Ovechkin, Backstrom sad, but understanding of Trotz's resignation

While they'll certainly miss him, both Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom had nothing but praise for Barry Trotz following his resignation as head coach of the Washington Capitals.

"It’s hard when it happen right away, you know?" Ovechkin said, according to Isabelle Khurshudyan of The Washington Post. "First of all, thanks for him to be with us, to give us a chance to win the Cup. All of what he did was only for the team, not for personal-wise. But I’m pretty sure he will be fine and he will find what he wants. It’s sad, but it’s a business."

Nearly two weeks after Trotz coached the franchise to its first-ever Stanley Cup victory, he elected to resign from the role following fruitless contract negotiations. Still, Backstrom believes the 55-year-old will always be a popular figure in D.C.

"Something you can't take away from Barry is what he's done to this team," Backstrom said. "Him and the coaching staff has been doing a tremendous job to just get us together. He's been schooling us good these four years and we got a good finish out of it. ... Hopefully, there's no hard feelings. He's always going to be remembered in Washington as a champion, which is great, which he deserves."

The Capitals will now look to find Trotz's replacement. General manager Brian MacLellan has already stated that assistant coach Todd Reirden will be interviewed for the position, and if he's the successor to Trotz, Ovechkin would be just fine with that.

"If it's Todd, I'm sure lots of guys, everybody, going to be really happy," Ovechkin said. "He's a guy who's a very good communicator, very good specialist and have lots of respect from us."