Former Washington Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette dispatched his former team in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, sweeping them in four games with his new club, the New York Rangers.
After the final horn sounded, both teams exchanged handshakes at center ice. Alex Ovechkin hugged his former bench boss when they reached each other at center ice. Laviolette could be seen saying (if my lipreading is correct) “good job.”
Coming into the series, Laviolette didn’t think his history in DC was a storyline because he’s “coached a lot of teams,” adding, “I got a lot of respect for the Capitals.”
Laviolette continued his kind words for the Caps after the series concluded, but he made several inscrutable comments, too.
“You’ve got to give Washington a ton of credit because they went through a lot with their injuries and, you know, what was going on with them inside their room, and the players that were leaving their lineup,” Laviolette said. “They fought hard to get to the playoffs, and then they fought extremely hard inside of the playoffs. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”
The what was going on with them inside their room is the eyebrow-raiser here. Laviolette has a history of saying “inside the room” to avoid describing a private issue that is common knowledge inside the locker room.
“This is playoff hockey,” Laviolette added later. “You don’t get here unless you played hard, played well, and if you think about what they went through to get to the playoffs down the stretch in the end, and what they were dealing with, it’s a proud group over there.”
Again, what is the what that they were dealing with, Peter?
Perhaps, Laviolette was just speaking on publicly known information. Perhaps, he was just talking about injuries. Or perhaps we’ll get some more answers at the Capitals’ locker room clean out day on Tuesday.
