It sounds like the end of the branches died but in your zone, wait until mid to late May. I have some mopheads with a lot of that winter damageand when I pruned a few stems yesterday, some stems were dried out but a few had green so, play it safe if you want to see blooms from the old wood.

Note: I suspect that it would be best to prune the old stems that leaf out no later than the end of June just so the plant does not look strange with a handful of long stems sticking out above the majority of the smaller, newer stems.

I have just cut back almost to the ground 30 Hydrangeas. Most were dead to ground level but there was plenty of green in the stems>>>so, in order to have them look have way uniform, they are all gone and so are the blooms for this summer. they probably needed revamping anyway. This was this worst winter I can remember and I am old!
My lacecaps seem to have had almost no damage and are leaved out almost to the end of their stems. Is this normal?

Depending on the amount of winter damage to the stems, you can see leaf out all the way to the end of the stems (if there was no damage) or you can see leaf out starting somewhere before the end of the stems (if there was some damage). And of course, the stems will be completely dried out when the damage is at its worst.

I am thinking lacecaps versus mops. Do you think they are a bit hardier?

oops

Oh, well not really but my lacecaps are in a more protected area so they tend to do better during the winters.