Peter Laviolette

The Capitals were ‘grumpy’ and not ‘in a great mood’ after losing its fourth-straight game

The Boston Bruins pummeled the Washington Capitals 7-3 on Monday, scoring six unanswered goals in a span of 14:35 between the first and second periods. The loss was the Capitals’ fourth straight and their third in four nights.

With all those L’s, the Capitals were not their normal smiley selves at their hour-long practice on Tuesday as the team has fallen to third place in the Metropolitan Division. Division-leading Carolina has played four fewer games than the Caps.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Get Connor McMichael some ice time

Washington Capitals forward Connor McMichael scored a goal in the team’s shootout loss to Minnesota on Saturday night. The game was McMichael’s return to active play since missing Friday’s game as a healthy scratch.

“He’s a young player,” Caps head coach Pete Laviolette told WaPo reporter Samantha Pell on Friday. “Guys are pushing each other for ice time, and you get that opportunity you got to go in, and make the most of it.”

McMichael made the most of it by tipping Nick Jensen’s shot to open scoring, but he ultimately played just 11:44 on Saturday, which is still the most he’s played in more than a month. So while it’s a good thing McMichael is back in action and producing again, now the Caps coaches need to find him some real ice time.

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By Peter Hassett 1 year ago

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Hendrix Lapierre had 3 assists in his first 2 games back in junior. ‘In an ideal world, I would have stayed in Washington’

The Washington Capitals sent 2020 first-round pick Hendrix Lapierre back to the QMJHL on Wednesday after the 19-year-old prospect started the season in the NHL. After tying for the team lead preseason points (5), Lapierre scored his first NHL goal on Opening Night and averaged 9:35 TOI during his six regular-season games in the NHL.

“It’s a lot for a young player to I think to handle the NHL and the league itself,” Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette explained last week, reflecting on the move. “So we sent him back to juniors where he can play against his peers and who knows what happens from here, whether he gets a chance to play in the World Championships and whether he gets a chance to play in playoffs. If all those things could happen, you think about his year and it’s really in a great spot.”

Laviolette added that “It’s not a negative that we sent him back. We just felt it was time for a young player that where it’s very difficult to crack a league that’s made of grown men. It’s difficult and yet he did such a fantastic job that we had to keep him and we had to keep looking at him and he helped us.”

Saturday, Lapierre made his debut for Acadie-Bathurst Titan, who gave up a lot in a trade with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens to acquire him over the offseason. Lappy tallied two assists and was named first star of the night in Acadie-Bathurst’s 6-4 win over the Shawinigan Cataractes. Lapierre also wore the A as one of the team’s alternate captains.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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The dark side of Kuznetsov’s comeback season

Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s sure been good, eh? He had a hat trick of assists in the opener and four goals in the last three games, chalking up nine points in this young season.

That certainly feels like vindication for those of us in the kuznetsov comeback szn camp, but what if we’re looking at this all wrong?

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By Peter Hassett 1 year ago

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Peter Laviolette on when Nicklas Backstrom will return from injury: ‘He’s at the beginning of the process’

At the start of Training Camp, the Washington Capitals announced that Nicklas Backstrom would be out week-to-week due to a lingering hip injury. Since then, Backstrom, beyond an absolutely perfect TV commercial, has been completely away from cameras rehabbing.

This week officially marks a month since Backstrom was announced out and judging by recent comments made by Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette, it’s unclear when the Super Swede will return.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Peter Laviolette on if Nicklas Backstrom will play Opening Night: ‘I’m not going to answer that because I don’t know the answer to that’

We may only be in the preseason, but Peter Laviolette’s dodginess is already in midseason form.

Wednesday, with the Capitals’ Home Opener against the New York Rangers a week away, Laviolette was asked if injured star center Nicklas Backstrom would play. Backstrom has not skated or taken the ice during Training Camp, rehabbing a hip injury that gave him issues late last season.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Peter Laviolette only just now meeting members of Capitals organization and staff due to last year’s COVID restrictions

Washington Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette has done the whole “meeting new faces” process a handful of times in his career as an NHL bench boss, but normally that happens before you coach an entire season with your new team.

Due to the pandemic and the restrictions placed on teams last season, Lavy is only now meeting scouts and other members of the Capitals organization for the first time.

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By Chris Cerullo 1 year ago

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Peter Laviolette’s two biggest pieces of advice for prospects at Capitals Rookie Camp

The Washington Capitals took fans behind the scenes of a meeting management held with prospects before the start of Rookie Camp on Saturday.

The 20 players participating were treated to two speeches: one by Steve Richmond, the Capitals’ Director of Player Development, and another by Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette.

After listening to it, you’ll probably want to run throw a brick wall because I’m about to.

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Peter Laviolette boxes at Tom Wilson’s gym, BASH

Here’s something that isn’t going to stay in the room. Peter Laviolette is boxing.

The 56-year-old Capitals head coach worked up a mean sweat after being a guest at Tom Wilson’s gym, BASH, on Wednesday night. The trendy Arlington boxing studio posted a photo of Lavy posing with the COO of the company, Nick Robbins, on social media.

“Good news Caps fans, it looks like Coach Laviolette is already in mid-season form,” BASH wrote. “@tomwilson, we told him we’d keep an eye on ya.”

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By Ian Oland 1 year ago

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Capitals lament being first-rounded for third consecutive year: ‘There’s not a person in the room who isn’t disappointed’

After winning Game One in overtime against the Boston Bruins, the Washington Capitals lost four consecutive games and were eliminated in the first round of the postseason for the third consecutive year.

The cornerstones of the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, spoke to the press after Game Five as well as head coach Peter Laviolette – the veteran, Stanley Cup-winning head coach that was hired to get the team deeper in the postseason.

The coach and his players touched on what went wrong, addressed the suspicion that many of the Capitals’ stars were playing hurt, and spoke about the floundering power play. They also struggled to accept the team’s fate after finishing the regular season with the fifth-most standings points in the NHL.

“Nobody wants to lose right?” Ovechkin said. “We try to do best that we can. Obviously we can do better. It sucks. It’s a bad feeling when you have a pretty good team.”

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By Ian Oland 2 years ago

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