This one will be easy. Blaine Forsythe has spent the last 14 seasons as an assistant for the Washington Capitals. He worked under Boudreau. Won a Cup with Trotz.
According the Tarik Bel-Ashir’s April 20th Athletic article [here](https://theathletic.com/4429549/2023/04/20/blaine-forsythe-capitals/), Adam Oates plopped Ovechkin in the left faceoff circle in 2012-13 and then handed Forsythe the reins. He’s been their power play coach since then, and only twice was it under 20% (19.4% in 2019-20 and 18.8% in 2021-22). Last season, with John Carlson, Tom Wilson, TJ Oshie, and Nicklas Backstrom missing large chunks of the season, the Capitals finished 16th in the league with a 21.2% conversion rate.
With that, it’s a chicken or the egg. How much credit can you give Forsythe for the power play’s success when it’s hallmark is one of the top 3 power play scorers of all-time burying shot after shot, even though everyone knows where Ovechkin will be? Or maybe that’s the key to his coaching, that even though every team knows where Ovi is the power play is talented enough to produce.
In addition, Forsythe was in charge of the centers. Their last five seasons they had a ranking of 16th (49.5), 30th (47.1), 22nd (49.2), 28th (48.3), and 31st (45.7). Sure, some of that is personnel, but for a team that needs to mold its younger centers into more reliable faceoff men, that’s too low.
I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of Forsythe until Russo mentioned him in the Brett McLean article. He’s worked with Dean Evason and Bob Woods before in Washington, but just smacks of “he’s a guy I know and trust”, not “he’s got the know-how to make our special teams better” (Step One: trade for Ovechkin).
It’s Bill Guerin’s task to make sure he knows the difference.
