Trotz: Past playoff failures 'thrown in your face everywhere you turn'

Barry Trotz is finally heading to the third round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs as a head coach.

It's a stage he was never able to reach in 15 seasons with the Nashville Predators, nor in his first three campaigns behind Washington's bench, but Trotz and the Capitals were finally able to get over that hump with a Game 6 win in Pittsburgh on Monday.

"I've been at this for a while and it's so hard to move forward sometimes," Trotz said, per Adam Zielonka of the Washington Times. "It's always thrown in your face everywhere you turn. I know it's thrown in (Alex Ovechkin's) face everywhere he turns, and he's a great player in this league.

"It's a hard league to get there. I knew the frustration because you're so close and you just can't get it, and you just gotta stay with it."

Trotz's reaction when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the overtime winner really says it all:

The @Capitals bench just loses it for the OT winner. pic.twitter.com/vBp9aj54Vs

- NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) May 8, 2018

Trotz ranks fifth on the NHL's all-time regular-season coaching wins list with 762, but the Game 6 victory was only his 47th in 101 playoff contests.

Copyright (C) 2018 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.