new players sporting championship rings from their time with the Chicago Blackhawks last season.
Virtually every day since training camp began someone has asked a Caps player about last season’s first-round loss to the Canadiens. Failing to match their own lofty expectations haunts them. But think about it too much and it threatens to spoil what should be another fine season before it even starts.
“We have to be ready at all times,” center Nicklas Backstrom said. “That’s something we didn’t always do last year and the year before. It’s something we have learned hopefully.”
Washington made few personnel changes during the offseason. Every key offensive performer, including two-time league MVP Alex Ovechkin, returns. The team added 2009 first-round pick Marcus Johansson, and just two days after his 20th birthday he will start the season at third-line center. Caps general manager George McPhee also traded for D.J. King, a rugged fourth-line forward who gives his team the fighting presence it eschewed last season. Add forward Matt Hendricks, a late free agent signing who will battle for time on the fourth line, and that’s the extent of the changes.
“You’d rather go with the people you know. And the people we know got us 121 points last year,” McPhee said. “We had a goalie get hot against us in the last three games of the playoffs, and it hurt us. But it doesn’t mean we should rip this team apart.”
As for his own goalies, McPhee chose not to re-sign veteran free agent Jose Theodore and went instead with two younger players in net. Semyon Varlamov, 22, is on injured reserve, but Caps coach Bruce Boudreau hopes his young goalie is ready for a full practice Tuesday. The Caps have games Friday, Saturday, Monday and Wednesday. Michael Neuvirth — the organization’s other 22-year-old netminder — is expected to start Friday against Atlanta with veteran Dany Sabourin as the backup.
