The road can do a lot for NHL teams. And in 2011, it taught the Washington Capitals quite a bit.
The road can do a lot for NHL teams. And in 2011, it taught the Washington Capitals quite a bit.
In 2023, they're usually making FaceTime calls to home, playing video games together or getting some rest in before their games. Twelve years a go, things went a bit differently in the midst of one of Washington's toughest points, where Bruce Boudreau's seat was getting hotter while questions got louder.
The Hockey News' Ken Campbell spent three days on the road with the team over that December 2011 stretch, and here's how it went.
"Rocky Road"
Vol. 65, Issue 12, Dec. 19, 2011
By Ken Campbell
"TRAVELLING IS A BRUTALITY. IT FORCES YOU TO LOSE SIGHT OF ALL THAT FAMILIAR COMFORT OF HOME AND FRIENDS. YOU ARE CONSTANTLY OFF BALANCE.– CESARE PAVESE (1908-1950)"
CESARE PAVESE was an Italian literary giant who, in a bout of depression, took his own life at the age of 41 when he overdosed on sleeping pills. So we’re assuming his perspective was a little bleak to start with. But as the Washington Capitals bus emerged from the bowels of the MTS Centre in Winnipeg on a cold November night, you couldn’t help but think Pavese was onto something.
When the Capitals close this season with a game at Madison Square Garden April 7, they will have spent 56 nights on the road. It’s hard to believe there will be a more depressing one than this particular evening. As the Capitals head into the darkness, the famous Winnipeg wind sweeps one of the first dustings of the year, with the blowing snow swirling around in front of the bus as it makes its way to the James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. The cold, lonely streets of the Manitoba capital are no match for the team’s mood. Hockey’s code mandates nobody talks on the bus after a loss. It makes for a quiet, awkward ride, one that takes on an almost funereal tone after the team is spanked by the former Atlanta Thrashers.
The flight is delayed because the plane has to be de-iced. More silence. Nothing but the din of the engines for more than two hours as the team makes its way to Toronto. By the time the Caps arrive at their Toronto hotel at 3:17 a.m., you get the feeling nobody would talk even if they were in the mood to do so. The players quietly grab the keys waiting for them upon arrival and collapse into their beds.
Oh, the glamour of it all.
For five days in mid-November, your trusty correspondent was granted a virtual all-access pass to the inner workings of the Washington Capitals for a three-game road trip.
When you go on a journey like this with a team of the Capitals’ ilk, you do so with the expectation you might see three wins. Instead, you see three goals. Losing all three games and being outscored by a margin of 14-3 wasn’t in the itinerary. The reality is every team in the NHL goes through bad patches, but there is extra baggage when it comes to one of the league’s most glitzy teams. Suddenly, questioning everything from Alex Ovechkin’s drive to his relationship with Bruce Boudreau becomes a national pastime. Every loss is more painful than it should be. And a team that started the trip challenging for the Eastern Conference lead finds itself in eighth place when it limps home. “In every bad streak, you’ve got to hit rock bottom at some point,” says veteran Mike Knuble after the Capitals are drubbed 7-1 by an undermanned Toronto Maple Leafs team to end the trek. “If this isn’t rock bottom, I don’t know what’s to come.”
The thing you learn about road trips is every game is so important, and so trivial. Each night you play, it represents one of 82 games, which makes you wonder how important it can possibly be. But the NHL has more parity than ever and that loss in November could haunt you in April. It certainly spooks you in November. It’s remarkable how much preparation – the video sessions, the meetings, the time management – goes into 60 minutes of hockey. And when it’s over, either the euphoria of a win or the disappointment of a loss are as intense as they are fleeting. That’s because the whole process and buildup for the next one begins the moment your head comes off the pillow the following morning.
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