The burden of those disappointments has grown for this group as they have repeatedly fallen short of expectations, which were at their highest after the Capitals ran away with the Presidents' Trophy and set a franchise record with 56 wins during the regular season. Since taking over the Capitals before last season, Trotz has been trying to instill in his players that this team is different and what happened in the past is just that -- the past.
"In this market, it seems like everybody brings up the past and it's funny because the past a lot of times it's not relevant," Trotz said Sunday. "It's just a story for [the media], but it's really not relevant to the group, for me, because every group changes from year to year."
Trotz said he chuckled at some players being asked about Pat LaFontaine's goal in quadruple overtime that gave the New York Islanders a Game 7 win over the Capitals in the first round of the 1987 playoffs.
"I've got guys on my team going, 'I have no idea who Pat LaFontaine is. Why are they asking me about something that happened [30] years ago? That has no effect on me,'" Trotz said.
There have been plenty of more recent playoff disappointments, however, including blowing a 3-1 series lead against the New York Rangers in the second round of last year's playoffs. In the Alex Ovechkin era, which began in 2005-06, the Capitals reached the second round of the playoffs four previous times and weren't able to get over the hump.