The coach of the year award, or in the NHL’s case the Jack Adams award, has seemed to evolve into something that maybe isn’t exactly what it’s supposed to be. If what I’m about to say is true, and of course I wholeheartedly believe so, Peter Laviolette is probably not going to even come close to winning this award when the 2021-22 NHL season closes.
The Jack Adams award has turned into which team had basically no expectation coming into the season and had a good season, most likely making the playoffs and “took the league by storm”. Well, that is not the Washington Capitals and that means that it probably isn’t Peter Laviolette.
The Capitals are not a team that comes into most seasons with low expectations. So, there is strike one.
Something that could also cost Laviolette is the teams past. Not that the past is bad, but that the past for this team in terms of the regular season is very good. He took over this team during a very difficult season, had a good season and has done so again this year. That being said, Todd Reirden also had a lot of regular season success, as did the man before him Barry Trotz.
The point I’m trying to make here is fatigue. Everyone expects the Capitals success and therefore can have the tendency to overlook them. Think of other sports and people who deal with something like this. LeBron James should probably be MVP every year. But he’s great every year and people get tired of paying attention and awarding that. Same can be said of Tom Brady in football.
With the Capitals being great every season, no matter who is behind the bench, I’d call that strike two for Laviolette.
When you look at the job that long time NHL coach has done this season you simply cannot ignore the job he and his staff has done this season. The Capitals are currently tied for the top spot in the league with 43 points and a record of 18-6-7. That’s impressive in itself, but when you look at the Capitals season it’s not just impressive, it’s probably insanely unlikely.
The Capitals have been hit hard by the injury bug early in the season. At one point of the season (and now once again thanks to COVID) the team was missing what you would think is an entire line. Not just any line either, their second line. A very talented second line. Laviolette has been unable to ice the trio of Anthony Mantha, who has now missed 21 games, Nicklas Backstrom, who has missed 30 games, and T.J. Oshie who has missed 17 games.
Nic Dowd who is a big part of this team has also missed time over parts of this season. Lars Eller had to miss a bunch of time due to protocols. Justin Schultz got banged up earlier in the year, Garnet Hathaway is now missing time, as is Evgeny Kuznetsov. Without the last guy who knows where this team could be.
Bottom line, don’t look at the Capitals injury report. It’s long and a lot of teams would have a ton of trouble with the injury and health luck the Capitals have had.
But here is Peter Laviolette and his team. Sitting right near the top of the National Hockey League. A team that hasn’t really been close to being full strength this season. A team and a coach that has had to rely on guys who maybe aren’t very reliable.
Guys like Connor McMichael who coming into this season nobody knew how he’d perform. Or maybe a Martin Fehervary. Someone who had a lot of promise but not a lot of NHL experience. Who knows how he would have done coming into this season. Especially for a team with some defensive questions coming into the year. Those are just a couple of the young skaters that has seamlessly come into this side and helped this team get points every night it.
Laviolette has also had to rely on his young goalies. While Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov have shown great potential for spurts in their career they probably aren’t the most reliable just quite yet.
This Capitals team had plenty of questions coming into the season. They’re one of the best teams in the league. This team has had to deal with a ton of injuries and health concerns. They’re one of the best teams in the league.
I think we can all agree. What Peter Laviolette has done this season with the Washington Capitals has been outstanding. He deserves praise for it and if this keeps up he deserves to be rewarded for it.