from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

For all the years Barry Trotz has coached in the NHL, the one thing he’s never understood is why he has to explain the failures of an organization’s past. Trotz has been behind the bench of the Washington Capitals for exactly two seasons, during which time they’ve made the playoffs twice. This year, they went wire-to-wire atop the league standings, and have been anxiously waiting for the start of playoffs for weeks now, with little tangible to play for.

But the Capitals also had the best record in the NHL six years ago, and lost in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs to the Montreal Canadiens thanks to Jaroslav Halak’s brilliant goaltending performance.

In the NHL’s salary-cap era, there is much talk about windows of opportunity for winning championships. They open for a short time and slam shut faster than you can imagine.

This may well be the Capitals’ best chance ever, and yet all Trotz hears about are the sins of the past, particularly 2010. Why, he wonders, should that have any bearing on whether they can win now?

“I’m the coach, so I’ll use coaches as an example,” Trotz said in an interview.

“I don’t care what Bryan Murray’s teams did, or Jim Schoenfeld’s, or Bruce Boudreau’s. It really doesn’t matter. This is our team in the moment, and we’re trying to make some history of our own, and not worry about the past history. I think we understand that.

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