NHL Playoffs 2012: Capitals React to Game 7 Loss and to Hunter Stepping Down

Could the last 48 hours have been more eventful for the Washington Capitals?

For the fans, it can be said the past two days have been rather depressing.

Saturday night, the Caps' season came to an end as they were defeated by the New York Rangers 2-1 in Game 7, ending a great run by the Caps that was unexpected by many.

Speculation then turned to Dale Hunter, the former captain-turned-coach, who had spearheaded a remarkable transformation that saw the Caps go from free-wheeling offensive individuals into a tough, physical, defensive minded team that became the best shot-blocking team in the NHL playoffs.

Would Hunter stay? Or would he return to the Ontario Hockey League and resume his position with the London Knights?

I spent a couple hours yesterday writing an article and providing what I thought were compelling reasons why Hunter would remain in Washington.

Oops.

Today, Hunter announced he will step down as the Caps coach and return to the Knights instead of staying in Washington. Citing that "going home to the family [and] the family business" outweighed the desire to take another run at the Cup, Hunter's tenure with the Caps is over.

Obviously, there has been much to react to for the Caps in the past 48 hours.

Let's start with reactions to the Game 7 loss. By and large, the Caps players seem to feel they underachieved this season, which is probably true based on pre-season expectations.

Here are some quotes from Caps players that I picked up from Katie Carrera of The Washington Post's interviews with them after Game 7:

Karl Alzner:  "“I’m gonna view it as an underachieved season, in my opinion. I know a lot of people don’t feel the same way. The group was extremely good, we were a very good team. A lot of skill but a good team."

Brooks Laich:  "I don’t think we exceeded anybody’s expectations. We certainly had more aspirations than what the season turned out. There’s no solace in any of that."

There was also the sense that while the regular season had been disappointing, the team had turned the corner in the playoffs:

Karl Alzner: “We didn’t show it during the regular season but it only mattered come this time, playoffs and we started playing really well and had probably our worst game in our Game 7, which is very, very unfortunate. We’re probably going to view it as a failure, just because we didn’t do what we thought we should do.”

Troy Brouwer: “Proud of the guys, that’s for sure. A lot of people counted us out even early in the first round. And here we are in Game 7 of the second round. I thought we battled, I thought we handled ourselves real well. Just very proud of the guys’ effort and the character in this room.”

Brooks Laich:  “I thought we did some really good things. I thought the way it ended last year and the way it ended this year, I thought we took more positive steps – I thought we were a lot closer this year than last year."

Nicklas Backstrom: "I think we played the right way. I think we were playing way better this year than ever in the playoffs. Everybody was committed and doing their job. We came up short and that’s the way it is.”

Most Caps fans would be hard-pressed to say they were not proud of the effort the team put forth in knocking off the Bruins and then nearly eliminating the Rangers for the third time in four years.

Of course, after a hard fought seven-game series with the Rangers that was as close as could be, there were emotions involved after having been eliminated:

Alexander Ovechkin: “It’s terrible feeling now. All I can say, we do our best and it’s probably best team I played. You know, group of guys and atmosphere, everybody was – it’s unbelievable to play and I hope everybody gonna stay here ‘til next year. It’s hard.”

In an article from Thomas Boswell discussing how the Caps gained an identity during this post-season run, some of the Caps role players wore their emotions on their sleeves:

John Carlson: “Everyone played their hearts out. We had a bunch of warriors in here who were willing to do whatever it takes. We just didn’t get the bounced this time. Lundqvist just came up huge for them. It [stinks].”

Matt Hendricks:  “It was tooth and nail the whole seven games. Came down to the last goal."

It is no surprise that there is a wide range of emotions and feelings from the Caps after coming so close to getting back to the Conference Finals, but falling short yet again.

But if Boswell was right, and the Caps found an identity during the playoffs, they may have lost some of that identity today with Dale Hunter deciding not to return next season. Boswell echoed those sentiments earlier today by basically retracting his earlier article.

I will only repeat a few of the more telling comments Boswell made, but you can read the rest of them for yourself. The biggest reaction, and one I completely agree with, was this:

UNBELIEVABLE!  Knock me over with a feather.

How can you be Dale Hunter, get everybody to "buy into" your brutally painful way of playing hockey, have some success with it and then QUIT!!!???

That's not what Dale Hunter does. Is it? That seems out of character. Doesn't he almost have to come back one more year to complete the transition to his methods, then help pick the coach to follow him?

Indeed. I really thought that Hunter would have wanted to step up to the plate, or rise to the challenge or whatever cheap cliche you wish to insert here. But that is not going to happen and the Caps season of uncertainty just got much worse.

Reaction from Caps players to Hunter's decision to leave has been trickling in.

Alex Ovechkin noted that he respected Hunter's decision to be with his family more and indicated to Katie Carrera that "it's his decision so we have to live with it.”

Much was made during the Caps playoff run about Ovechkin's reduced ice time and whether a rift was growing between he and Hunter. But Ovie indicates in that article that he learned a lot from Hunter.

Hopefully that carries over to next season.

Nicklas Backstrom, however, is very disappointed to see Hunter leave, telling Carrera:

We played good hockey in the playoff and I think he’s been doing so many good things for this team. I really wanted to see him back next year but unfortunately he’s not. It’s not good.

No, not good at all.

So, much of the good feelings that had developed from the Caps great playoff run have now vanished into thin air. 

For a team that developed such resiliency over the past few weeks, it will now be tested, yet again, in what is starting out to be a very tumultuous off-season.