WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — The Peter Laviolette era is over the Washington Capitals. The Caps parted ways with their coach this week after missing the playoffs the first time in nearly a decade.

“Great man, great coach, but it’s a business,” Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin said. “You can see in the trade deadline we lost friends and great hockey players, but it’s a business.”

In three seasons Under Laviolette, the Caps failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs.

The team of aging superstars faced a heap of injuries this season and Laviolette’s squad struggled to keep up in a competitive Eastern conference.

“I really liked playing for Lavi and it was only one year but it was great getting to know him and working for him,” Capitals goaltender Darcy Kuemper said. “You know it’s sad that he’s not gonna be back next year and we’re disappointed that the year went the way that it did and we weren’t able to play better for him.”

Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said that the search for new head coach will begin soon.

“We’ll see how it shakes out here and we’ll start looking at names and with our group talk about different coaches that people know and traits they have,” MacLellan said. “You know maybe we have to wait to talk to some assistant coaches that we think are candidates. We’ll see how it goes here.”