“Emotional goodbyes,” Lars Eller mentioned, “it’s not enjoyable, proper?”
By midday on Friday, because the Capitals gathered for apply, the lights within the staff’s places of work that overlook the rink had been on. The gamers on the ice didn’t know who is perhaps moved subsequent, or in the event that they’d be sporting a distinct uniform in every week’s time. A harsh actuality had firmly set in as they skated for practically an hour: with Washington’s season persevering with to spiral, the group is prone to be sellers on the March 3 commerce deadline for the primary time in Basic Supervisor Brian MacLellan’s tenure.
It leaves your complete operation in a precarious place — whereas the entrance workplace seems to retool for the long run and infuse the league’s oldest roster with youth, the Capitals nonetheless have a proud locker room with a veteran core that seems decided to push the staff again into playoff rivalry after six consecutive losses. And the group should steadiness overhauling its personnel whereas preserving a aggressive staff round Alex Ovechkin — a promise proprietor Ted Leonsis reportedly made to the staff’s 37-year-old captain final yr — as Ovechkin chases Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894 goals.
“This occurs on the deadline yearly,” Washington Coach Peter Laviolette mentioned. “There are groups which might be solidified method up within the standings. There are groups which might be down on the underside. And there are groups within the center … I believe organizations do what they really feel is greatest to achieve success, not solely immediately, however sooner or later as properly.”
Washington started Friday in 12th place in the Eastern Conferencehowever continues to be certainly one of six groups separated by only five points in the wild-card chase. It was lower than two weeks in the past that Hathaway was on his again on the ice at TD Backyard in Boston, spinning his hand in the air while celebrating his game-winning goal over the NHL-best Bruins. Twelve days later, with the optimism of that victory buried by the staff’s prolonged shedding streak, Hathaway and Orlov at the moment are on the opposite aspect as Bruins — and the Capitals could possibly be seeking to flip extra expiring contracts on their roster for future belongings.
Thursday’s night time commerce returned three draft picks, together with a 2023 first-rounder, and veteran winger Craig Smith, who was anticipated to hitch the staff Friday afternoon. It’s unclear if Smith will probably be prepared tom play in Saturday’s matinee in opposition to the New York Rangers at Capital One Enviornment.
Washington now owns six picks within the 2023 draft, together with two first-rounders, as properly seven picks within the 2024 draft and eight picks within the 2025 draft. The final time Washington had two first-round picks in the identical draft was in 2012, when the group chosen Filip Forsberg and Tom Wilson, a long-tenured ahead who has watched the entrance workplace tweak the roster on the deadline through the years.
“It’s robust when administration is guaranteeing strikes,” Wilson mentioned. “Our job in right here is to win each recreation we go into. That’s been our mentality since I’ve been right here.”
Whereas tearing the roster right down to the studs is probably going out of the equation, there could possibly be extra motion within the coming days earlier than subsequent Friday’s deadline. Washington’s roster is stuffed with items that could possibly be enticing to suitors across the league — it has a handful of high quality gamers on inexpensive expiring contracts, equivalent to 32-year-old defenseman Nick Jensen, together with a steady of veterans with invaluable playoff expertise, together with Eller, a 33-year-old heart. After Thursday night’s 3-2 loss to the Anaheim DucksJensen was requested about how he would method the approaching week with the prospect of probably being moved.
“It’s fairly easy for me. I’ve taken the identical method daily, each recreation and it’s gotten me this far. You present as much as the rink and you’re employed as onerous as you probably can and the chips fall the place they fall,” Jensen mentioned. “I at all times consider luck favors those that work hardest. I’m simply going to maintain doing that till my final recreation.”
On Friday morning, as he watched two of his teammates flip into rivals, Ovechkin mentioned he wished luck to each Hathaway and Orlov, his fellow countryman from Russia whose household had been shut with the Ovechkins over the previous decade in Washington. Orlov had been the fourth-longest tenured participant on the staff and a key cog in the Stanley Cup title of 2018. Now, he’s the headliner in Washington’s plans to probably reset, territory the franchise has not entered since early in Ovechkin’s profession.
“We’re gamers. It’s a enterprise,” Ovechkin mentioned. “We have now to do our job, play hockey and attempt to win some video games. It’s not in our palms.”
