The Washington Capitals have hired one of the best coaches in the NHL, and now his job is to get the Capitals back into the playoffs. How can he get them back to playing postseason hockey? Let’s take a look.

Get Alex Ovechkin to Play Defense

Alex Ovechkin is one of the best players in the world. His offensive skills are off the charts and he scores over 50 goals a season; in fact, won the Rocket Richard trophy this season for scoring the most goals in hockey.

In order for him to get into the conversation for best player in the world, he is going to have to start playing some defense and getting that plus-minus rating way up from where it was this season.

Trotz has been known to emphasize defense first. Can he make Ovechkin a two-way player? Anything is possible. We will see if that can happen starting this October.

Make Braden Holtby the Starter for Years to Come 

Holtby, who most likely will be the Capitals starting goaltender next season, struggled this year and was one of the reasons why Washington fell short of the playoffs. He was 23-15-4: not a bad record, but his goals against average of 2.85 really let the team down.

The Caps acquired Jaroslav Halak to help out but that did not seem to work out either. Halak has now signed a deal with the New York Islanders.

Holtby definitely has the ability to become a good goaltender for the Capitals this season with a bit of work. 

The Washington Capitals may not be too far away from making a deep run into the playoffs if they play their cards right. We’ll see if Trotz can get the job done this season.