Todd Reirden had his ups and downs during his first season as head coach of the Washington Capitals.
Becoming a NHL head coach is a challenge of it’s own. Becoming a NHL head coach of a team that just won a Stanley Cup is a league of it’s own. That’s a challenge Todd Reirden took on when he was named the bench boss for the Washington Capitals. Although it was a weird situation, players were familiar with Reirden who was an assistant under former head coach Barry Trotz.
Given the keys to a defending champion, Reirden didn’t do too shabby in his first season. Here in Washington the fanbase expects nothing less than a Cup, and Reirden has room to improve in a window that’s still cracked open for a chance at another title.
The Capitals finished with a 48-26-8 record for 104 points to win their fourth consecutive Metropolitan Division title. They overcame suspensions, injuries, and the infamous Stanley Cup hangover to get back to the playoffs and secured home ice advantage for a jubilant fanbase still on cloud nine.
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The hardest thing about evaluating a coach’s performance is that there’s no singular stat to pinpoint. We have to look at how Reirden’s inserted certain guys into spots in the lineups and special teams as well as in game adjustments. Sometimes when a coach doesn’t have someone out there on the ice who could do better in that in-game situation, it makes you scratch your head and wonder if the result would’ve been different.
Reirden and his predecessor Barry Trotz similarly scratched Andre Burakovsky at numerous occasions when the winger was going through prolonged slumps. The fourth line failed to gel with Chandler Stephenson having a down season and Reirden opting to still play him over Dmitrij Jaskin, a forward healthy scratched frequently that only saw game action once after the trade deadline. Each coach has their own story about not giving someone a substantial amount of playing time. Jaskin’s is another example of how tough this business can get.
Reirden spent four seasons as an assistant coach to the Penguins prior to joining Trotz’s staff in 2014. Even though defense was his specialty as an assistant, it was a weak unit his first season as a coach. A big part of this was to injuries to Christian Djoos midseason and Michal Kempny’s season ender just weeks before the playoffs.
When Reirden was hired for the Capitals head coaching job and Trotz went to coach the New York Islanders, there was debate on which coach is better. Trotz’s Islanders swept the Pittsburgh Penguins the first round and were waiting in the wings. The Capitals had a 2-0 and 3-2 series lead against the Carolina Hurricanes but fell in a Game 7 double overtime that could’ve one bounce another way.
We won’t know who would’ve won that second round matchup between Reirden’s Capitals and Trotz’s Islanders but Reirden’s experience under Trotz’s wing as an assistant paved the way to a solid first season at the helm.
Grade B: Reirden guided the Capitals back to the playoffs and a team with lofty expectations nearly had another deep playoff run. While Reirden wasn’t perfect, he can adjust from his rookie mistakes and help guide the Capitals back to the playoffs for some redemption. The roster for next season has become easier to envision and Reirden can already start drawing up and game-planning ways to improve for a successful 2019-20 season.