Saturday morning, Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis and team president Dick Patrick held a press conference announcing the termination of head coach Adam Oates as well as the nonrenewal of general manager George McPhee’s contract.
Following the Capitals’ most disappointing season of recent memory that saw them missing the playoffs for the first time in seven years, Leonsis and Patrick came to the conclusion that drastic changes were necessary.
“We were a continuously improving playoff team until we weren’t,” said Leonsis. “The last two seasons showed us that we need to improve. That’s what it came down to, where Dick and I said, ‘We have to make that gut check. Do we have to change? And where do you start?’ You start with the coach and the general manager.”
According to both men, a careful, two-week process of organizational evaluation took place in which research was gathered and interviews were conducted in order to determine the most appropriate move for the franchise going forward. This in-depth examination was primarily based on direct feedback given by players, scouts, and front office staff.
McPhee, the third-longest-tenured GM in the NHL before being let go, was an executive figure in Washington for the last 17 years. He played a pivotal role in the team’s immense rebuild starting in 2004 when he drafted Russian superstar Alex Ovechkin as the first overall pick. McPhee further enhanced his reconstruction plan in 2006 by securing Nicklas Backstrom, who has gone on to become the essential playmaking wingman to the league’s best goal scorer. Over the last 16 seasons under McPhee’s supervision, the Caps have made 10 trips to the playoffs, acquired seven division titles, and won the Presidents’ Trophy for the NHL’s top regular season record during their 2010 campaign.
However, with all of the positives that McPhee has overseen throughout the years, there have been an inexcusable number of negatives to counteract any optimism he may have created. From questionable decisions such as trading top prospect Filip Forsberg for past-his-days Martin Erat to a clear lack of ability to form a consistent team identity, Capitals fans have been calling for McPhee’s head for a number of years.
As far as Oates is concerned, the 51-year-old Hall-of-Famer noticeably struggled in a variety of areas over the course of his first full season as a head coach in the NHL. Sporting a combined record of 65-48-17 throughout his two, short-lived seasons with the team, Oates’ inexperience showed he was never the right man for the job from the get-go.
The main issue with his offensively defensive, hybrid coaching style was that he was never able to remain consistent in regards to the exact type of team he wanted the Caps to be. His extreme misuse of a number of players paired with his illogical strategy for juggling lines on a game-to-game basis proved that he was never quite able to break out of the experimental phase in his “Coaching For Beginners” guidebook.
Although initially appearing successful by rejuvenating Ovechkin’s offensive game and drawing up the league’s most dangerous power play, Oates was unable to put out a winning recipe as it pertained to other aspects of the team. From opening night to elimination day, Washington continuously suffered from the same problems each and every time they took the ice. They had an uncanny inability to clear their defensive zone. They constantly erased their own two-goal leads. They found it impossible to prevent opponents from scoring within two minutes of scoring themselves. And most astonishingly, they were incapable of winning low-scoring hockey games. Under Adam Oates’ regime over the last two seasons, the Caps were an NHL-worst 1-41-9 when scoring two or fewer goals. Simply put, that’s a scary yet telling statistic.
For Leonsis and Patrick, while it may have been a grim reality to accept, this team was not built to achieve the ultimate goal. Therefore, in their eyes, if the Capitals hoped to seriously compete for a Stanley Cup in the near future, a different perspective would be desperately needed to take them there.
“The signal was that we need to get back to being totally focused on one goal and that’s winning a Stanley Cup,” said Leonsis. “All of us have to recommit to just that one goal. That’s all that we should be in discussions about, and that’s where we’re hoping we get a fresh set of eyes and a new voice.”
Ideally, Washington is hoping to hire that new voice in time for the 2014 NHL Entry Draft that takes place on June 27.
The team will be searching for its second general manager in 17 years and fourth head coach in the last four.
Consistency at its finest.
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