Hiring Todd Reirden's replacement is one of the biggest decisions Brian MacLellan will face in his executive career. The Washington Capitals general manager fired his head coach on Sunday after just two seasons, and finding his successor will be an integral part of the franchise's quest for another Stanley Cup.

Despite modest regular-season success, Reirden couldn't replicate the same defensive formula as his predecessor, Barry Trotz. In two seasons under Reirden, the Capitals ranked 19th in the NHL in goals against per 60 minutes at five-on-five (GA/60). In the previous two years under Trotz, Washington ranked first.

MacLellan will surely target a coach with a track record of defensive success. And considering the organization's history of head coaches during the Alex Ovechkin era (MacLellan has been with the franchise since 2000, but he only became GM in 2014), he's going to pursue someone with extensive NHL head coaching experience.

Five of the six head coaches since Ovechkin arrived were hired with zero NHL head coaching experience, and the only one to truly pan out was Boudreau.

The Capitals are a veteran team with a dwindling Stanley Cup window. Ovechkin (34), Nicklas Backstrom (32), Evgeny Kuznetsov (28), T.J. Oshie (33), John Carlson (30), and Dmitry Orlov (29) aren't getting any younger.

Washington needs a veteran head coach who can immediately get players to play a tighter defensive system (like they were with Trotz) for the club to take a run at another Stanley Cup. There's no time to mess around with a rookie bench boss.

Here are the five best candidates for the job:

5. Mike Babcock

Hiring Babcock seems highly unlikely, considering the Toronto Maple Leafs are still paying him handsomely to hunt and travel. The Capitals, remember, were unwilling to meet Trotz's contract demands before he left for Long Island. Ponying up for Babcock doesn't seem to fit Washington's modus operandi.

Babcock has his flaws, too. In his four full seasons in Toronto, the Leafs finished in the top half of the league in goals against just once, and the Detroit Red Wings only reached that level twice over his final five campaigns in the Motor City. Babcock has also recorded just one playoff series win in the last eight years.

However, he's still one of the most decorated coaches of this era, which could tempt the Capitals. He's earned two Olympic gold medals, a World Cup title, a Stanley Cup, and has been to the finals on two other occasions. His attention to detail is impeccable and he can be a great motivator, though sometimes Babcock's methods are questionable.

4. John Stevens

Stevens is by far the least-experienced candidate on this list with only 362 career games as an NHL head coach, making him a bit of an underdog for the Caps' gig.

After an up-and-down tenure in Philly from 2006 to 2009, he joined the Los Angeles Kings' staff as an assistant coach in 2010, spending parts of six seasons under Darryl Sutter. The Kings were a defensive juggernaut during that time, winning Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014.

He became Los Angeles' head coach prior to the 2017-18 season, making the playoffs on the strength of the league's No. 1 defense in goals allowed. The team received exceptional goaltending though, as its expected goals against rate was middle of the pack (xGA/60). He was fired after a rough start to the following campaign and spent this season as an assistant coach for the Dallas Stars, who ranked second in GA/60 and seventh in xGA/60.

3. Peter Laviolette

Laviolette's coaching career has been a tale of instant success. After the Carolina Hurricanes hired him in 2003, he won the Stanley Cup the next season. In his first campaign with the Philadelphia Flyers, he made it to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. In his third season with the Nashville Predators, he also made it to the final.

That trend should certainly be enough to tantalize the Capitals' front office and earn Laviolette an interview. But he's also established himself as an excellent defensive coach.

Over his last three full seasons with the Preds, they ranked second in GA/60. Pekka Rinne playing well certainly helped, but the Predators also ranked eighth in xGA/60, which doesn't factor in goaltending.

2. Gerard Gallant

Gallant has also achieved instant success often. His Jack Adams Award-winning season in 2017-18 after he brought the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final is well documented. But he's also responsible for the Florida Panthers' lone playoff appearance over the last eight years, leading the team to the postseason in his second campaign on the job.

The 56-year-old hasn't really received a fair shake, either. In Florida he was fired 22 games into the following season after making the playoffs, despite posting a tolerable 11-10-1 record. His replacement, Tom Rowe, went 24-26-10. Gallant was also infamously forced to wait for a taxi after his dismissal.

In Vegas, he was fired this season even while owning a respectable 24-19-6 record, and the league's second-best expected goals share. Gallant was unlucky, as Vegas posted the NHL's fourth-worst PDO (shooting percentage plus save percentage) at the time he was canned.

1. Bruce Boudreau

Boudreau returning to D.C. would be quite the story. He got his first NHL head coaching gig with the Capitals during the 2007-08 season, promptly winning the Jack Adams Award after that campaign. He led Washington to four straight playoff berths, including a 121-point Presidents' Trophy-winning season in 2009-10 before being fired 22 games into the 2011-12 season.

His inability to advance past the second round was Boudreau's undoing in Washington. He's made the playoffs 10 times in his 13-year coaching career, but postseason failure followed him during stops with the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild.

Boudreau had a bit of a reputation as an offensive coach during his time in Washington, but he's actually morphed into one of the league's best defensive coaches. Over his three full seasons in Minnesota, the Wild ranked first in the NHL in xGA/60, and ninth in GA/60. Even this season before he was fired, the Wild ranked first in xGA/60, but 14th in GA/60 due to some horrendous goaltending.

Most importantly, Boudreau has prior relationships with Caps players, giving him a leg up on other candidates. Five players still remain on the Capitals from the last Washington squad Boudreau coached, and he's appeared to maintain his connection with Ovechkin.

(Analytics source: Natural Stat Trick)

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Philadelphia Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault expects an interesting second-round series against the New York Islanders.

"It’s going to be a greasy series," Vigneault said Sunday. "It’s going to be a lot of fun."

The Flyers squeezed past the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs despite being outscored in the six-game span. Vigneault liked what he saw from his team, but believes they can elevate it to another level for the upcoming series.

"We were able to win that first round playing hard hockey, good hockey," Vigneault said, according to NHL.com's Adam Kimelman. "But when you analyze it, I do believe there's another level we can attain if our top-end guys execute the way that we've seen them execute throughout the year."

The Islanders and Flyers met three times during the regular season, with New York winning each game. The teams last met on Feb. 11, just before Philadelphia caught fire and went on a 10-2-0 run that was halted when the season paused on March 12.

Islanders head coach Barry Trotz thinks his team has figured out the recipe for success in playoff hockey after decimating the Washington Capitals in the first round.

"I think our 5-on-5 play, you can say (has) confidence, I think we just trust it," Trotz said. "We know what works for us. I think we understand how you win in the playoffs. We've basically gotten through two rounds right now from a mental and physical standpoint that it's sort of ingrained in your DNA of what you need to do and how you have to play."

The first game of the series is Monday at 7 p.m. ET.

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Colorado Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer won't suit up for Game 2 of the team's second-round series against the Dallas Stars on Monday, head coach Jared Bednar said, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

Bednar added he's not sure how long Grubauer will be sidelined.

Grubauer suffered an apparent groin injury in the second period of Colorado's 5-3 loss in Game 1 on Saturday night. He went down after stretching to make a save and had to be helped off the ice.

Pavel Francouz stopped 18 of the 20 shots he faced after replacing Grubauer, who allowed three goals on 10 shots before his injury.

The backup netminder authored a 27-save shutout of the Stars in the round-robin stage and now has a .941 save percentage across three postseason appearances in 2019-20.

Francouz took over as the Avalanche starter earlier this season when Grubauer was hurt in a Stadium Series game against the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 15. After stepping into the No. 1 role, Francouz went 8-2-2 with a .919 save percentage in 12 games before the pause.

Grubauer regained the starter's role for the postseason and has gone 5-1 with a .922 save percentage in seven playoff contests.

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Washington Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan acknowledges that bringing Braden Holtby back won't be easy, and he says a decision regarding the goaltender's future hasn't been made.

"Still to be decided," MacLellan told reporters after firing head coach Todd Reirden on Sunday. "I think it's going to be difficult, but sometimes opportunities come up that you don't expect, and I think we'd like to play it out and see what happens here."

Holtby, a pending unrestricted free agent, has spent his entire 10-year career with Washington. He's in the final season of the five-year, $30.5-million pact the puck-stopper inked with the club in 2015.

The netminder, who will turn 31 in September, backstopped the Capitals to a Stanley Cup championship in 2018, but he's been mostly mediocre since. Holtby went 25-14-6 in 48 games this season while authoring a paltry .897 save percentage along with a minus-16.76 goals saved above average.

He posted a 2-6 record in the 2019-20 playoffs - including the round-robin stage - producing a pedestrian .906 save percentage over those eight contests.

McLellan also noted Sunday that Ilya Samsonov, the team's potential goaltender of the future, is expected to be ready for training camp. The 23-year-old didn't join his teammates in the Toronto bubble this postseason after suffering an injury beforehand.

Samsonov outplayed Holtby during the regular season, albeit over a smaller sample size. The rookie went 16-6-2 with a .913 save percentage and a 2.3 GSAA across 26 games.

The Capitals have nearly $71 million in team salary committed for 2020-21, when the salary cap will remain stagnant at $81.5 million. Holtby is currently carrying a cap hit of $6.1 million, and a handful of other Capitals players are slated to become either restricted or unrestricted free agents.

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Marc-Andre Fleury's agent, Allan Walsh, tweeted a photo Saturday of his client being stabbed in the back by a sword inscribed with Vegas Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer's name.

Walsh is apparently not happy the team relegated Fleury to backup duties (he's started two of Vegas' eight playoff games) in favor of trade-deadline acquisition Robin Lehner.

Fleury faced the music regarding the since-deleted tweet Sunday, and he declined questions about whether he had prior knowledge that Walsh would post the photo, according to the Las Vegas Sun's Justin Emerson.

"I really appreciated (Walsh’s) passion for the game that he has, and this was a way to defend me in this situation," Fleury said. "I’m here to win with my team, to have success. That’s what matters. I asked him to take that picture down."

Fleury also reiterated that he and Lehner have a good relationship.

"We all want to win, that's why we're here," Fleury added. "I really like Robin. We have a good friendship, and I think he's a really good goalie also. There are no hard feelings."

Vegas expects Lehner to start Game 1 against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.

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Though the big favorites rule the second round in the Western Conference, the opposite is true in the East, where a pair of incredibly close series should make for great viewing.

Let's get right into the matchups.

New York Islanders (+115) @ Philadelphia Flyers (-135)

The Flyers rode their luck - and Carter Hart - to an unconvincing series win over the Montreal Canadiens and now have their work cut out for them against the Islanders. Philadelphia's play was concerning in Round 1, as the team was dominated at five-on-five and also struggled on special teams.

Meanwhile, the Islanders have allowed the fewest expected goals in the bubble and posted the best five-on-five save percentage, stifling the Florida Panthers and Washington Capitals. New York has been opportunistic on offense, but the Flyers are more structured than the two teams they faced previously and Hart is a step up in class between the pipes. However, the Flyers can't expect to simply lean on their 22-year-old goaltender again.

Everyone is contributing right now for the Islanders. To no one's surprise, Barry Trotz has done an exquisite job to get everyone on the same page and buy in. This is a fast, relentless team, and we saw how problematic that was for Philly when it played Montreal. There's no way the Flyers aren't better here than they were against the Habs, but the Islanders will prove to be too much.

Pick: Islanders (+115)

Boston Bruins (-110) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (-110)

The hockey world is frothing at the mouth in anticipation for this clash of titans. With both the Lightning and Bruins at their peak, this could be the best these playoffs have to offer.

There is so little between these two teams. The Bruins have the edge in star power but the Lightning have better depth. Both are playing excellent hockey, and this series is close to a coin flip.

It's the extenuating factors, though, that could make the difference - most notably, the absence of Tuukka Rask. Can Jaroslav Halak stand strong with no safety net behind him, and, if not, what happens if he falters against the Lightning's seemingly unstoppable attack?

Steven Stamkos' absence - and his possible return date - is the other issue. The Lightning defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets without him, but the Bruins are an entirely different beast. If he doesn't return by at least midway through the series, it could be the edge Boston needs to make a return to the Eastern Conference Final.

Boston's biggest weakness is perhaps its lack of depth, as the Bruins are beatable if you slow down the top line. The same can't be said for Tampa Bay. The Lightning hold the edge in goal and, with the monkey off their back, possess the belief needed to finally put it all together.

Pick: Lightning (-110)

Alex Moretto is a sports betting writer for theScore. A journalism graduate from Guelph-Humber University, he has worked in sports media for over a decade. He will bet on anything from the Super Bowl to amateur soccer, is too impatient for futures, and will never trust a kicker. Find him on Twitter @alexjmoretto.

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The Washington Capitals fired bench boss Todd Reirden after just two seasons on the job, the team announced Sunday.

"We have higher expectations for our team, and we felt a fresh approach in leadership was necessary," general manager Brian MacLellan said. "We would like to thank Todd for all of his hard work and efforts with our organization. Todd has been a big part of our team for more than half a decade, including our Stanley Cup run in 2018, and we wish him and his family all the best moving forward."

Reirden was an assistant coach with the Caps for four seasons. He was promoted to head coach following Barry Trotz's departure after the club's 2018 Stanley Cup triumph. Trotz resigned when the Capitals were unwilling to meet his contract demands, and he was hired shortly thereafter by the New York Islanders, who beat the Capitals in Round 1 this year.

The 49-year-old Reirden guided the team to an 89-46-16 record during the regular season but failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs in each of his two years at the helm.

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Tim Horvat was downstairs in his basement in Rodney, Ontario, well after midnight a couple of weekends ago when his older son - the captain of the Vancouver Canucks - glided into frame on the big screen, tracking the puck on the forecheck in the Minnesota Wild's end.

Six minutes remained in Game 4 of Vancouver's playoff qualifier series, a matchup slated to wrap that night if the Canucks could overcome a late one-goal deficit. Not since 2011, smack in the middle of the Sedin brothers' heyday, had the Canucks won a round of any kind, a long wait for a titleless franchise and the mission of the center counted on to fill the twins' vacated leadership role.

With a little help from friend and foe - Tanner Pearson battling behind the net; Minnesota's Kevin Fiala watching the puck a little too closely - Bo Horvat took it upon himself to end the holdup. Fiala was none the wiser as Horvat coasted behind him to the crease, and Wild goalie Alex Stalock couldn't keep him from potting Pearson's pass.

"That one got the ball rolling," Tim Horvat said by phone the other day. "It was that comeback, that tie, the overtime goal by (Chris) Tanev. I think that was when the team really started to gel."

Vancouver's still rolling, deposing the champion St. Louis Blues to move into the second round proper, and the fan base has plenty of names to salute. Tender-aged Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes magnetize the attention of defenders, whose targeted physicality hasn't stopped them from scoring at point-per-game rates. Pearson, J.T. Miller, and Brock Boeser have driven offense, too. At 30 years old, Jacob Markstrom had never appeared in the postseason; he now rocks a .929 save percentage and seven wins in 10 starts. Tanev eliminated the Wild with his first career playoff goal, and Tyler Motte has four of his own in the past two games.

The puck drops Sunday night on Vancouver's next best-of-seven, against a new challenge entirely in the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas is a powerhouse, seemingly destined to meet the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final. Yet like the scrappy Dallas Stars, the Canucks can't be discounted from the outset - nor, in their particular case, written off as content to wait for the bright future that's in store for their core.

The Canucks have the air of a dark horse on the rise, unfazed by their last opponent's resume or by the magnitude of the stage. For that, a fair share of the credit goes to Horvat, already a seasoned veteran at age 25 and the first folk hero to emerge during this run.

Horvat's six goals in the bubble tied him for the NHL lead entering this round. He's scored in all situations, in spectacular fashion, and in the clutch, from the equalizer that set about Minnesota's downfall to the OT winner he cashed on the rush in Game 2 against St. Louis. That he's gone without a point since then doesn't detract from the legend he fashioned across those several days in Edmonton. The former ninth overall pick, which was acquired from New Jersey at the 2013 draft for Cory Schneider, has become the franchise's rock in pressurized times.

When the Canucks talk about their first-year captain in media availabilities, they tend to repeat certain compliments. Horvat plays smart, they say. He keeps it simple. They appreciate that he's strong on the puck down low, that he attends to all 200 feet of the ice. To put it broadly, he does a lot right. And inarguably, he shows up when needed.

"A couple of us younger guys, younger than Bo, are watching that and taking notes," Boeser said.

"There's that stereotype where you say guys are built for the playoffs. That's bang on with Bo," Pearson told reporters after Horvat's second multi-goal game early in the Blues series. "He's leading the way for us, and we're just following right now. Which we'll all do in a heartbeat."

Through two rounds, Horvat leads Vancouver forwards in ice time (21:13 per game) and defensive zone starts (43, fourth among forwards in the playoffs, according to Natural Stat Trick). While Pettersson and Hughes have been electric on the power play, Horvat's six points at even strength and shorthanded pace the team, an invaluable lift for a lineup that St. Louis outchanced heavily at five-on-five.

As for the aesthetics of how he's scored: as distant a memory as they may seem given the relentlessness of the schedule, most of his goals on Jordan Binnington are sure to feature in any postseason highlight reel.

Those goals showcased the breadth of his capabilities. Eyes popped when Horvat dangled Vince Dunn in Game 1 and walked Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz on a shorthanded breakout two nights later. Scoring on those plays required speed, the awareness to attack Dunn or two backchecking forwards in space, the puck-handling dexterity to reset to his forehand off the deke, and a sweet release to beat Binnington.

Widening the playoff lens, he's also scored on a tip, a slot shot on the power play, and the one-timer that punished Fiala's inattentiveness. The winning sequence that squashed the Blues in Game 2 started with a wonderful banked stretch pass from Hughes; Horvat finished with composure on the ensuing partial breakaway.

"When Bo's on top of his game, he just does a little bit of everything," head coach Travis Green said during the Blues series. Another day, he issued this endorsement: "If anyone's made for playoff hockey, it's Bo Horvat."

Back in junior, Horvat proved as much in the months that preceded his 2013 draft day. He scored 16 goals in 21 playoff games to guide the London Knights to the Ontario Hockey League title, earning postseason MVP honors. He reserved his best for the latest possible instant: in Game 7 of the final against the Barrie Colts, Horvat broke a 2-2 tie with a netfront flick that crossed the line with 0.1 seconds left.

The goal was Nazem Kadri-esque, mirroring the buzzer-beater the Avalanche center netted to stun the Blues in the Western seeding round. No championship was on the line when Kadri struck, though. To London assistant coach Dylan Hunter, it crystallized much of what made Horvat dangerous: the faceoff he won to start the play, the impulse to get inside position at the crease, the readiness to capitalize before the horn sounded.

"It was just one of those things with that leadership capability of his: to understand the compete level (needed) at the end of the game, to want to score and want to not have to go to OT," Hunter said in an interview. He added: "And having the confidence to be the guy."

In Vancouver as in London, where his teammates in 2013 alone included future NHLers Max Domi, Josh Anderson, Chris Tierney, Olli Maatta, Nikita Zadorov, and Scott Harrington, Horvat's managed to distinguish himself on a roster replete with talent. Hunter and Canucks defenseman Troy Stecher credited him with performing the same feat years apart: bridging the generational gap inherent to any locker room - between 16- and 20-year-olds in junior, and between the likes of Pettersson and Hughes and remaining guys who played with the Sedins - and setting a tone on the ice others are keen to follow.

Horvat, admittedly, was overrun throughout the Blues series by Ryan O'Reilly; Vancouver owned a mere 26.77% of scoring chances during his extensive matchups with St. Louis' top center at five-on-five. But that disparity wasn't ultimately meaningful. The overall scoreline on those shifts was 1-1.

Taken in isolation, meanwhile, the end of the Wild series and Games 1 and 2 against St. Louis were the best Green said he's seen his captain play. To apply Stecher's preferred metaphor, Horvat seized the bull by the horns, keying those crucial first victories that backfooted the defending champs.

"Everybody's followed suit and hopped on his back," Stecher said. "That's what a leader does."

Regardless of how the Vegas matchup turns out, questions will abound once these playoffs end about the Canucks' trajectory. How much better can Pettersson and Hughes get? What pay will they command in restricted free agency next summer? What is general manager Jim Benning to do under salary-cap duress about the glut of decisions he faces this offseason, with Markstrom, Stecher, Tanev, Tyler Toffoli, and Jake Virtanen all soon to be up for new deals?

For now, those are secondary concerns in Vancouver and in Rodney, where bedtime at the Horvat house will stretch into the wee hours a while longer. After he takes in each Canucks playoff game with his wife, Cindy, and their younger son Cal, Tim Horvat's made a habit of chatting with Bo on the phone, analyzing the night's events as calm descends on the bubble and Tim waits till 3 a.m. to get to sleep.

Rodney is a 45-minute drive from London, where Tim played 12 games at forward for the Knights - Brendan Shanahan was a teammate - in the mid-1980s. He sells insulation now, but retains a player and hockey parent's insight into the forces that have gotten his son to where he is.

Self-confidence, mental toughness, and an even keel helped him shoulder the weight of the captaincy this season, Tim said. His teammates have always liked him, and those he has in Vancouver were quick studies in navigating the playoff grind. With every matchup comes new lessons in how to rise to the occasion.

"That's the best thing," Tim said. "The farther they can go, the more they learn."

Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.

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Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar wasn't happy with how his team performed in a 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 1 on Saturday night.

"The biggest thing was we had half our team not show up to play," Bednar said postgame, according to NHL.com's Dan Rosen.

Bednar didn't mention anyone by name but made it clear to whom he was referencing.

"Obviously, our big guys had a good night," he said. "They were here to compete, play to win the hockey game, and we had a lot of guys that weren't. When I say a lot, I'm talking half the team."

The top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, and Mikko Rantanen - who combined for six points - had a strong outing. Second-line center Nazem Kadri - who's tied for the playoff lead with six goals and picked up an assist in the game - also appeared to be excused from Bednar's comments.

"I did not like our D-corps tonight. I did not like our middle-six wingers," Bednar added, according to The Athletic's Ryan Clark.

Colorado's middle-six wingers were Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi, Tyson Jost, and Valeri Nichushkin. None posted a positive shot-attempt differential in the contest, according to Natural Stat Trick.

"We had a couple workers in the bottom six, but we did not have enough people playing," Bednar said. "You might be able to get away with one or two passengers this time of year, but you're not getting away with any more than that. Not against a team like Dallas. So, that's on us. That's on me as the head coach."

Perhaps nobody had a rougher night than blue-liner Nikita Zadorov. The 6-foot-6 rearguard was on the ice for zero high-danger scoring chances at five-on-five compared to nine against.

Game 2 is set for Monday at 9:45 p.m. ET.

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