So with final cuts made Tuesday, Caps forwards Mathieu Perreault, Jay Beagle and D.J. King could breathe a sigh of relief. Not that it was any real surprise. Perreault was singled out for praise by Washington coach Bruce Boudreau after Sunday’s game vs. Chicago. Beagle all along seemed a favorite for a fourth-line right wing spot since the team let veteran Matt Bradley go in the offseason. Beagle also played almost exclusively with Matt Hendricks and Jeff Halpern this preseason. And the Caps need some kind of enforcer with John Erskine still not cleared for contact. That appears two weeks away, at the least. Hendricks can’t handle those duties by himself. So King made sense as a cheap option to keep other teams in line.
Perreault was the big story simply because you wondered if the organization had lost faith in him. Yes, he played 35 games in Washington last season. But after fast starts he’s tended to fade quickly. He’s a true center on a team with good depth there, especially if they keep Brooks Laich on the third line. Just didn’t look like there was a spot.
“And he was depressed when he got sent down. He was probably depressed with the organization at the end of the year,” Boudreau said. “But we told him we hadn’t given up on him or lost faith in him. There’s just things that he has to do to be solid and that’s why I’m continually on him in practice to make him better. It’s not because I don’t want him to be better. I want him to succeed. Quite frankly, he reminds me very much of somebody like me when I played.”
Looks like Perreault got the message his coaches delivered when he was sent back to Hershey for good after a Feb. 25 loss to the New York Rangers.
“It’s a day-to-day thing. It starts with your preparation,” Perreault said. “I got to do better with preparation, I think, get more sleep, get good food in me and take care of myself a little better and then from there come to the game and be in great shape ready to go. When my legs are there there’s no problems. This is what happened to me last year. Sometimes I would get tired and then this is when my game wasn’t as consistent.”
Beagle, too, doesn’t want to simply enjoy his accomplishment.
“It’s definitely a starting point. You’re obviously happy and very excited,” Beagle said. “But in another sense it’s just the start. The goal was to make the team and now it’s time to go and try to make an impact to help this team win games and eventually win the Stanley Cup.”
And Boudreau noted that’s easier said than done. A player making a team is one thing. Now the real competition begins.
“Because let’s face it there’s an awful lot of guys in preseason on every team in the National Hockey League that didn’t give it their all, but come Thursday the intensity and everything else is going to be ramped up an awful lot,” Boudreau said. “So if that was the best they’ve got – whether it’s the best player on our team or the worst player – if that was their best then it’s not good enough.”
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