Where do the Capitals go from here?

The Washington Capitals season ended with a four games to none sweep to the New York Rangers. The scoreboard won't actually tell you how close the Caps were in each of the four playoff games but they played to the final whistle at a party and dance they got invited to at the very last minute.

Now players and persononel will step back and reevaluate things. What went right for the Capitals this season and what went wrong. Some tough decisions will be made by few. The biggest story we learned after the game was that T.J. Oshie played through a broken hand. That news came from Dylan Strome when he talked to assembled media postgame.

For Oshie does he retire? We have a hunch there's going to be a retirment annoucment from Nicklas Backstrom. If those two hang up skates that give the Caps some money to spend this offseason for a top six forward. It's the one thing they desprately need but failed to acquire at the deadline but the house money worked as the Caps beat out a slew of teams to make the big dance in a weak Eastern Conference.

Then there's the goaltending. Charlie Lindgren clearly showed that he was the guy and Darcy Kuemper isn't. Do the Caps choose to move on from Kuemper? The veteran like Oshie has a cap hit north of $5 million. Lindgren beat him out for the starter's net and almonst singlehandedly willed the Caps to where they are now with his stellar play in between the pipes.

The Caps will also have some decisions to make on some young restricted free agents such as Hardy Haman Aktell, Connor McMichael and Beck Malenstyn. Caps certainly need all three back or at the very least McMichael.

In the meantime some players and prospects are heading back to the Herhsey Bears for their Calder Cup playoff run. The Caps loaned Hendrix Lapierre, Ivan Miorshnichenko, Vincent Iorio, Lucas Johansen, Dylan McIlrath, Haman Aktell, and Mitchell Gibson to the Herhsey Bears ahead of their Atlantic Division Semifinals matchup with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Today we find out more on what the players had gone through during this grind of a season. The exit interviews with the coaches and media will take place at 11 a.m. at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. It's going to be another long offseason but at the same time it'll be more time to get better.