Does Bruce Boudreau take the fall if his Capitals make another early playoff exit?
Not sure if Alan May was being a faithful team guy or if he was speaking from the heart.
When I spoke with the former Washington Capitals tough guy-turned-TV analyst Tuesday afternoon, I asked him if Washington coach Bruce Boudreau would pay the price in the event his team was knocked out of the second round of the playoffs?
Speaking from the heart, I believe, May suggested there's no way Boudreau should be fired if the Capitals lose. May insisted the fourth-year coach, who won the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL's coach of the year in 2007-08, has done a remarkable job with the Capitals transforming them from an unstructured bunch of offensive nomads into a defensively responsible group that overcame a slow start to win the Eastern Conference title in the regular season.
"I think this was Bruce's most effective year of coaching in the NHL," May concluded.
He might be right. But somehow, after watching Washington lose again to Tampa Bay Tuesday night to fall behind 3-0 in their Eastern Conference semi-final series, you have to wonder about Boudreau's future. A win by the Lightning Wednesday would mean the Capitals have once again been disposed from the playoffs long before many expected.
Last season, after winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL's best team in the regular season, the Capitals were summarily dismissed in the first round of the playoffs by the upstart Montreal Canadiens. It was a shocking upset. Nobody denied the Capitals had some of the best offensive players in the league, but their defensive game left plenty to be desired.
With that in mind, Boudreau was determined to get his group to play a more responsible game this year. The transition was not easy and at times it looked like the Capitals were heading down the wrong path. However, the end result was Washington allowed 36 fewer goals than it did the year before.
Mission accomplished, right?
That depends on how you look at it. If the Capitals are swept out of the second round of playoffs, you can hardly call that a giant step forward, now can you? Also, the Capitals were once the most exciting team in the NHL, but this new commitment to team defence has snuffed the life out of the team. Sometimes being effective equals being boring. You change your style and win the Stanley Cup and nobody gives a hoot. But if you tone your offensive game down and then don't even make it to the conference final, that is not likely to go over too well when all is said and done.
The Capitals’ new approach also resulted in the team scoring 94 fewer goals this season. The player most affected has been the face of the organization, superstar Alex Ovechkin. One year after finishing third in NHL scoring with 50 goals and 109 points in just 72 games, Ovechkin placed ninth with 32 goals and 85 points while playing 79 games.
Ovechkin willingly bought into the team system despite the fact it cost him individual success and in doing so, learned to not take on so much by himself. For as dynamic an offensive star as he was under the Capitals’ old system, he had become somewhat predictable. You always knew if the Caps fell behind in a game, Ovechkin would get the puck and try to change things on his own. And yet even though he had five goals and 10 points in seven games against Montreal last year, his team was still upset and that's why Boudreau instituted the change in his team's system.
Ovechkin has once again been his team's best player in the playoffs with five goals and nine points in eight games and yet his team is on the verge of elimination. And therein lies the problem.
The expectations have been huge for the Capitals the past few years and to fall short again cannot be acceptable. General manager George McPhee may elect to spare his coach and further change his roster, but he may also decide that, as the old saying goes, it's easier to change one coach than 20 players.
Alan May just may be right. This might be Boudreau's most effective year as a coach in the NHL, but if the Capitals go out in the second round, it might also be his last.
