Confirmed with Link: Washington Capitals Hire Peter Laviolette to be 19th Head Coach in Franchise History

[IafrateOvie34]

Safe choice with SC experience. I'm glad the suspense is over and they can focus on the rest of the offseason.

 

[Firsov99]

Love it!

 

[NobodyBeatsTheWiz]

Woot.

The guy I wanted instead of Trotz. I'm excited.

 

[tenken00]

Great hire by BMac and Ted. BMac got his guy and exhibits again why folks shouldn’t doubt him.

I like the hire and your enthusiasm, but BMac better have gotten his guy. Washington was the only coaching gig open lol. There was no other competition at all.

Its interesting that we were the only ones looking for a coach during a time when there were all these experienced coaches available. Maybe fortunate perhaps, but lets see how the team goes first.

 

[StrikingDistance]

What kind of ridiculous comment is that?

Are you lost? This isn’t the Isles board.

 

[Employee427]

Laviolette was potential candidate for the job after 13/14 when Trotz got hired and based on an old thread here a lot of people wanted him even back then.

Speculation: - Who should be the new head coach of the Washington Capitals?

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Laviolette was potential candidate for the job after 13/14 when Trotz got hired and based on an old thread here a lot of people wanted him even back then.

Speculation: - Who should be the new head coach of the Washington Capitals?

Always fun reading through old threads to see which hot takes turned out to be great and which ones... not so great. Some (i.e. almost all) of the hot takes about BMac turned out to be not so great. Also nice to see a bunch of old posters who aren't around as much (or at all) any more.

And I stand by my ABT (Anyone But Torts) comment

 

[Monsterrain]

Nice job bmac! What a waste of two years.

 

[txpd]

Nice job bmac! What a waste of two years.

and you would have done what differently?

 

[tycoonheart]

and you would have done what differently?

Throw money at Trotz.

 

[Hivemind]

Great hire by BMac and Ted. BMac got his guy and exhibits again why folks shouldn’t doubt him.

Was Todd Reirden not also BMacs guy?

 

[Hivemind]

Laviolette was potential candidate for the job after 13/14 when Trotz got hired and based on an old thread here a lot of people wanted him even back then.

Speculation: - Who should be the new head coach of the Washington Capitals?

This thread was quite a blast from the past. Some really hilarious stuff in there.

 

[Roughing]

Perfect hire. Been begging for Lavi for at least 1o years. Thankfully 2018 cured everything, ever.

 

[txpd]

Throw money at Trotz.

Trotz didnt want to return. Leonsis/MacLellan forced him to coach lame duck and he was leaving regardless. Throwing money at him wasnt going to work. The time to keep Trotz was before the season. Not after it.

 

[Brian23]

Vrana a blue Chipper?

Yes. I know you're a coach in the room and know more than me, but a dude who's put up 99 points over his last 151 games in the regular season is a blue-chipper.

Nobody played good defense under Reirden, but anyone under 28 is just a useless NHLer I guess.

 

[txpd]

Vrana was 11th in evg last season. With a typical amount of ppgs he is an all star

 

[Calicaps]

Trotz didnt want to return. Leonsis/MacLellan forced him to coach lame duck and he was leaving regardless. Throwing money at him wasnt going to work. The time to keep Trotz was before the season. Not after it.

And he hadn't earned it before the season. So they were wise not to do that then.

 

[filinski77]

Vrana was 11th in evg last season. With a typical amount of ppgs he is an all star

Not sure if I agree with this. Vrana is extremely talented, but his game just does not appear to mesh well with the powerplay. Obviously comparing Ovi/Backstrom/Kuzy/Oshie/Carlson isn't fair since they spend the majority of their time on PP1. But Vrana does not out produce Wilson, Eller, Orlov, Connoly, Bura, Niskanen etc in powerplay goals, which for an "all-star" would be pretty damn bad.

	19/20	19/20	19/20		18/19	18/19	18/19
	PPG	PPTOI	PPG/60		PPG	PPTOI	PPG/60
Ovi	13	333	2.34		18	357	3.03
Oshie	10	247	2.43		6	231	1.56
Kuzy	6	201	1.79		8	278	1.73
Wilson	5	125	2.40		3	88	2.05
Eller	2	120	1.00			104	-
Backstrom	2	228	0.53		7	295	1.42
Carlson	2	278	0.43		3	326	0.55
Orlov	1	97	0.62			66	-
Vrana	1	134	0.45		1	93	0.65
Connoly					1	75	0.80
Burakovsy					1	18	3.33
Niskanen					1	46	1.30

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

I hope Laviolette doesn’t cry and take his ball and go home if he doesn’t have an extension in 2 seasons

 

[Calicaps]

I hope Laviolette doesn’t cry and take his ball and go home if he doesn’t have an extension in 2 seasons

this. If BT had taken them to a EC or SC final in any of the 3 years prior, he'd have gotten his extension. If Lavi does great, he'll probably get an offer too. That Trotz was butthurt about not getting an extension he had not earned has always bothered me. And TBH, with the roster BMac gave him, his regular season achievements were only to be expected. He was brought in to go deep in the playoffs those years.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

this. If BT had taken them to a EC or SC final in any of the 3 years prior, he'd have gotten his extension. If Lavi does great, he'll probably get an offer too. That Trotz was butthurt about not getting an extension he had not earned has always bothered me. And TBH, with the roster BMac gave him, his regular season achievements were only to be expected. He was brought in to go deep in the playoffs those years.

I mostly agree, but in fairness the coaching job he did in 2014-15 was a terrific performance. The 2014-15 roster was better than it was under Oates but still not great and the organization as a whole wasn't in a good place. Trotz turned things around quickly and made them look like a team again. That said, his management of the rosters during the next two playoff years were pretty bad and I agree that he did not earn an extension prior to 2017-18. I actually wanted him fired after 2016-17 because he'd never been past the second round in two decades, and I figured if he couldn't get it done with better rosters... why should we think he could get them to the promised land with less talent?

Somewhat ironically, he's done the same for the Isles. Took a team that was coming off some tough times and got them back to respectability really quickly, but will have problems getting the team over the hump. I know he got the Isles to the ECF this year but I think this year is more of an anomaly given the strange year it's been with return-to-play. I honestly don't even think they make the playoffs this year if the season wasn't interrupted; they were in free-fall when the season was paused having lost seven or eight straight (can't remember) to fall out of the playoffs completely (or maybe just barely hanging on to the 8th seed) and Columbus, Florida, and the Rangers were all gaining on them and playing well.

 

[Corby78]

Throw money at Trotz.

he is now two coaches removed and you know it wasn’t that simple. Let’s give it a rest.

 

[g00n]

Not sure if I agree with this. Vrana is extremely talented, but his game just does not appear to mesh well with the powerplay. Obviously comparing Ovi/Backstrom/Kuzy/Oshie/Carlson isn't fair since they spend the majority of their time on PP1. But Vrana does not out produce Wilson, Eller, Orlov, Connoly, Bura, Niskanen etc in powerplay goals, which for an "all-star" would be pretty damn bad.

	19/20	19/20	19/20		18/19	18/19	18/19
	PPG	PPTOI	PPG/60		PPG	PPTOI	PPG/60
Ovi	13	333	2.34		18	357	3.03
Oshie	10	247	2.43		6	231	1.56
Kuzy	6	201	1.79		8	278	1.73
Wilson	5	125	2.40		3	88	2.05
Eller	2	120	1.00			104	-
Backstrom	2	228	0.53		7	295	1.42
Carlson	2	278	0.43		3	326	0.55
Orlov	1	97	0.62			66	-
Vrana	1	134	0.45		1	93	0.65
Connoly					1	75	0.80
Burakovsy					1	18	3.33
Niskanen					1	46	1.30

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

This is a very limited view as it only focuses on goals and doesn't compare assists or TOI/60.

Vrana is very good in PPP/60 the last 2 years. One of the best on the team, in fact. If you take out Jensen and Boyd's stats as outliers (see the PP TOI/G) then Vrana is behind only Carlson, Backstrom, and Kuzy in that stat among regular PP1 and PP2 players.

 

[txpd]

And he hadn't earned it before the season. So they were wise not to do that then.

If the Caps had given him a one year extention to kill off the lame duck, heads would have exploded here. I remember when the Nats did the lame duck thing to Dusty Baker. It was ugly. Turned out badly. Made the Nats look like shit.

 

[filinski77]

This is a very limited view as it only focuses on goals and doesn't compare assists or TOI/60.

Vrana is very good in PPP/60 the last 2 years. One of the best on the team, in fact. If you take out Jensen and Boyd's stats as outliers (see the PP TOI/G) then Vrana is behind only Carlson, Backstrom, and Kuzy in that stat among regular PP1 and PP2 players.

View attachment 367737

I get what you mean, I only factored in goals as the primary base, since I was responding to a post claiming he would be an all-star based on his even strength goals. At the end of the day, Vrana is a significantly better even strength goal scorer than he is a powerplay goalscorer. He will likely never be an all-star playmaker (which is fine of course).