First, on injuries: Bruce Boudreau revealed during his press conference that Mike Knuble, as many speculated, was playing with a broken right hand. Knuble had pins put in his hand after game three of the Rangers series. Boudreau lauded the veteran right winger above all others, saying he "showed such courage" doing what he did. Amen.
Boudreau also revealed that John Carlson and Marcus Johansson were not playing at full strength, and Mike Green's injury that forced him out of game three of the Lightning series was a hip flexor. Nicklas Backstrom was also hurt; he re-injured his thumb during the Rangers series. So though Nicky was quite brutal in the second round, at least he (kind of) has an excuse now.
George McPhee alsso spoke to the media, and he immediately addressed Bruce Boudreau's job status. McPhee said that he "expects [Bruce] to be back next year. He's a good coach." Okay then. McPhee went on to add that he doesn't think the Caps are missing anything, they just have to put it all together. "We'll see," he said, when asked if major roster changes were coming this summer. We shall see, indeed, considering the number of free agents the Caps have and their pending salary cap crunch.
The General Manager also addressed questions regarding the club's three young goaltenders. One of them, Semyon Varlamov, is a restricted free agent this offseason, and there had be some speculation that he would move to Russia's Kontinental Hockey League. "I don't have any plans to move a goaltender...but if he wants to go [to the KHL], let him go."
That's all for quotes today. The season may be over, but I am not. I will be blogging all summer: player analysis, development camp, and breaking Caps news. Don't go anywhere, and thanks for reading.
Thanks for all the great updates man. The season may be over but us die-hard Caps fans are still here and appreciate the effort you put in!
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