3 reasons to get excited for the Capitals in 2023

#1 A new leader behind the bench

The morning after the Caps lost their season finale to the New Jersey Devils Peter Laviolette and Brian MacLellan had a meeting and agreed to part ways. Now the Caps General Manager is casting open a wide net when looking for the next head coach.

But he’s looking for a rarity. He wants a guy who can manager stars AND develop young players. GMBM explained why:

"“Our group is changing. We’re trying to get younger; we brought in some younger players. It’s going to be different in that you want a coach that can work with young guys, and we’re going to have a veteran group at the top that kind of needs a veteran coach. It’s going to be a challenge to find the right guy for that. … I don’t know that we can find it, but we’ll do the best we can.”"

Some names that come to mind are Jeff Halpern and Spencer Carbery. Carbery coached the Hershey Bears before landing an assistant coaching gig with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Halpern is an assistant on the Tampa Bay Lightning. There may be more names that emerge after the first round.