The Washington Capitals announced the firing of head coach Todd Reirden of Deerfield, IL on Sunday according to ESPN. The news should come as no surprise as the Capitals underachieved this season. More was expected from Washington, but they could not get to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight year.
After being beaten by the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round with Reirden at the helm in 2018-19, the Capitals were once again eliminated in the first round in the Toronto bubble in 2019-20 as they were eliminated by the New York Islanders in five games. The loss to the Islanders in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs was simply extremely difficult for many in the Capitals organization to take. That is because the Islanders coach was Barry Trotz, the same head coach who coached the Capitals to a Stanley Cup championship in 2018. Not renewing Trotz’s contract was clearly the biggest mistake made by Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan, since he took over the role in 2014.
Reirden was clearly outreached by Trotz in the five game series. It was like Trotz knew how to defend every single Capitals player on the ice. If a coach had the opportunity to be the most valuable player of a series, Trotz would have won. He completely dominated Reirden, as he got the best out of every single one of his Islanders players. You simply cannot say the same thing from Reirden as every Capitals player except for Norris Trophy favourite John Carlson underachieved in the playoffs.
In two regular seasons, Reirden had a record of 89 wins, 46 regulation losses and 16 losses in extra time. Winning during the regular season was not the problem for Reirden. Winning in the postseason was and now he does not have a job.
The Capitals should strongly consider hiring Peter Laviolette, who ironically has a very similar resume to Trotz. Both have won a Stanley Cup (Laviolette with the Hurricanes in 2006 and Trotz with the Capitals in 2018) and both had great success coaching the Nashville Predators.
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