Lars Eller Calls Out the Capitals for Healthy Scratching Him in Elimination Game Against Carolina

Washington Capitals forward Lars Eller wasn't happy about being scratched for his team's elimination game against the Carolina Hurricanes earlier this week.

The Washington Capitals re-acquired Lars Eller from the divisional foe Pittsburgh Penguins earlier in the year, bringing him back to the franchise with which he won the Stanley Cup in 2018.

The hope was that he'd team up with Alex Ovechkin and a cast of mostly new characters on the Washington roster for another deep postseason run. Instead, the Capitals once again failed to make it past the 2nd round of the playoffs, losing in 5 games to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Eller, who had his ice time vastly reduced in the postseason, was a healthy scratch for the decisive Game 5 loss to Carolina that ended their season. He made it clear that he wasn't happy with coach Spencer Carbery's lineup decision.

It's disappointing. Disappointing is probably a short way to describe it, yeah.

After averaging 12:26 of ice time per game during regular season play, his lowest since his rookie year of 2010-11, Eller's ice time dropped to 10:45 per game in the playoffs.

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. 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.

The 36 year old Eller, who is 3rd all-time among Danish-born NHL players with 424 career points, said he has no plans to retire.

I'll definitely keep playing. My body feels good. So I'm going to keep playing.