A coaching change has done little, imo, after a 6 game assessment. Perhaps Boudreau can effect some change from a good week of instruction, but that’s really not how the NHL works. There will be a few tweaks here and there, but nothing major, I’d wager.

With perfect hindsight, the rebuild was hastened with unrealistic expectations and the hope that not-quite-the-right FAs would fill too many holes (and, as you mention, Backstrom would immediately command a pivotal, quite literally, position for a playoff-bound team).

Whatever character and positive attitude which Hanlon created the last two seasons disappeared with a shake up in personnel and the aforementioned expectation that such shake up would lead to a 25 point (!) improvement. Was that McPhee selling Ted a fraudulent bill of goods? I think that this season’s record will answer that question.

I believe the Capitals are only in year three of their five year plan (05-06, 06-07 and now 07-08) and that’s what McPhee has said. Even if you were to count the lockout year, they’re still in year four.

I also think the development of Jeff Schutlz, Joe Finley, Eric Fehr, and Sasha Pokulok has been fine. Yes, Fehr over Getzlaf was a mistake but not as big a mistake as it would have been if Fehr hadn’t had injury problems. Pokulok is in the same boat in terms of injury. Schultz is only 21 still and looks better every game, Finley is still young as well, and it takes players of their size more time to raise their game to an NHL level.

As you’ve said this team is going to be very good for a number of years starting soon, unless things go horribly haywire. I wish more people could realize this, and that rebuilding a real NHL franchise is a lot more painful and bumpy than it would seem on paper (on in video games…)

I think that for many of us the problem is this year was forgetting how young this team really is. There’s a lot of talent on this roster but with where so many of the players are right now they’re going to be so inconsistent that it’s going to be hard to win a lot of games. We could still be only one year away from a playoff berth though…

I have to agree that Washington’s talent level just isn’t there yet, and I’m OK with that now (I wasn’t in October). However, the one area that no one is speaking of
is goaltending. Kolzig and Johnson are a slightly above average tandem. If Washington’s goalie draft picks develop as slowly as the rest of them, will Olie will be coaching that netminder when the Caps make a Cup run?

While Leonsis has been fairly patient over the years in staying the course on the rebuild, that patience can’t be unlimited. Another season as a cellar dweller and it’s going to make it fairly difficult to convince STHs that the rebuild is going as expected. That’s just another reason why declaring the rebuild as over was such a huge PR mistake.