Could Trotz leave the Capitals a winner?
Put aside the result Thursday night, or (if necessary) Sunday, or (heaven help us) next Wednesday. The National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup playoffs have shown us this much: Barry Trotz has earned the right to return to coach the Washington Capitals.
The question — and it’s really a question for after the finals against Vegas are over, but we have time to kill before the puck drops — is whether Trotz wants to come back.
Caveats: There is business at hand, the most important business in the 44-year history of the Capitals and in the 34-year coaching career that spans back to the University of Manitoba. Thursday night is Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final. Trotz’s Capitals lead Vegas three games to one. Neither coach nor franchise ever has ventured to this precipice.
Normally, a coach who has pushed his team to places it has never been has a future that is both sure and secure.
But Trotz has no contract for next year.
“We’re gonna address everything after the playoffs are over,” general manager Brian MacLellan said before the finals began. That makes sense, because who’s going to negotiate a contract with the Stanley Cup on the line?
But let’s be clear about this: If Trotz wants to coach in the NHL next year, he will coach in the NHL next year. He is fifth on the career regular-season win list. He now has broken through his personal barrier, getting past the second round of the playoffs for the first time. He has maintained a jovial public demeanour on what is an arduous road. He has coaxed from his team a commitment to play the way that is necessary for them to win.
And he has, recently, stuck to a creed that he no longer defines himself by the results he attains. During these playoffs, he has sought to divorce how he evaluates himself by whether or not he wins a Stanley Cup. Maybe, oddly, that’s helped him get closer than ever before.
“I have a clarity,” Trotz said before the series began. “If you don’t win any awards or anything, I’m not going to look at you any different. If you’re a good person and you treat people right and you live your life right, then I’m going to think really highly of you. If you don’t, I’m not going to think so much of you. And I started getting that clarity that everybody looks for the wrong in people rather than the right.”
Thursday night will be the 2,037th game for Trotz as a pro head coach. If he wins it, it’s possible to think he might say, “I need a break.”