A Capital change of habit for well-travelled Hagelin
WASHINGTON — Washington Capitals right-winger Carl Hagelin is a two-time Stanley Cup champion and has appeared in more playoff games than any other National Hockey League player since his post-season debut seven years ago.
It’s a whopping 125 games — the same number as his teammate Alex Ovechkin, who entered the league six years before him.
Yet this season, Hagelin, 30, has taken on an unusual label: journeyman.
With his type of accomplishments, who would have expected Hagelin to be on three teams in one season?
Hagelin went through a season of extremes over four months as he shuttled from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Western Conference’s last-place Los Angeles Kings before being dealt to the defending Stanley Cup champion Capitals.
“Like any person at a job, you are thinking you can be there as long as you can,” said Hagelin, one of the league’s top defensive forwards.
Before coming to Washington at the trade deadline, his 8 points in 38 games with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles suggested a wasted season.
But the old Hagelin returned to form with the Capitals. “A lot of years, I’ve had really good second halves, but coming here helped a lot,” Hagelin said. “I got my swagger back.”
But he has been held without a point in the first round against the Carolina Hurricanes. The Capitals lead the series, 3-2, after rolling to a 6-0 victory Saturday night.
The Capitals’ uneven play has resulted in coach Todd Reirden’s shuffling lines, sending Hagelin on just about every line. He is now on the fourth line and the team is waiting for him to create a spark.
Hagelin’s teams have eliminated the Capitals five times. He did it with the New York Rangers (2012, ’13 and ’15) and the Penguins (’16 and ’17).
In Washington, Hagelin found three fellow Swedes he knew in Nicklas Backstrom, Andre Burakovsky and Christian Djoos and group of veterans he faced again and again in the playoffs: Ovechkin, John Carlson, Braden Holtby and Tom Wilson.
Thus, it’s not a surprise that when Hagelin joined the Capitals, he felt an immediate connection.
“It felt like I already knew the guys on a personal level,” Hagelin said.
That started off with his fellow countrymen, who texted him and called him right away. They also took him out to lunch on his first day with the team.
“Backstrom welcomed me in right away, and I knew the other Swedes,” Hagelin said. “And there is a mutual respect here between me and a lot of guys because I have played against them so many times in the playoffs.”
But no one on the Capitals will call him a journeyman. “For whatever reason, it didn’t work out in Pittsburgh and L.A.,” Connolly said. “Everyone knows why he was traded here. He was traded for this moment right now.”