BALLSTON, VA - The Washington Capitals made an impact on the first day of NHL free agency, signing Jeff Halpern, Joel Ward and Roman Hamrlik while losing Boyd Gordon, Semyon Varlamov and Marco Sturm. The man in charge of these players, head coach Bruce Boudreau, discussed his new-look lineup Friday afternoon at Kettler Capitals Iceplex.
"It was fast and furious through the whole league, I think," Boudreau said candidly.
On filling the missing holes in the Capitals' lineup:
"Absolutely. The depth is tremendous on this team. The holes are filled, so moving forward, I'm looking forward to [training] camp now."
On the injection of experience and grit that the Caps have received within the last week:
"Joel Ward played really hard when he played against him. We know how Hamrlik has played against us...Halpern's played really hard and has been a captain here before. All of those things were carefully done and it just fit in well, so it works."
On picking up players during the summer as opposed to the trade deadline:
"The longer you keep the group together, the more stable they become. it becomes an easier situation. You don't have to go looking for moves...halfway through the year. What George did today was set the roster and let's go."