When Dale Hunter met with the Capitals’ players as a group for the last time on breakdown day, he left them with one final message: “It’s in your hands now.”

Although he coached in Washington for only six months, Hunter was credited with changing the culture by players and teaching the team “the ‘how’ of how to win” by General Manager George McPhee.

Regardless of whom McPhee brings in to guide this team or the exact system they employ, the Capitals hope the team can continue to draw on the lessons they learned from Hunter even if he isn’t behind the bench.

“I hope our identity going forward is that of a hard-working, blue-collar, not-going-to-give-you-anything, tough-to-play-against group of SOBs,” Brooks Laich said on breakdown day. “We want to be known as a team that’s very hard to play against. . . . I think there’s a very strong character group in there and guys that can lead and I’m sure you’ll see a lot of the same team next year.”

Capitals General Manager George McPhee must spend the offseason searching for a new coach while also making decisions on how to reshape the team’s roster, two tasks that would seem to go hand in hand. So which to do first?

On breakdown day, McPhee was characteristically tight-lipped when asked about his ideal timeline for having a new coach in place. While he did not detail the type of coach he would like to bring in, McPhee may be looking for someone who can build off what Dale Hunter was able to accomplish in instilling a tougher, grittier style.

“My job now is to find the best human talent I can find to coach this club,” McPhee said. “I’m not in any rush to do that, because I haven’t really been thinking in those terms. I don’t know whether it’ll be by the draft or sometime in August, like New Jersey did [last summer]. We’re going to take our time and get the right person.”

In the meantime, the important dates of the NHL offeseason will creep closer.

Jay Beagle knew something was wrong the instant the puck struck his left foot in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the New York Rangers. He’s blocked plenty of shots in his career but this time the pain didn’t fade after a few minutes; instead, each time he tried to skate pain shot through his leg.

The shot came on the penalty kill by Anton Stralman early in the second period. Beagle finished the contest with 14 minutes, 59 seconds of ice time.

Jay Beagle in action during Game 5 of the Caps-Rangers series, which turned out to be his last game of the year. (Toni L. Sandys - THE WASHINGTON POST) The end of that contest — the Rangers came back to tie the game with 7.6 seconds left in regulation then won in overtime — is one that still stung the Washington players on breakdown day. Beagle won the faceoff late in regulation on the shift that resulted in the tying goal by Brad Richards, but neither he nor his teammates could gain complete control of the puck before the Rangers did.

“I wasn’t going to leave my team a man-short in the game,” Beagle said. “You gut through it and know that the pain will be over soon and just kind of get through it. I was a little bit useless out there. I was taking 15-, 20-second shifts because it would get to the point where I couldn’t really skate.”

Even after being limited in Game 5, Beagle planned on finding a way to play in Game 6, a potential elimination game for Washington.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS | The Washington Capitals started and ended the year full of promise.

They were the preseason favorites to win the Stanley Cup and played the role early on, starting the season 7-0 before miscues and underwhelming goaltending factored into the dismissal of Coach Bruce Boudreau.

Enter Dale Hunter, whose leadership and tenacity propelled the 1997-98 Washington Capitals all the way to the Stanley Cup finals. That same tenacity would be embraced by the team (and their fans), leading to an upset of the reigning Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in round one before succumbing to the New York Rangers, the top seed in the East, in seven games during round two.

Then all those good feelings turned to dismay as Coach Hunter decided to return home to his family and the junior hockey team he co-owns with his brother in London, Ontario, leaving the Washington Capitals in search of their third head coach in just two seasons.

It will be just the 22nd time a team has had three coaches in two years since 1994, when the NHL switched to the current playoff format. The results have not been encouraging.

Several players saw themselves watching, rather than playing, for one reason or another during Dale Hunter’s tenure as coach. Jeff Halpern was one of them.

(John McDonnell - THE WASHINGTON POST) Signed to help anchor the fourth line and take key faceoffs, Halpern did precisely that for the bulk of the regular season but by March he was on the outside looking in as the Capitals tried to push toward the playoffs. Halpern was a healthy scratch for 12 of the final 15 regular season games. He continued to sit throughout the playoffs and only got in the lineup after Jay Beagle broke his foot in Game 5 of the second round.

Halpern didn’t want to discuss why he might have fallen out of favor with the coaching staff, but the veteran center said he tried to cope with the benching as best he could.