Barry Trotz was prepared to answer plenty of questions about the Capitals if his former team was the Islanders’ second-round playoff opponent a year after he coached them to the Stanley Cup.
Instead, the Hurricanes ousted the defending champions with a 4-3 double-overtime win in Game 7 in Washington on Wednesday night and will be the Islanders’ opponent for Game 1 on Friday night at Barclays Center.
The Capitals’ loss kept Trotz from being prescient when he told his former team on Nov. 26 in the visitors’ dressing room at Barclays Center they could repeat as Cup champions but would have to come through the Island to do it.