Hey, everybody, welcome in to another edition Sports Washington's Capitals face-off podcast.

I'm your host, the Capitals correspondent, JJ Regan, with me today.

All the way from Vegas.

He is the Capitol's insider.

He is the Bing to my Google.

He is Tariq al-Bashir.

Tark?

I'm more like your Yahoo to your Google. He is Tark Elbashir. Tark? I'm more like your Yahoo to your Google. Is that good? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know either. I just pulled that out of my butt. Yes. Well, you know what? We've been pulling a lot of things out of our butt the last day because we were taken by surprise on Monday less than two weeks less than two weeks after winning the

Stanley Cup the capitals now find themselves in need of a new head coach after the resignation

of Barry Trots Tark what was your initial reaction when you heard the news?

I told everyone, I was actually in the studio, I told everyone who was coming up to me to tell me what they had just seen. I said, give me some time, give me some space, I need to process

this. At different times during the regular season, I would not have been surprised.

Even after the Columbus series or during the Pittsburgh series at times, I would not be surprised at the end result would have been surprised. Even after the Columbus series or during the Pittsburgh series at times, I would not be

surprised if the end result would have been Barry Trott leaving this organization one way or another.

After winning the Stanley Cup, I thought things changed. Winning a championship forges bonds and

makes people change their mind.

And I thought that as the days went on, they won the cup on June 7th.

As the days moved on, I felt like things were making progress.

I felt like the silence was a good thing.

Maybe they were hammering out an extension and then that Trots would be the

head coach here for a few more years.

I was very surprised when I heard that he had stepped down.

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