Dale Hunter quit as the head coach of the Washington Capitals Monday, telling the team he wants to return to his family in Canada.

”I’m going home,” Hunter said a few hours after telling the news to Capitals general manager George McPhee. ”I’ve got a good thing going there with the family, so I’ll stay home.”

Hunter met with McPhee Monday morning at the team’s practice facility, two days after the Capitals were eliminated from the playoffs in Game 7 against the New York Rangers.

”It was the right thing to do,” Hunter later said. He owns the London Knights of Ontario, a junior hockey team currently playing for the Memorial Cup. His family helps run the Knights, one of his children is an assistant coach and his brother Mark took over as the head coach when Hunter left to join the Capitals in November, replacing fired Bruce Boudreau.

At this time, McPhee doesn’t have a timetable for finding a replacement, he just said it might happen by the time the NHL draft takes place in June, or possibly not until August. He is not in a rush.