There were many great moments in what had felt like a honeymoon season after the Washington Capitals lifted the Stanley Cup for the first time in their franchise history the season before.
After finally reaching that mountaintop, general manager Brian MacLellan did his absolute best to bring back as many players from that team as he could. But even though the roster looked nearly identical to the one the previous season, that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any challenges along the way.
One of the biggest challenges was the shorter offseason with the perk of playing hockey through June.