Some quotes...
It was breakdown day after Orpik’s first season into a five-year, $27.5 million deal, not long after he sat inside an exit interview with Coach Barry Trotz and general manager Brian MacLellan. There, he told his bosses that he hadn’t enjoyed hockey to this degree in four or five years, and much of that he owed to the attitude of the group he joined.
He had grown so accustomed to life in Pittsburgh, drafted 18th overall in 2000 and joining the organization for good three years later. The relationships were fully developed, from teammates to the training staff to personnel stationed around the rink. In Washington, everything was unknown, especially how Orpik would jell. Later, he would echo Trotz’s oft-spoken assertion that expectations had failed to align with the truth.
“I did a lot of research before I signed here, talking to guys who played here, so I had a pretty good idea,” Orpik said. “Guys talk around the league all the time, so guys have a pretty good idea of what guys are like as teammates. It’s usually a lot different than what outsiders think as guys. But yeah, like I said before, I think this team’s been criticized for having a lot of individual talents and individual egos. Right from Day One I didn’t see any existence of that. That’s what made it a lot of fun to be part of this group. Guys really genuinely cared about each other and stuck up for each other.”
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For four years in Pittsburgh, Niskanen had a relatively close view of the Capitals. He had read the scathing articles addressing Alex Ovechkin’s minus-35 rating and defensive play last season, or the ones dissecting the dysfunction that led to Adam Oates’s dismissal following the franchise’s first postseason absence since 2006-07. He sensed “some perceptions about the group here, about work habits and consistency,” but tried to arrive “with a clean slate and a fresh mind and not judge people before I really got to know them myself.” Like Orpik, he found things different.
“I thought as a group we really committed to getting better,” Niskanen said. “That was a good sign and I think we grew a lot in that department, just becoming better professionals. That was good. I think our success as the year went on reflected that, the commitment in that area. That’s a good base to have. That’s a good foundation to have that work ethic and commitment to finding ways to get better. That part was good.”
