Having basically already conquered the NHL's regular season, Washington Capitals head coach Barry Trotz is weary of his team becoming complacent.
Washington has amassed 103 points through 68 games, enough for a 12-point advantage in the race for the Presidents' Trophy.
But this is a team with playoff-heavy aspirations, and with a 5-4-1 record over the past 10 games, is trending the wrong way at the wrong time.
As a result, Trotz is warning his players not to take their feet off the gas.
"Everybody we’re playing is in playoff mode. They’re fighting for playoff position and they’re marking us and they’re using us as a little bit of a yardstick based on our record and every game is hard," Trotz said Sunday, according to Chuck Gormley of CSN. "You’ve got to fight for inches and right now we’ve got some guys, they’re playing hard but we’re not fighting for enough inches.
"You’re going to have to fight for the inches in the playoffs and you’ve got to prepare that way for the playoffs."
Of particular note, superstar winger Alex Ovechkin has a single goal in seven March games and dropped only two shots in a 5-2 loss Saturday in San Jose.
Trotz's thoughts?
"I need all our guys to play at the level they need to play at."
Shots fired. Or, rather, more shots need to be fired.
