Washington Capitals: Eleven Reasons To Be Thankful

Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Barry Trotz

Capitals’ head coach Barry Trotz, nearly single-handedly, has altered the trajectory of the team since inheriting the job two seasons ago. He’s given the team a new identity – an accountability that sort of half-existed before his arrival that gives any opponent that faces us a difficult time in executing their game plan. He’s been a perfect blend of a team “boss” and a guy that the players respect for his ability to see the game in a larger, slower and anticipatory manner.

When he met with Ovechkin two summers ago and reportedly talked for hours about his role with the team and what the team could accomplish by operating as a unit – he was quick to admit that he had miscast the scenario from afar as many other coaches and pundits had done before him. In gaining the players’ trust and proving his system’s worth, he’s given us a compass that actually works for this team. We have a direction now. I wasn’t so sure that we did before him.

I like his strong motivational tools that put the teams’ various mantras in focus. I like the philosophy of letting players play their own game offensively, but dictated expectations when play moves the other way. I even like how mad he gets at the refs for botching countless bad calls on the ice so far. He’s brought accountability and a plan and the players and coaches are really buying into it. Trotz has been an incredible coach so far.

So thank you too, Barry Trotz. You probably could have gone to any number of teams after the decision to leave the Nashville Predators’ organization was made. You picked us. And we so badly needed a coach like Trotz to grab the controls by force and put a singular vision in everyone’s head with a realistic blueprint in how to get there.

We got pretty lucky in the Barry Trotz lottery. Just imagine if he’d gone to the Flyers or the Rangers or the Penguins.

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