The 2007-08 season was one of the best for the Washington Capitals in recent memory. Although they were eliminated in the Eastern Conference quarter-finals against the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime during the seventh game, the team still placed third in the Eastern Conference and first in the Southeast division. They were only four games behind the Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The team wasn't always so great - in the previous season, the Capitals had been the worst team in the entire NHL. Head coach Bruce Boudreau recently received a contract to stay with the team, which will hopefully help the team to replicate and perhaps to improve upon its success in this latest season. Boudreau, who played most of his career in the minor leagues of hockey - largely with the American Hockey League, where he is the 14th all time leading scorer - just completed his first year as coach for a professional hockey team, although he did bring the Hershey Bears to a 2006 Calder Cup Championship, and another finals appearance the year after.
Boudreau was first brought onto the Washington club as an interim coach in November of last season, and was named head coach the month after. The effect of bringing him on board was almost immediate - the Capitals' record in the first month was a dismal 3-10-2, while the December record was 7-3-3, and in January 9-4-0. This bodes well for the Capitals' next season - they're rapidly becoming a team to watch in the NHL, as Boudreau and the rest of the crew are well poised to start gaining some serious playoff experience in the coming years.
