We try to read lips, but it’s not easy to know what our Capitals are saying.  Not unless a HBO crew is following them, or they’re within earshot of Pierre McGuire.

Luckily, Karl Alzner, John Carlson, Mike Knuble, and Matt Hendricks got mic’d up for the second round of the playoffs. Enjoy the sights and sounds of the Rangers vs. Caps. Tears and swear words not included.

Originally posted by James Heuser of washingtoncapitals.tumblr.com.

Photo via varlysuperfan.tumblr.com

After the Capitals packed-up their gear and met with management one final time on breakdown day, the 2011-12 NHL season officially ended. But for a few Caps stars, there is still more hockey to play.

The 2012 World Championships — which are being held in Stockholm and Helsinki this year — began on May 4th while the Capitals started their second round series against the Rangers. The Swedish and Russian national teams, both aware that several of their countries’ best players were still playing in the NHL playoffs, held roster spots open just in case those players’ teams were eliminated.

When the Capitals lost in Game Seven to New York on Saturday, it freed up Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, and Alex Semin to play for their national teams for a select number of games to end the tournament.

On Tuesday, all three players arrived in Stockholm after a long flight and had an eventful day.

Two hours after Ovechkin and Semin arrived together in Sweden, they hit the ice at Globe arena and practiced with third-string goalie, Mikhail Biryukov. The rest of Team Russia had the day off. Head Coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov announced that the Caps duo would play in Russia’s first quarterfinals game on Thursday and would be on a line with Detroit Red Wings superstar Pavel Datsyuk.

As soon as Backstrom arrived in Stockholm, he told the media waiting for him at the airport that, “I’m going straight to on-ice warmups, I‘d like to play tonight!” And play he did.

Backstrom had an assist and two shots on goal in 18:57 of ice time during Sweden’s 4-0 victory over Latvia.

“It’s fun to play here again and get my first game in,” Backstrom, in his first WC since 2006, was quoted by the IIHF’s official website. “We won, too, so that’s good, and we’re looking forward to the quarter-finals against the Czechs.”

Below, we’ve shared some of our favorite photos and video from the day that was.

Nicklas Backstrom Arrives in Sweden

Photos via sashastolemyheart.tumblr.com

Ovechkin and Semin arrive in Stocholm

Photo via sashastolemyheart.tumblr.com

Nice hat, Sasha Minor! (Photo by rsport.ru)

Photo via sashastolemyheart.tumblr.com

The Ovechhug: Ovechkin Embraces Semyon Varlamov

Photo credit: izvestia.ru

The hug happens at the 28 second mark.

GIF created by carrotbazooka.tumblr.com

Ovechkin and Semin Practice

Photo by championat.com

Photos via varlysuperfan.tumblr.com

Photo credit: sportbox.ru

Backstrom Plays Against Latvia

Photos via sashastolemyheart.tumblr.com

Photo credit: Greg Flume

The final day of media availability is often referred to by reporters as the longest day of the year — and probably the least enjoyable. The news about Dale Hunter deciding to go back to his digs in London created a lot of buzz, and stories were told– like about how Jay Beagle tried to put his skates on over his swollen, broken foot before Game Six. But the general mood was one of somber –- not surprising, given how close the team came to Eastern Conference Finals.

The Capitals have a handful of free agents to deal with during this offseason, but none of them are as high-profile or as controversial as Alexander Semin. Will he bolt for the riches of the KHL, sign with another NHL team –- or return to the Capitals? I didn’t expect a straight answer to the question, so we just talked about… well, whatever he wanted. That includes Hunter hockey vs. Boudreau’s open style, the success of Braden Holtby, and his ice time.

On the playoffs:

This really was, in a way, the first playoffs for me with such tension, the games… everything. It was really interesting and exciting, seven games, overtimes, it was fun. This probably was the most memorable year ever. The other ones we either went out in the first round, or like last year, we lost in four straight in the second round. This time, it was both rounds seven games, all were one goal games.

Yes, we lost, but you can’t dwell on it. Such is this game, the stronger one wins. Everything was in our hands, but they took it, and we didn’t. In the end they won. Of course you analyze certain chances, trying to think, why I didn’t score here or there, why we lost that or that one. But now it’s in the past and life goes on. You can’t get hung up on it.

On his health:

I was lucky to stay healthy this season. There were a couple of minor ones early in the season, but nothing significant. My first season in the NHL when I was able to pretty much play in every game.

On Hunter’s system:

We did not have the same system the whole year. I think if Hunter was with the team from the very beginning of the season, things could have turned out a bit differently. He didn’t have enough time to build the team the way he wanted; we just got comfortable with his system in time for playoffs.

The whole year it was up-and-down, we win a game, we lose a game. By the time we got to playoffs, the team finally understood how to play the game he wanted, defense first, no mistakes, blocking shots, all five guys together. But during the regular season, intensity is not the same as in the playoffs. In postseason, every goal is worth its weight in gold.

On Holtby:

I think we played just as well as the Rangers, maybe even better than them in some moments. Their goalie played great, but so did ours. I wasn’t actually surprised by how well Holtby played. I knew what he was capable of from last year when he won ten games in a row, so I knew if he was in goal, we’d be fine.

On Hunter Hockey vs. run-and-gun:

Of course, personally, I like to play the open style hockey more, the one we used to play. It’s more fun –- open, creative passing, creating things off the rush. That’s the style of hockey I enjoy playing, but I understand, like it or not, in the playoffs you win if you play defensive hockey.

And what about Semin’s personal struggle in the scoring department? He had always produced respectable numbers (in the first round of playoffs at least), scoring on average almost every other game. But in the second round, the Caps forward’s scoring pace over his whole career has been a disappointment, with one goal in eighteen games played, and none in seven games against the Rangers this year. Does Sasha have an explanation?

Yeah I don’t know, it was like I was under a spell in this series with goals. I had a couple of good passes, and overall I didn’t play badly, but it just wasn’t happening for me.

Was this series a bad one? Yes, result-wise it was, but if I look at the way I played, I don’t think I was that bad. I could even say I played rather decently. I don’t know what everybody else thinks, but I think if you create chances, if you work hard…

But of course, if you don’t score, that just means you’ve got to work harder. Patience and hard work will overcome everything. There is no other way. You can’t give up, it’s life, and we learn as we live. You know, if it were easy to score, if you score one after another, it wouldn’t be interesting. You have to fight through, come up with something new.

Unquestionably, Semin’s relationship with the press, both mainstream and “new media,” has been far from perfect. To a degree, this lack of rapport with the press over the years has contributed to the abundance of unflattering opinion and commentary about the 28-year-old. I was curious to find out what Sasha thinks about this.

I try to stay away from reading the newspapers, because often it’s just total nonsense. Sometimes you grab a newspaper after the game, try to read about the game I played in, and it’s just… I don’t even know how it’s possible, which game did this reporter watch? He watched the game, why does he need to invent stuff? Yeah I understand, to keep people interested… but I played in that game, so I don’t need to read this.

About my game personally, yeah, there always people [in the media] who are on your side, and those who are against you. Of course it is always interesting to read some really nasty stuff about yourself! Especially the comments on the internet, all those who pretend to be GMs, I would do this, and I would do that, and meanwhile they have never seen anything but computer in their entire life… somewhere in the basement, spewing nonsense. If you don’t want to have all those thoughts in your head, better not to read any of that stuff.

All this was great, but there was no way I was walking away from this conversation without bringing up Semin’s plans for the future. So, let’s talk free agency, Sasha. …Yeah, right! “There is nothing to say on that, and even if there were, I wouldn’t tell you,” he told me, flat-out. “For now, I just don’t know.”

That didn’t get me very far, so I tried a different angle. I brought up the recent news about Semin’s ex-teammate Sergei Fedorov becoming the General Manager of CSKA Moscow, the most storied hockey club of the Soviet era. And with one of the Russian Big Oil players RosNeft now sponsoring the team, and the exception from KHL salary cap for Russian NHLers returning home… “I talked to Fedorov [after he got the GM job at CSKA], congratulated him,” he said. “I am not surprised by [this development]. I think he will do well. He had a great career as a player, I am sure he’ll succeed in this one as well.”

“So, if Fedorov invites you to join him in Moscow…” I started my sentence, only to have Sasha glare at me, slam his hands together – and then we both laughed and moved on. “I am still under contract, so I am not even thinking about it. When we make it to July 1st, then we’ll see.”

We were almost out of time, as Sasha was running late for the 2 o’clock team meeting, and then off to the airport to catch his flight to Stockholm, to join Team Russia for the World Championship. We talked a little bit about the plans for summer.

“First, the Worlds,” he said. “Then, just rest. I have a summer house on Krasnoyarsk Sea [a huge man-made lake created by damming Yenisey River]. I love spending my time there. It’s quiet. Fishing – I love it. And lots of bears wondering around.” [Ed. note – Ilya, beware!]

Last of all, I asked him if he felt tired from hockey.

“Hockey is what I love to do. I just wish it wasn’t taken away from me, the way I lost ice time. If you are one of the team leading players, it’s just hard when you get just 13 minutes a game–but it was all for the benefit of the team.”

There was no sarcasm or bitterness in his voice, just a hockey player who wanted to play hockey. My #SashaCares meter was off the charts.

There were a few common themes to the Capitals’ last postseason interviews, before they went their separate ways for summer. The first question posed was always about Dale Hunter, who has made the decision to return to the London Knights franchise in Ontario rather than stay on to coach the Caps. The team expressed universal admiration and gratitude for what he brought to the Capitals in his short tenure, often focusing less on his system than on the character and sense of accountability he was able to instill.

There was clear disappointment at the early ending to the season, but a different tone to the team’s assessment of their year than the year before — many of the Caps mentioned that they thought they were able to go out in a way that they feel better about this year, though of course they’d all still rather be playing hockey.

Read on for the details of Jay Beagle‘s injury, Brooks Laich standing outside Hunter’s window holding a boombox, and Hunter’s odd career model for Alexander Ovechkin.

Alex Ovechkin

Alex Ovechkin had 9 points in 14 games, but it was his shot-blocking and his willingness dump the puck into the offensive zone that got him national attention this postseason. Ovi, dressed in casual Nike leisurewear, spoke mostly about Hunter, mentioning that he reminded him of an old coach.

He said that moving forward, the leaders in the room will have to continue to be cohesive, as he felt they were near the end of the year. “I think at last, we were a team in the playoffs. I don’t know if you guys see that or not, but I was in the locker room, I was on the bus, I was playing, and it was a team. You lose like a team and you win like a team.”

“I think he just bring a system right away, when he came to the locker room,” said Ovechkin of Hunter. “It doesn’t matter if I like it or not, I have to play it because he’s my coach. Again how he said, you have to be a plumber, so I was a plumber.”

Ovechkin will now travel to Stockholm to play for the Russian National Team in the World Championships.

Braden Holtby

Braden Holtby, dressed in some kind of strangely cowl-necked sweatshirt, said it has been a season where he had to “grow up fast,” but denied the pressure was ever really on him.

“This has been the place that I’ve wanted to be forever. Obviously it’s not the result that we wanted, what I wanted, but it shows that we do have the capabilities in this dressing room and as an organization to give ourselves a chance every year to win a Cup.”

When asked about what he would take away from Dale Hunter’s coaching, Holtby emphasized his patience, and his willingness to let the team find its own identity. “There’s usually a lot of pressure on guys put on through coaches and whatnot to figure things out quick, I think he was very patient. That was what we needed as a group.”

Holtby said he looks forward to competing with Michal Neuvirth for the starting position, and with Tomas Vokoun leaving Washington, it seems that he will get a chance to do so.

Brooks Laich

Brooks Laich, still defiantly unshaven and looking like a handsome extra in a period drama, seemed perhaps most visibly affected by Dale Hunter’s departure. He repeatedly expressed admiration and respect for the coach, saying that he is still trying to talk him into staying.

Though he expressed disappointment at the way the season ending, he only had good things to say about the chemistry in the room near the end of the year. “It was the tightest-knit group and the hardest-working group that has been here, I believe. The team that played two nights ago was the hardest-working team I’ve ever been a part of, and the closest. The atmosphere and the culture has really changed, and everyone is of equal importance.”

“It’s a different feeling going home this year than it was last year.”

Dennis Wideman

Dennis Wideman, dressed in cowboy flannel, said he understands Dale Hunter’s decision to return to London, having played there in the past. “It’s a great city,” he said. “I still try to get back there as much as possible. All his family is there, his kids are there [...] I think it’s just where home is for him.”

He said he has not yet talked to his agent about his impending UFA status, but confirmed that he’d like to be back. “Why not,” he said. “Yeah, I’d love to be back.”

George McPhee

George McPhee was dressed incredibly sharply, of course, and broke the news about Dale Hunter stepping down. “I thought he did a great job of coming in and helping us out,” he said, explaining that the front office has known that his stay could be a temporary one. “Trying to hire a coach in the middle of the season is a difficult process, the vetting process there is a long one, and so to have Dale to be able to come in, even if on a temporary basis, was something we liked a lot.”

He said that he plans to take his time and be deliberate in choosing a new coach, and that the process may go into July or August if necessary. He also gave an update on Evgeny Kuznetsov, saying that they’ve talked to his agent, and he is not going to make it over to the NHL this season. “He’s a young guy, he’s only twenty years old. We understand why he may not want to leave yet, but at some point, he’ll want to come to this league, it’s the best league in the world, and he’s a heck of a player.

Jason Chimera

Jason Chimera, wearing a gray V-neck shirt of mourning, admitted that the Game Seven loss was very painful, saying “I’d be lying to you if I said it doesn’t hurt. It hurts, it hurts quite a bit.”

He talked about the difference between the road to the playoffs this year than in other years. “I think this year we kind of battled our way to get in, we kind of went through a lot of stuff during the year, kind of of ups and downs, we got ourselves in, we gave ourselves a chance.”

He called previous seasons “easy” compared to this season’s struggles. “This year it was kind of — a lot of guys had down years offensively, we struggled as a team to get in. Once we did, I think we kind of came together. That says a lot about us. That’s what I’ll take away.”

Jay Beagle

(Here he is really, though.)

Jay Beagle, wearing a cotton shirt in a lovely shade of sky blue, revealed that he broke his foot blocking an Anton Stralman shot in Game Five, though he still continued to play the rest of the game. He said that he felt “useless” on the ice, taking fifteen and twenty-second shifts by the end of Game Five, but that he didn’t want to leave his team a man short.

Though he’d had his foot X-rayed by Game Six and was aware it was broken, Beagle says he tried so hard to play through it that he was dressed and walking down the tunnel before Hunter and the team trainers pulled him aside. “It was better for the team not to play,” he said, “although it was hard obviously to get undressed while your team is about to go to an elimination game.”

It was almost even more difficult for him to watch Game Seven from home, after having surgery on his foot that ended his season for good. “It was tough to be a spectator, it was tough to watch,” he said. “You hurt for the team, and in the other aspect, you kind of hurt for yourself that it’s over.”

Jeff Halpern

Jeff Halpern, looking like somebody who has barely dragged themselves out of bed to go to the grocery store after a bad breakup, said he does plan on playing next year, and will prepare the same way during the summer regardless of his USA status. “It wasn’t the finish to the season I personally would have liked,” he admitted. “The team was doing well, but as far as for my own personal career and future, you hope that there’s a lot of other opinions out there.”

He said he was happy to get back into the lineup in the last few games, and said he felt very good by the second game that he played. “I was unhappy,” he said of the long stretch he spent in the press box. “I wouldn’t expect anyone to not be in the lineup to be happy about that. You try to come to the rink, you try to have a smile on your face and support the guys as much as you can. I tried to do that as best as I could.”

He said the biggest change in returning to the area after many years was the difference in expectation for hockey in Washington, saying he was surprised at “how much hockey has grown to be not just a fun sport to be a part of, but an important team in this area.”

John Carlson

John Carlson, wearing a “74″ Caps hoodie, didn’t seem concerned about his upcoming RFA status, saying “I think that hockey makes it pretty simple, the way things happen when you’re young. I certainly can’t complain, I’ve been given a great situation since I’ve been here. I like the city and I like playing here.”

It was clear his mind was still on the season just behind them, saying that the loss “sucked a little more” because of how hard the team had been playing. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you lose, I think everyone is just as disappointed, but maybe you take a little more out of it than say, last year.”

Karl Alzner

Karl Alzner, wearing a baseball sleeve tee and new stubble in place of his glorious beard, used three “very”s to get across just how well-liked Dale Hunter was by the players, saying he “transformed” the team into a team that “works extremely hard, is very honest, one that I think that other teams don’t like playing against.”

He said he never had trouble adapting to Hunter’s defensive style of play, pointing out that he never sees the puck carrier anyway unless he’s trying to check them. He acknowledged the overall growing pains the team went through this year, though, saying there were “meetings and shouting matches”.

“When you have that and get that out in the open, things usually gets better after that,” Alzner said. “Kind of a stupid saying, but someone said it and it was perfect — you got to crack a couple eggs to make an omelet. That’s exactly what’s happened, we kind of broke things down and slowly start to build it up. It’s going to be exciting to see how everything pans out.”

Matt Hendricks

Matt Hendricks, in a blue cotton t-shirt, said it was going to be a tough couple of weeks watching the rest of the postseason play out. “It doesn’t get any easier.”

He said Dale Hunter’s most significant impact on him was giving him confidence, and the opportunity to play a significant role on a team. He said he does not expect that’s something he will lose, and that he now knows he can contribute on an NHL level.

“He gave me that chance, and he worked with me until I did exactly what he wanted me to do, night in and night out. Once I achieved that, he started giving me more and more opportunity, more minutes, to prove to him, and myself, and the team that I can do that. Without him giving me that chance, I’d still be looking at myself as a fourth-line guy that fights, and scores a little bit. Now I feel like I have a better role, and a bigger year.”

Michal Neuvirth

Michal Neuvirth, wearing a gray shirt and a distracting silver chain, confirmed that his injury was to his hip flexor. He said that he was disappointed that things happened the way that they did, but that he understands he has no control over that kind of accident. “These things happen.”

He said that he was able to get close with Tomas Vokoun in his time here, and that he picked up a great deal from the veteran goalie, both in conversation with him and simply observing him in practice and in the games. “He gave me a lot of his thoughts about the game,” Neuvirth said. “I can’t say one bad thing against him.”

He said that he does expect to compete with Braden Holtby for the starting position next year, but pointed out that it doesn’t matter who starts the first game of the year, and said that was one of the biggest lessons he has learned in his NHL career so far.

Mike Green

Mike Green, very matchy-matchy in a red Reebok shirt and red hat, acknowledged that it was a difficult season for him, missing games with injury early in the year and seeming to struggle to find his scoring touch when he began playing regularly again.

He seemed confident that he’d found his groove again, though, later in the season and into the postseason. “I felt mentally the best I’ve ever felt, and physically — you get your bumps and bruises. I feel great, I feel like I did four or five years ago on the ice, and that’s comforting for me.”

He wasn’t willing to get into specifics regarding his upcoming UFA status, but like Carlson, expressed a desire to stay in Washington. “I’m excited to come back if that’s the game plan,” said Green, “and that’s what I want, so we’ll see. I love it here, it’s a great organization, a great city, I believe we’re going to win a Cup here, and I want to be part of it.”

Mike Knuble

Mike Knuble, in a brownish-beige polo shirt, says he’s open to playing next year and that he feels healthy, with no nagging injuries. “Mentally too,” he emphasized. “I still enjoy playing the game, I still enjoy coming out to the rink every day, I enjoy being around the other players. I think that’s half the battle, is wanting to be there as you get older.”

He also lent a veteran voice to the search for the Stanley Cup, saying that he does think the Caps are very close. “Everybody’s got that microscope out at the end, trying to figure out what separated this champion from everybody else this year. Some people kind of chase that, try to build their team that way, and then that flavor of the year changes the next year. I think the personnel in there, the guys in the room are good players who care about the game and want to win. I think this year got a little more of a taste. A bounce there, or two, and we could be playing hockey right now. But we’re not.”

Tomas Vokoun

Tomas Vokoun, wearing a black athletic shirt, says he feels healthy as this point and is prepared to test the UFA market. He said he did not plan on being back in Washington, and that it was never his intention to be in Washington for more than one year.

He did express disappointment at not being able to play in the postseason. “I waited for a chance like this for a very long time,” he said, “and you get hurt — that’s life. Worse things happen to people. It just didn’t work out.”

Vokoun has been rumored to be headed to Russia to join the new Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team in the KHL.

Troy Brouwer

Troy Brouwer, surprisingly looking as if he has actually seen a hairdresser in the past month, said he thinks the team will be able to maintain the things they learned from Dale Hunter in his short time coaching. “I know it’s a long summer here, but hopefully guys remember that to win in the playoffs, you have to sacrifice, block shots, do the right things, and that’s just what he tried to instill in us the entire time he was here.”

He had praise for Jay Beagle and his attempt to play in Game Six, saying he was an ideal teammate. “The way he was walking, the way he was feeling it, it was kind of clear to the guys how it would turn out, but we love the guy for trying like he did.”

Nicklas Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom, wearing a white cotton shirt and at least two chains, said the team really came together when the playoffs began, starting with the first game of the Boston series and feeling stronger in the system as the postseason went on.

“For me personally it’s been a little up and down, with my concussion,” said Backstrom, who missed 40 games this season with a head injury. “I think I’ve been doing all right, when I’ve been playing. But as a team, I think we’ve actually been better than people thought, and we’ve been changing a lot of things a lot of people didn’t think could happen.”

“I think everyone worked hard,” he said, when asked what lasting impression Hunter would have on the team. “That’s something I’m always going to remember. Work hard, and good things happen to you.”

Dale Hunter

Photo credit: Rob Carr

Dale Hunter is finished as the head coach of the Washington Capitals. Whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing seems to be a 50/50 split. How fitting for a coach who played what J.P. called “coin-flip hockey.”

Hunter is being praised for bringing accountability and commitment to the Capitals. Shot blocking totals are evidence of that. But regardless of the invaluable cultural changes Hunter enacted in D.C., I think his leaving is for the best. Let me tell you why.

Dale Hunter coached 74 games with the Capitals– 60 in the regular season and 14 in the playoffs. The Caps won 37 of those games– giving Hunter a win percentage of .500. Seriously. He won exactly half of his games. Coin flip.

If he were to coach another season, we could expect Hunter to win 41 games. Since the lockout, seven Eastern Conference teams with 41 wins or more missed the playoffs. Do you want to play those odds?

I know what you’re thinking: Hunter had to take the reins midseason and change systems. How about cutting him some slack for the adjustment period?

Deal. If we exclude Dale’s first 20 games (about 45 days, much longer than the preseason) to make adjustments, his record actually gets worse. Really, Hunter’s Caps played their worst hockey after that: in late February and March (when I was writing all those dour Capitals During Wartime pieces).

This chart shows Dale Hunter’s win percentage (broken into luxurious 20-game moving averages). The blue line represent .500 hockey (which we already know is no guarantee of postseason play). The Caps were playing wretched hockey from around game 55 to 75 (February 12 to March 23).

There are a lot of conclusions we can reach here, but the most important is: this is not model for a successful hockey team. So let’s figure out why.

Starting in back, with the goalies.

Look how closely this chart of the Caps’ even-strength goaltending matches the win percentage above. It’s not unusual for a team’s success to correlate with goalie performance. What is unusual is exactly how good the goalies had to be for the Capitals to win. Anchored by Tomas Vokoun, the Caps stopped between (an average of) 93 and 95% of shots for more than 20 games. And with that, the Caps managed only to win just 1 game over .500. They should have been running away with the division.

So why didn’t they? Possession.

The Fenwick stat is a proxy for puck possession (how much your team has control of the puck). It’s the sum of all even-strength shots on net, goals, and misses subtracted by the same total for the opponent. (CAustin at Raw Charge has a pretty good explanation of this, similar stats, and why they matter.)

The Capitals averaged a modest minus-4 Fenwick during Hunter’s time. That respectable number is due to a huge recovery from the very sad place the Caps were around game 50. But the Caps didn’t win even then due to faltering goalie stats (as seen above), and then the possession advantage soon fell off again.

As I documented on Monday, I think it was the Caps’ inability to shoot the puck that cost them the playoffs.

Further, I think that the Caps’ dedication to shot-blocking, while it may have engendered warm feelings, was just a savvy way to mitigate the possession disaster of Hunter hockey.

And here’s the crucial part of my argument, so I’ll try to be precise here.

NHL coaches determine how their teams play. The totality of a team’s tactics and standard-operating procedures comprises its systems. It’s how you run the power play, how you break out of your zone, how you forecheck, how you enter the opponent’s zone, how you cycle, how you set up shots, how you backcheck, how you cover your own zone. All that and more.

Hunter had 74  games to implement his system. Even with blanket amnesty for the first twenty games, the Capitals couldn’t win with some of the league’s best goaltending because their systems wouldn’t let them: their offensive style was too buttoned up for the creativity of their forwards, and their defensive coverage plan was too agile for their not-all-that-quick blueliners.

Later in the season, they lost games they frankly should have won. But in the playoffs we saw the old pattern again: a team getting dramatically outplayed on the ice getting bailed out by a goalie playing exceptionally well.

And the shot-blocking, of course. But while Alex Ovechkin blocking with his backside and Alex Semin diving in front of a shot may stir up warm feelings and sentimentality, they don’t actually win hockey games. Tallying up a big block total is just one way to lose slightly less pathetically. Real winners own the puck.

I’m glad that the Capitals have the summer to formulate a new way to play their game. They can take the best parts of Hunter’s style– its defensive coverage and penalty kill– and combine it with an offensive approach that will generate more shots on goal. Without Tomas Vokoun‘s sturdy backstopping and possibly without Alex Semin’s scoring, the Caps are really going to need a more rewarding system.

I really do like Dale Hunter. He was playing when I saw my first hockey game as a kid. This March I ran into him in Clarendon and we had a very friendly conversation. He ran a team that played as a unit– even if that unit was just average. He brought accountability to a lawless town. He loved the big games.

He’s a great guy, but he didn’t have what the Washington Capitals needed. He can’t take them any further.

There’s a chance I’m completely wrong here. Maybe I just don’t understand Hunter hockey and its subtleties. But he never articulated it that well, and so all I’m left with is this:

Here’s what Dale said in his final post-game presser, via the indispensable Clydeorama:

Yeah, you know, some long it’s it’s the right way to play and you know and, ah, you know to to win and and ah that’s what you have to play it and you know it’s ah next year we’ll you know you can you can always start off and ah that’s your goal to win.

Oooookay. Got it, Dale.

I don’t want to be snide here at the end. Dale led this team we love so much as far as anyone has in the last 10+ years. That’s how we’ll remember him. Well, that and the whole Pierre Turgeon thing.

Thanks for everything, Dale.

Photo credit: Robb Carr

Dale Hunter played 872 games as a Washington Capitals player. He lasted just 74 behind the team’s bench.

“When I retired as a hockey player I had to retire because I was not that good anymore,” Hunter said with a laugh at his final press conference at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “But this was a tough decision.”

Hunter’s choice was not easy to make. But the reasons that ultimately lead him to make the determination seem clear. The 51-year-old former Caps captain is heading back to London, Ontario to rejoin his family and his empire. There, he co-owns the OHL’s London Knights with his brother Mark. The siblings run everything. Before taking over as Washington’s bench boss, he served as the junior club’s general manager and head coach, positions that his brother assumed in November. The team finished this season with a 49-18-1 record, winning the OHL championship. They now have a chance to take home the biggest prize in juniors, the Memorial Cup.

“I’m going home,” Hunter said Monday. “I’ve got a good thing going at home there and I’ll stay there.”

The Knights are entwined in the Hunters’ DNA. Mark (who is also a former NHL player) and Dale have owned the team since 2000. Since then, they’ve overseen the construction of a nearly 10,000 seat arena for the club, three OHL championships, and a Memorial Cup victory in 2005. The Hunters have also been part of the development of many NHL players, including current Caps John Carlson and Dennis Wideman along with stars like Patrick Kane.

“It’s family business,” said Hunter. “My dad is 76 and he still scouts for us.”

He added: “I’ve been home for a while there. Everybody is a part of the team there, the farm is there, so we’re all a part of it there and something you’ve just got to go home. … My dad and my other brothers, they all go [to Knights game]. My sisters, they go to the games. My other son lives two or three doors down, he goes to university there and my daughter lives there, so pretty much everyone is there.”

After Hunter informed Capitals General Manager George McPhee of his plans at 10 o’clock Monday morning, the GM said he didn’t try to change his mind — he understood his motivations.

“He’s going to head back to London and I guess we’re all fathers and sons and husbands first, before anything else, and if we have our priorities right in this life family comes first,” McPhee told reporters. “Dale needs to go home.”

Photo credit: Nick Wass

While Hunter seemed content with this decision — he was chuckling throughout his last session in front of D.C.’s hockey media — his players were clearly disappointed. When Hunter took over the Caps were a disjointed mess. And for few months under the new coach, they remained that way. But as the season slogged on, they began to embrace Hunter’s low scoring and tight-checking system. Players used to scoring goals started playing defense and blocking shots and seemed to take their diminished ice time in stride. Players used to playing defense and blocking shots started playing more defense and blocking even more shots — sometimes with painful consequences — as their roles became pivotal. But most importantly, the team seemed to be playing as a single unit, composed in even the most adverse moments. And that stemmed from the man standing behind them on the bench.

“He made everybody extremely accountable,” young defenseman Karl Alzner said. “He really transformed this team, I think, into a team that works extremely hard, is very honest, one that I think that other teams don’t like playing against.”

Brooks Laich — a well known a fan of previous coach Bruce Boudreau — agreed.

“He taught us as much about leadership and team aspect and respect amongst players and trust in your teammates as he did about hockey,” said the forward. “There were some things culture-wise that had to be adjusted in order for our team to succeed and I thought he did a great job of doing that, put it a step in the right direction.”

For the first time in 10 years, the Capitals are without a head coach as they head into the summer. It will be McPhee’s first offseason search for one as a general manager, a choice that he will take his time with. But he isn’t bitter over Hunter’s decision. Like his players, McPhee believes Hunter’s lessons were invaluable. And regardless of the next coach or playing style, GMGM thinks they will stick.

“I’d rather have him for six months than not at all,” McPhee said. “He had quite an impact on this club. He really taught this club the how of how to win. They all wanted to win, they just didn’t know how. The how is being a team and sacrificing and he sure got that out of this club.”

Additional reporting by Ana Hansen.

Photo credit: Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times

Tomas Vokoun, who was sidelined with an injury during the playoffs, announced at Kettler Monday that he will not be back next season. The Veteran Czech netminder, who signed with the Capitals last July to a one-year deal at the surprisingly low rate of $1.5 million, is rumored to join the new Lokomotiv squad.

As per the Czech website iSport.cz:

Behind the hockey scenes, there are talks that he [Vokoun] will be a goaltender for the Yaroslavl [Lokomotiv] in Russia!

[...]

Sport talked to a few scouts and players in Russia, and all of them confirmed: “We heard about it”. Some even added: “That’s a sure thing”.

If Vokoun joins Lokomotiv, that will make a lot of sense. He lost one of his best friends, former Hurricane Josef Vasicek, in the Yaroslavl tragedy last September. There were three Czechs on the team: Vasicek, Jan Marek and Karel Rachunek.

Vokoun told Washinton Times’ Stephen Whyno in October:

“I consider Josef’s family like my family. It was so hard to see his parents and obviously his girlfriend and everybody,” Vokoun said, speaking about the crash publicly for the first time. “Such a tragedy when somebody dies like that and they’re 30 years old, full of life. He was supposed to be getting married and all that, so it’s not an easy thing to understand.”

Lokomotiv is putting together quite a roster. Among the players who have signed with them are Latvian star forward Mikelis Redlihs; one of the KHL’s best defensemen, former Caps prospect Staffan Kronwall; former Cap Viktor Kozlov as well as another player with NHL pedigree: defenseman Vitaly Vishnevsky.

Tomas Vokoun will be backed up by another veteran goalie, Vitaly Kolesnik. Despite both Kolesnik and Vokoun being considered foreign players (foreign goalie can’t play more than 2/3 of the playing time), Lokomotiv, who has a discount when it comes to the total number of the foreign players, will probably get an exception here as well.

Per Nick Kypreos, Dale Hunter will not return as coach for the Washington Capitals next season. Share your thoughts in the comments below.

(By the way, Ian owes Peter $22 and lunch at Chick-Fil-a.)

Welp, the Washington Capitals got knocked out of the playoffs again, and we’re totally exasperated. Here’s the part of the year where we wonder what went wrong.

Here’s also the part where the scoundrels will try to wrest away the discussion from right-thinking individuals. Before the loudmouths start throwing around sweeping generalizations and platitudes, I’m going to try to get some actual, objective information out there.

What follows is a breakdown of how the Capitals postseason went down– strictly by the numbers.

Goals

The Capitals scored 16 goals on the Bruins and 13 on the Rangers. Against the Caps, the Bruins scored 15 and the Rangers scored 15. That’s a razor-sharp goal differential of minus-1.

The Capitals’ 2.07 goals per game average ties them for 10th (NYR has the same) among playoff teams. Their 2.14 goals against per game ranks them 6th among playoff teams.

Compared to their regular season record, the Capitals scored .61 fewer goals per game but also allowed .62 fewer goals against.

Possession

The Fenwick stat is a proxy for puck possession (how much your team has control of the puck). It’s the sum of all even-strength shots on net, goals, and misses subtracted by the same total for the opponent. There’s a similar stat called Corsi that includes blocked shots, but I’m using this one instead so I can do blocks separately.

The Capitals had a cumulative Fenwick score of minus-107 across both series. That means they allowed 107 more pucks towards their net than they fired towards the opponent’s. That breaks down to minus-68 against the Boston and minus-39 against New York.

The Caps were 12th out of the 16 playoff teams in Fenwick while the score is close. Two of the teams below the Caps got knocked out in the first round. The only team that outlasted the Caps with worse possession numbers is Phoenix.

The Caps’ two worst possession games were Game Four vs Boston, a minus-35 score in a 2-1 win, and Game Five at New York, a minus-29 score that the Caps lost in a last-minute implosion. Both of those games saw the Caps own the puck less than they did at any point during the regular season.

Goaltending

[EDIT: I had a miscalculation here. I shortchanged Holtby by .01 in an earlier draft. Apologies.]

Braden Holtby earned saved 94% of shots at even strength. That is two-hundredths better than the league average (93%, natch). By the numbers, Holtby saved at even strength exactly two more shots out of a hundred than another NHL goalie would have done.

I can’t tell you how many of those shots were dangerous (i.e. from the scoring chance zone), but your boy Neil Greenberg might have that data.

Braden’s goals-against average is the same as the team’s: 2.14 GA/G. But we should keep in mind that GAA is a team statistic, since the goalie has no control over how many shots he faces in a game– only the portion of those shots that he saves.

Holtby faced more shots than any other goalie in the postseason (459). The only other goalie with 14 games played is Henrik Lundqvist, who faced just 396.

Since you asked, Tim Thomas’s even-strength save percentage was a slightly above average .924, and Lundqvist’s was a stellar .936.

Power Play

The Capitals went on the man advantage 39 times during the playoffs, scoring 7 times for a 18% conversion rate. That rate was pretty evenly distributed across both Boston and New York. That’s good for 5th best among the 16 playoff teams, but it’s only a fraction of the story.

The Capitals were dead last when it came to power play opportunities per game (2.78). For comparison, the Los Angeles Kings are getting 5.2 per game. Boston got 3.2 per game, and NYR got 4.07.

That fits with the pattern from the regular season, where the Caps saw the 4th fewest power play opportunities (it was actually a virtual three-way tie with Dallas and NYI for 29th place).

Some have concluded that drawn penalties correlates with puck possession. In short, the other team will commit more penalties to remove you from the puck if you control it more often. That is a pretty compelling argument given the Capitals’ meekness on the puck this season.

Penalty Kill

The Capitals went shorthanded 48 times and allowed 6 goals for an 87.5% penalty kill rate. That ranks them 6th among playoff teams (just two of whom– LAK and PHX– are still playing). That 87.5% is significant improvement on the Caps’ 81.6% kill rate during the regular season.

No playoff team played shorthanded more than the Capitals.

I should point out that the Capitals PK had only 4 goals against on 38 tries until the closing seconds of round two’s Game Five, when the Rangers scored twice on Joel Ward’s high-sticking double minor penalty. Those goals were… costly.

Faceoffs

It’s an unsexy stat, but the Capitals won just about 51% of faceoffs through 14 games.

The Capitals won just a single game (Game Five at Boston) in which they lost most faceoffs (45%).

Luck

Shooting luck is measured in PDO, which adds up a shooting percentage while a player is on the ice compared to his own goalie’s save percentage, so that the average is 1000. This stat helps reveal hot and cold streaks as artifacts of raw luck rather than some kind of dubious narrative.

For example, Alex Semin had the worst PDO among Capitals forwards with 965. Personally, Semin scored 3 times on 35 shots for a 8.5% (disappointing for Sasha, whose career average is north of 14%). But even worse– Capitals players scored on just 3.33% while he was on ice. That’s bad luck.

Looking at this same metric on the other end of the ice, escape goat Dennis Wideman was on ice for Holtby’s worst goaltending of the series (91%) to “earn” a PDO of 981. That may suggest the reputation (that I helped give him) was undeserved.

Blocking

The Capitals blocked 326 shots in the postseason– that’s more than the total number of shots that the Caps fired at the enemy net at even strength. That’s an average of about 23 blocked shots per game.

If you care about such things, the Caps outblocked their opponents by a margin of 66– 9 more than Boston, 57 more than New York.

There were a few five-block individual performances from Karl Alzner, Roman Hamrlik, Jay Beagle, and John Carlson, but only one player who recorded 9 blocks in a single game: Jeff Schultz.

Line-Matching

Alex Ovechkin was matched by the opponent’s top defenseman 77% of the time. For Boston, that meant Zdeno Chara, who skated with Ovechkin for 4/5ths of the series. New York’s Dan Girardi matched him slightly less at 75%.

When away from Verizon Center during the quarterfinals, Ovechkin spent even more time matched against Chara– a whopping 85%. When Dale Hunter had the final line change at home, Ovechkin saw him less. There was no similar home-away difference during the semifinal round.

* * *

That’s all I’ve got for now. Let me know if you have any questions that the numbers might illuminate. I’ll try my best. Long-term analysis comes next.

Stats came from Behind the Net, Time On Ice, and NHL.com.

Photo credit: @matt71royer

We learned a week ago that Washington Capitals General Manager George McPhee can get quite animated during games. During the third period of Game Seven, McPhee’s emotions boiled over late while the Caps power play sputtered.

The Capitals trailed from the onset, but they suffered what seemed to be a death blow when Michael Del Zotto rifled a shot past Braden Holtby to put the Rangers up 2-0 with 9:55 to go in the final frame. A goal from Roman Hamrilk gave the team life just 38 seconds later, and then the Capitals got a gift: Ruslan Fedotenko‘s delay-of-game penalty.

But instead of converting the man advantage, the Caps squandered it in an embarrassing fashion, setting up shorthanded chances for the Rangers and spending most of their time stuck in their own zone. The low point was when one of the Caps attempted a dangerous no-look pass that nearly ended up in their own net.

CBC caught McPhee in the rafters watching the mess. He was — uh — unhappy.

Huge thanks to @canada_gill for hooking us up with the video.

Frankly, I love the passion here. McPhee rarely lets his guard down, but this video shows he’s just like us: a slave to the excruciating anxiety of watching your team lose. Whatever GMGM is saying here, I was probably yelling the same things at my TV at home.

It was hard for us to watch this loss. Seems like it’s exactly the same for the players, coaches, and staff.

Way to go, guys. Great season. We’ll get ‘em next year.