Lars Eller was reacquired by the Washington Capitals from the Pittsburgh Penguins in November, returning to the club he won a Stanley Cup with in 2018. The veteran Dane was brought in to shore up a third-line center position in flux due to prospect centerman Hendrix Lapierre struggling to graduate full-time to the NHL.
Eller, an unrestricted free agent this summer, was thrilled to be back with a team and organization he knows so well after spending seven prior seasons in DC. The Capitals were also far better positioned for success this year than the Penguins, who finished 31 points behind Washington in the Metropolitan Division standings.
“It was great. I felt very fortunate to be part of this team or organization one more time,” Eller said at Breakdown Day, Saturday. “A lot of guys I’ve been around with the first time, but also some new ones, and some players that were starting to come in, and then you come back and see how they established themselves and are taking great strides. That was cool to see. Obviously, we did a lot of winning during the regular season, and so it was a lot of positive things and Ovi’s milestone. There was a lot of fun this year.”
However, some of those good feelings turned slightly sour regarding how Eller’s season ended: in the press box as a healthy scratch. Head coach Spencer Carbery decided to sit Eller and move Connor McMichel back to his natural center position for just the third time all season. The Caps would drop Game 5 to the Hurricanes and be eliminated from the playoffs.
Eller hasn’t had to go through many, if any, scratches in important postseason games before, and was understandably not thrilled about the decision. “It’s disappointing,” he said. “Disappointing is probably a short way to describe it, yeah.”
The 36-year-old seemingly struggled with a far diminished role compared to the one he had previously played for the Capitals. He averaged just 12:26 of ice time during the regular season, his lowest average total in a season since his rookie 2010-11 campaign with the Montreal Canadiens (11:08).
He played even less in the playoffs, skating just 10:45 per game. The mark was third-lowest on the team, ahead of only Alex Alexeyev (10:25) and Ryan Leonard (10:09).
“I think I have that identity as a [more trusted] player for a long, long time. And you play in certain situations, maybe some years, you play a little less or more than certain [years], but it’s always certainly been more than it was for this year,” Eller said. “I didn’t get the best out of myself, or we didn’t get the best out of me at times, because you expect yourself to just keep going at the same rate that you have in the past.
“But it’s also if you don’t have that role and those minutes and those responsibilities in special teams and whatnot, then you can’t expect your production to match what happened in the past, right? So even though you still want that as a player, you make the best of the situation you’re given, and you take pride in that, and you help the team do that. And I always did that to the best of my ability.”
Eller chipped in 15 points (6g, 9a) in 63 games for the Capitals this season. He added seven points (4g, 3a) in 17 games for the Penguins. After his 16th year in the league, Eller told reporters that he fully plans on still playing in the NHL next season.
“I’ll definitely keep playing,” Eller said. “My body feels good. So I’m going to keep playing.”
Part of the motivation behind soldiering on is also that NHL players are returning to the Winter Olympics next year for the first time since 2014. Eller’s Denmark team is already qualified for the tournament.
While Eller has played in Olympic qualifying and the World Championship before, he has never represented his country at the Olympics. “As long as I’m still healthy at that point in February, then yeah, that’s certainly the plan,” he said.
Eller ranks third all-time among Danish NHL players in scoring with 424 career points (188g, 236a). His 1,116 career games played are tops among all Danes, 191 more than the second-place Frans Nielsen (925).
