There were physical examinations to take and equipment to pack. A final meeting with the coaching staff then punctuated the last day of the Capitals’ season at Kettler Iceplex on Friday.
It ended far sooner than anyone could believe with a shocking first-round Stanley Cup playoff loss to the Montreal Canadiens. It will be almost five months before the players gather again as a team in September — and not all of them will be back. All that was left to ponder on Friday was how the NHL’s best team during the regular season could fall so far short of expectations.
“If I knew that answer I might not be sitting here,” said Caps forward Matt Bradley. “It was frustrating that we don’t know exactly what happened. At the end of the day we didn’t get the job done.”
Washington blew a 3-1 series lead, losing two of the final three games at Verizon Center, and became the ninth No. 1 seed in 15 years to lose in the opening round to a No. 8 seed. During his meeting with the media, general manager George McPhee said that coach Bruce Boudreau will indeed be back next season despite the collapse.
“Bruce is a really good coach,” McPhee said. “He’s a really good coach. He’s here for a long time. There’s no need to raise those issues because he’s not going anywhere.”
McPhee has seven unrestricted free agents on his roster, including goalie Jose Theodore, defenseman Shaone Morrisonn and center Eric Belanger. He also has to negotiate new contracts with five restricted free agents — one of them is star center Nicklas Backstrom, who topped 100 points for the first time in his career and, at 22, is considered one of the game’s elite players. McPhee has a policy never to discuss contract negotiations in public. But he also made it clear the organization has always taken care of its top players. The team gave star forward Alex Ovechkin a 13-year, $124 million contract in December 2007. Backstrom could be looking at a deal almost triple his $2.4 million bonus-laden salary.
“I wasn’t thinking about [the contract] at all, actually,” Backstrom said. “I just do something that I love and this is my last year on the contract. We’ll see what happens. But the only thing I can say is I like Washington — the city and the team and everything. That’s the status right now.”
Theodore’s status, though, is not so certain. He had a salary-cap hit of $4.5 million and is free to sign with any team. With rookie goalie Semyon Varlamov starting the majority of the postseason games for the second year in a row, the writing may be on the wall for the 33-year-old veteran. Theodore finished the regular season 20-0-3, but was pulled after allowing two quick goals in Game 2 against Montreal. The Caps also have two fine goalie prospects at AHL Hershey in Michal Neuvirth and Braden Holtby.
“I really like the players here, we have a great team,” Theodore said. “I really like the fans. I feel at home here even though I only played two years. So obviously I want to get back … It’s a team that feels like we have unfinished business to do and I want to still be part of it.”
Belanger played well after his acquisition from the Minnesota Wild at the trade deadline in early March. He floated between the second and third lines at center and said Friday that the Caps expressed interest in his return and that the feeling is mutual. McPhee would say only that he will meet with his pro scouts and coaches over the next week to determine how the franchise wants to proceed in the free-agent market.
Belanger had a salary-cap hit of $1.75 million this season. Forwards Scott Walker and Brendan Morrison and defensemen Joe Corvo and Milan Jurcina are also unrestricted free agents. Walker said he had no commitment from the team on a possible return. The other restricted free agents include forwards Eric Fehr, Tomas Fleischmann and Boyd Gordon and defenseman Jeff Schultz.
One player who definitely will be back is defenseman Tom Poti. But for a few frightening days he wondered if that would be the case. Poti was struck in the right eye by a puck in Game 6 in Montreal. He had surgery on Tuesday to fix four fractures in his face. He broke his orbital bone, nasal bone and two others. Even worse, his vision in that eye went completely black as it filled with blood. Poti, who does not wear a protective visor, could not see for almost 30 hours and the feeling is still returning to his face. But doctors are confident the 33-year-old veteran will make a complete recovery.
“It will probably make me think twice about [wearing a visor] because I was so scared when it happened,” Poti said. “Will I play again? Will I see again? I’m definitely going to take a visor home with me this summer and toy around with it, see if I can get used to it.”
The worst part, Poti said, was missing Game 7 as his teammates struggled in vain to overcome another early deficit. Montreal outscored Washington 9-3 in the first period during the series and — other than a comeback overtime win in Game 2 — the Caps found it difficult to recover when they fell behind. The Canadiens blocked an astounding 182 shots in the series. That contributed to a 1-for-33 power-play performance by Washington and was one of many reasons it faltered. At breakdown day there was already talk of next season and what this team can still accomplish with a star-studded core of young players. But some also lamented what could have been in 2010 — a missed opportunity the franchise will never get back.
“When you’re a younger team and you’re so good, you always assume — and I’m not saying we did it — next year we’ll be good,” said Walker, acquired from Carolina in a trade in early March. “Eventually, as an older player, I can tell them that you run out of ‘next years.’ You have to make it while you can. When you have a team this good you can’t wait until next year. You have to do it while you can. You can’t look ahead. You have to prepare like champion, right here, today.”
