Live Q&As

Alan certainly knows the game and is very good on TV. I bet he would like to get into the pro coaching ranks, but he'd probably need to start as an assistant first, right?

I don't want to speak for Alan, but it would not surprise me if he is interested in joining the coaching fraternity. He definitely has the knowledge and communication skills to pull it off after gaining some experience.  

I wouldn't say there's no chance but based on my conversation with his agent, Mark Gandler, there are certainly some differences between Semin and the Capitals about his role on the team that would need to be sorted out.

Gandler wouldn't rule out Semin returning to the Caps and the winger said something similar to Russian reporters today at the IIHF World Championships. With a new coach coming in for next season, possibly with an entirely new system, nothing is out of the question. That said, I think Semin will see what options are available for him around the NHL given that he stands out in a thin free-agent pool.

Does Dale Hunter seem like the type who would allow a 26 year old to run him out of town?

Yeah, me neither.

When Hunter played Ovi 13 minutes in Game 2 vs. the Rangers, it was very clear who was in charge.

Had Hunter stayed, there may have been some fences to mend, but I don't think he felt he needed to give into Ovi the way Boudreau did.

You do need to tailor the team's playing style to that of the personnel, which is why it took so long for the players to "buy in". In some cases, the players were simply a poor fit for what Hunter wanted to do.

It was like when Mike Shanahan switched defensive schemes. If you're going to play a 3-4, you better have the right players or it ain't going to work.

Which brings me to my point: the Caps need to pick a style and stick to it.

I think Hunter laid the foundation for a defensively sound team. The next guy -- if the Caps choose wisely -- should build on that foundation rather than pour new concrete. Which means the Caps are going to need more hard-nosed players (think Backstrom and Chimera) and fewer freelancers (think Johansson).  

Alex Ovechkin CAN play a two-way game. And on some nights, he sort of does.

Alex Ovechkin needs to commit to playing strong at both ends every night. It's up to him now.

From what we saw of him this year, Dale Hunter is very straightforward. While there likely are more layers to his decision, Hunter has extremely strong ties to London, Ontario. The bulk of his family resides there or in his hometown of Petrolia, roughly an hour away, and many of them help run the OHL's Knights. One of the Capitals refered to the Knights as Hunter's "baby" yesterday (forgive me for not remembering who). That's about as accurate of a description as you can find for Hunter's role as co-owner of the team.

I do believe he enjoyed coaching in the NHL, though, perhaps not certain parts like daily sessions with reporters. And keep in mind that it's tough to compare Hunter to the rest of the NHL coaching landscape, because few among them have an institution to return to like he does in London.

Did Backstrom's injury have something to do with Ovechkin's decline in points? Yes.

Did the switch to a defensive system have an effect? Yes.

But at the end of the day, you are what your stats say you are. And 65 points had Ovechkin tied with Max Pacioretty, Logan Couture and Teddy Purcell.

Are those guys who would have belonged in the same sentence with the Great 8 a couple of years ago?

It's also good that Ovi finished fifth in goals with 38 -- a full 22 behind Steven Stamkos.

Excuse me for expecting more from a player who has a $9.5 million cap hit.

I do believe that they are a little better, both as individuals and as a collective, for having played under Hunter.

They learned some of the details of winning.

But, as you said, they didn't get beyond the semis again. Who remembers teams that are eliminated in the semis? Not me. I usually have to look it up.

Can he become a good two-way player? Absolutely. And he must if this franchise hopes to advance with him as their face and leader.

I don't think McPhee feels any pressure to hire an experienced coach. And if you look at his track record, in fact, the next coach won't be an NHL retread.

And, yes, I do think Johnson will have a conversation with McPhee. While Hunter was the heart and soul, Johnson was the Xs and Os guy.  

Rather than his exact system, I think Hunter's largest lesson to this team was in teaching them what it took to be resilient, what it took to leave a full and honest effort in every game in the playoffs and so on. That is what I believe the Capitals must find a way to carry into the future, regardless of who their particular coach is or what type of hockey he has them play next year.

Specific strategies and gameplans are bound to differ in varying degrees from coach to coach. Don't forget that even though Hunter helped make them a grittier, tougher team to play against, at their best the Caps played games that could go either way. All but one of their 14 playoff games were decided by one goal, a bounce or break here or there. They were in every game but they never dominated either, and that's a tough mentally taxing way to play a full season.

This is the burning question. What does McPhee want?

If you look at the teams that have success year in and year out, teams such as Detroit and Philly, they have an identity and they don't they don't stray from that identity.

The Caps seem to go with the flavor of the week. That needs to be addressed first and foremost. Who are the Caps? And then go from there.

Wideman, it seemed to me, lost his confidence at some point late in the season and never got it back. He struggled mightily in the playoffs, but he wasn't helped by playing with a similarly struggling Jeff Schultz.

I also have to wonder if his serious leg injury from the previous season hampered him at all. He didn't seem to move very smoothly, at times, after playing some big minutes while Green was out.

I don't know for sure, but I doubt Wideman will be an issue next season. Seems he'll get more money and term from someone else, given that he's UFA.

I must disagree with your comment about Semin. He was praised -- and deservedly so -- for his performance early against Boston. But he had ONE point (and a bunch of forehead slapping turnovers) in the Rangers' series. That's not good enough for a player of his skill level.

After Braden Holtby's postseason, it's tough to imagine a scenario where he isn't in Washington competing for NHL starts next season.

Holtby and Michal Neuvirth are both signed through the 2012-13 season and they'll likely share the workload here next year. At this point in their development it doesn't seem to make sense to bring in a veteran netminder again.  (Tomas Vokoun said yesterday that he won't return to Washington.)

From there, I'd imagine that prospect Philipp Grubauer will head to Hershey for regular starts and more experience after a successful tilt in the ECHL this past season. Journeyman Dany Sabourin's contract is up, but they could bring another similar player to back-up in the AHL and allow prospect Brandon Anderson more ice time in the ECHL.

I don't think so. Seems to me the Caps will enter training camp with Neuvy and Holtby as their goalies. The best one in the preseason will grab the reigns -- until he struggles.

From a salary cap standpoint, they are a very affordale duo.

Pressure. They cracked. 

Sun spots seems like a reasonable enough explanation to me....

That's the eternal question for the Washington region, I suppose, and one the Capitals keep trying to answer. 

I do not. I suspect the Caps, from management down to the fourth line left wing, will approach next season with a sense of humbleness. 

And if they don't, well then they don't get it.

I do not. He will command more money and term than the Caps will be willing to commit.

This is his chance to get paid -- and I doubt he'll pass on that opportunity.

I don't think that's going to happen.

If you're Ted, and you change GMs, then you're admitting that the franchise is pointed in the wrong direction. Means you want a whole new front office, from GM to the scouts to perhaps the trainers.

I don't think Ted feels the need to blow things up. I sense the owner does NOT feel that things are not irretrievably broken. Instead, I sense that Ted feels a tweak or the right coach can get the Caps to the next level.

I know some fans don't share that feeling. But as long as the Caps are selling out and making the playoffs, I don't think Ted is going feel the pressure to overhaul the front office.

Because he's 22 years old and will still be learning on the job.  I'm by no means saying he won't be here and likely see a significant percentage of the regular season starts, but even a strong playoff performance doesn't guarantee a No. 1 role. It will likely be a 1a and 1b situation with he and Michal Neuvirth until later in the season.

Look at the previous playoff runs as well:

--In 2011 Michal Neuvirth was the starter in the playoffs but wound up playing 10 fewer games in the following regular season than he did the year before.

--In 2009 Semyon Varlamov played in 13 playoff games but the Capitals turned to Jose Theodore to carry the load from the start of the next season. (Granted Varlamov's injuries played a part in both 2009-10 and 10-11, but you see what I'm getting at.)

I was sleeping until The Sports Junkies called me at 7:45 this morning.

Green is an RFA. I expect he'll get a QO -- and a year to prove he deserves a multi-year extension.

I would be very surprised. Doesn't seem to be McPhee's kind of guy.

Dick is involved in the day to day operations of the team. He's in on the big decisions. His biggest role, as far as I can tell, is controlling the team's purse strings, particularly when it comes to the front office's expenditures. 

And, yes, he does keep a low profile.

I don't think so. The Caps are tied to him and he's bound to the team via a monster contract.

But the fact that the question is being asked -- even by fans -- shows how things have changed around here.

Perhaps. But if you spend $$$ on a second line center and let your second line sniper go, who is the second line center supposed to set up?

Coaches don't have much impact on the team right now. Even if the Caps hired a coach tomorrow, he would have to wait until training camp before getting on the ice ice teaching the players his system.

When a star player and captain says that there were times that he didn't feel the team was "a group together" while numerous others described it as a tight-knit group with a mutual respect, that certainly gives the impression that the dressing room isn't all on the same page. 

At the very least, Ovechkin didn't have the same take-away opinion of the Capitals' dynamic at the end of the season that several others did.  

Karl Alzner mentioned a few times that the players occasionally had "yelling matches" to sort things out,  but that they were better for the openness. Maybe not everyone felt that way.

What if that style wouldn't have got them to the playoffs?

Don't forget that Dale Hunter went 37-37, including the playoffs and shootout losses, during his tenure.  Playing .500 hockey wouldn't have been a ticket to the postseason.

You're right. Johansson had a rough regular season and even tougher playoff (which was somewhat of a surprise since he was so good last spring).

He needs to develop an edge to his game. He got knocked off the puck too easily. He swung wide when he got stripped instead of stopping an engaging. He got creamed in the corners. He struggled on the faceoffs. 

He needs to pattern his game after Backstrom's. Get bigger. Get tougher and take 10,000 faceoffs this summer. I'm not sure he can be taught to get meaner, but that would help a ton, too. 

I'm not sure the Caps would be willing to take on another "lifetime" contract. They've already got two and Nash would make three. Nash also plays wing.

I believe Tarik addressed George McPhee's status earlier in the chat, but in any case I don't think he is going anywhere.

Changing a general manager means changing many, if not all, aspects of a team's hockey operations department and establishing a new vision for the future of the franchise. I don't believe that Ted Leonsis is looking to fundamentally alter the franchise in that way, even after a fifth straight season where the Capitals couldn't get past the second round. 

While it was the same result, the Caps were still within a game of knocking off the top seed in the East and it seems to me that they'll try to make smaller adjustments in the way of a new coach and new players.

Also worth mentioning is that McPhee is under contract until the 2013-14 season, as colleague Mike Wise reported earlier in the playoffs.

Wise: Hunter keeps his cool as Capitals advance

"Attempt" to move and "able" to move are two very different things. Schultz has two more years at $2.75 million. That would seem hard to trade at this point.

I do not.

I don't think he'll be back, even in a reduced role. He was a true professional to the end and never complained publicly about his lack of playing time. But you could see he wasn't happy here anymore. I bet he'll get an opportunity -- a one year deal or tryout -- with an established team like Detroit or Boston looking for one more veteran.