Stanley Cup winner Ovechkin may just be getting started
Golden Knights’ future bright after awesome inaugural year
WASHINGTON, June 9, (AP): It sure looked as if Alex Ovechkin was slowing down, at least by his standards.
This time a year ago, Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals were limping away from another early playoff exit. His 16 even-strength goals in the regular season tied for the lowest of his career. Injuries limited him to five goals in 13 playoff games.
Then a funny thing happened. Coach Barry Trotz took time from visiting his son in Russia to meet with Ovechkin and talk about changing and evolving his game at age 32. Time doesn’t stop, not even for the greatest goal-scorer of his generation. Trotz and general manager if he wants to be.
Trotz and Carlson, who set a franchise record for playoff points by a defenseman, can be free agents July 1 along with unlikely postseason hero Devante Smith-Pelly, trade-deadline acquisition Michal Kempny and longtime glue guy Jay Beagle. Washington will have to do some salary-cap maneuvering to keep Carlson, Smith-Pelly and Kempny in the fold but can break the bank for Trotz.
Following a roller-coaster, lame-duck season with presumed coach-in-waiting Todd Reirden still on staff, Trotz was asked if he saw a future for himself with the Capitals. He said: “Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.”
“I love what I do in Washington,” Trotz said. “I love the guys. I’m just in a good spot, a good place.”
Offseason priority No. 1 for owner Ted Leonsis and MacLellan is signing Trotz to a new deal — if he wants to stay. It’ll cost them. While the Washington Capitals celebrated their first Stanley Cup title amid strewn sticks and gloves Thursday night, the T-Mobile Arena fans rose and gave one more stirring ovation to the bowed, kneeling figures in grey sweaters on the other end of the ice.
The Vegas Golden Knights didn’t win the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season. Just being there was a stupendous feat — and their fans quickly reminded them that it will feel even sweeter when the immediate sting of losing subsides.
“You come to Las Vegas thinking you’re going to play hockey,” Knights forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “Instead, you find a home.”
After playing a significant role in healing a city scarred by a mass shooting shortly before their regular-season opener, the Knights went farther and accomplished more than any expansion team in modern sports history. Vegas blew past the NHL expansion records for victories (51) and points (109) while winning the Pacific Division, and the upstarts then cut a swath through the Western Conference playoffs with 12 wins in 15 games.