Trotz recalled his psychological very first time back at Capital One Arena last year and the touching tribute that was played for him and his two assistants, Lane Lambert and Mitch Korn, who followed Trotz to Long Island.
However Trotz noted that there are some new faces on the 2020 Capitals, consisting of veteran Ilya Kovalchuk, who the Islanders were said to be interested in heading into this years trade deadline.
Trotz acknowledged simply how familiar he is with the Capitals toolbox, including that being their former coach gives him “a little insight into some of their propensities.” He pointed out that he plans to prepare his team for the Capitals power play and “excellent” unique teams game.
Barry TrotzGetty Images” I believe itll be a hell of a series,” said Trotz, who coached in Washington for 4 seasons before signing up with the Islanders in June 2018. “Both groups are well equipped to go at each other.”
Nevertheless, Trotz resigned less than 2 weeks after the champion parade because he and Capitals general supervisor Brian MacLellan could not settle on an agreement extension. Strolling away made Trotz among 4 NHL coaches in the previous 40 years to not return to their team after winning the Cup.
” The biggest difficulty is to play them even and play them hard,” Trotz stated. “And theyll do the same since I know a lot about that group.”
Washington completed second in the Metropolitan division in Trotzs first season with the club in 2014-15 before taking very first in each of the 3 seasons after that. He assembled a routine season record of 205-89-34 and, together with the Cup, collected two Presidents Trophies and was the 2016 Jack Adams Award winner– offered to the coach who contributes the most to his groups success.
And does he know them well. There are 12 current Capitals gamers who were on the team that Trotz coached to the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals against the Golden Knights, a series Washington won in 5 games.
Barry Trotz helped the Capitals win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history just 3 seasons earlier. Now, hell have to make it through his previous team to have any possibility of securing the Islanders 5th.
” Itll be a great difficulty, since I know the individuals there,” Trotz stated on a Zoom call following the Islanders practice Sunday.
With a 2-1 win over the Bruins on Sunday afternoon, the Capitals protected the 3rd seed in the 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs and will take on the sixth-seeded Islanders in the preliminary beginning next week.
The Islanders went 2-2 against the Capitals during the 2019-20 regular season, with both groups scoring 14 total objectives on one another. The Capitals completed on top of the Metro this year with 90 points, simply one point shy of the Flyers, who defeated Washington 3-1 this past Thursday en path to going undefeated in round-robin play.
” That group has a great deal of pedigree, they have a great deal of star power and theyve won champions,” he stated. “Theyre well geared up in a lot of areas.”
There was no obvious soft spot in Trotz while he discussed his former group, it sounded more like determination.
