Washington Capitals -- Not All Playoffs are the Same: Part III

In our first two installments of looking at the playoff history in the “Rock the Red” era of the Washington Capitals we touched on two postseasons that were clearly disappointments, if for entirely different reasons. We now enter that part of the history that is a bit more conflicted, starting with a postseason that started well, ended poorly, perhaps a reflection of a team that was not what it seemed to be.

5. 2011: Live on the Edge, and You Might Fall Over It

The 2010-2011 season was one long effort at trying to repair the damage done as a result of the Washington Capitals’ far-too-early exit from the 2010 playoffs.  The Caps finished the 2009-2010 season with the league’s best record and its most fearsome offense, then blew a three-games-to-one lead in the first round of the playoffs in losing to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games in the most disappointing playoff exit in club history.

If the Caps of the 2010-2011 regular season were not the explosive and dominating team of 2009-2010, they were a consistent one.  In eight ten-game segments of the season they recorded fewer than ten standings points only once (a 4-5-1 record for Games 51-60).  They were also different in other respects.  Their scoring offense was down by more than a goal per game from the previous season (from 3.82 to 2.67). and their scoring differential was down by two thirds (from +1.05 goals per game to +0.34).   Five-on-five play was tighter, the Caps finishing with a goals-for/goals-against ratio of 1.07 versus 1.57 in 2009-2010.  And, while their special teams index was largely unchanged (104.0 in 2009-2010 to 103.1 in 2010-2011), the Caps got there in a very different way in 2010-2011.  Their power play dropped in efficiency from 25.2 percent to 17.5, while their power play jumped from 78.8 percent to 85.6.

It was a team that played games much closer to the margin.  They played in 46 one-goal games in 2010-2011 to a 26-9-11 record (including q 5-6 record in the Gimmick) versus 41 games in 2009-2010 to a 20-8-13 record (also with a 5-6 record in the Gimmick).  The bigger difference was in decisions of three or more goals.  The Caps won 22 such decisions in 2009-2010 (a 22-6 record), while they only had 22 such decisions in total in 2010-2011 (14-8 record).

Individually, production was down in 2010-2011, too.  As a group, the 22 skaters appearing in both seasons for the Caps scored almost 100 fewer goals in 2010-2011 (189) than in 2009-2010 (283).  That group had a total of 40 power play goals in 2010-2011 compared to 74 the previous season.  The drop was especially felt among the “Young Guns.”  Alex Ovechkin’s goal total dropped by 18 (from 50 to 32), his power play goals by six (from 13 to 7).  Nicklas Backstrom’s goal totals dropped by 15 overall (from 33 to 18), and his power play goals dropped by seven (from 11 to 4).  For Alexander Semin it was a drop of 12 goals overall (40 to 28) and two on the power play (8 to 6).  Mike Green lost 33 games to injury in 2010-2011, but his goal total dropping by more than half (from 19 to 8) overall and by half on the power play (from 10 to 5) from the previous year was still significant.

With all of that, however, the Caps still finished the regular season with a 48-23-11 record (107 points), the top-seed in the Eastern Conference and holders of the second-best record in the league (Vancouver: 54-19-9/117 points).  It was a reflection, one might say, of better balance between a potent offense and a decent, if unspectacular defense.  It could have been said that the Caps got there by playing “the right way,” when some thought they did not do so the previous season.  It earned the Capitals a rematch in the first round with 2009’s first-round opponent, the New York Rangers.

The two teams had very different run-ups to the postseason.  After getting pasted at home by the Rangers, 6-0, on February 25^th the Caps finished the season 16-3-1 over their last 20 games of the season.  Meanwhile, after the Rangers won five in a row in mid-March, they stumbled to a 4-3-1 record in their last eight games.  There was, however, an “X” factor.  In his last two appearances of the season against the Caps, Ranger goaltender Henrik Lundqvist shut out the Caps, once on 31 shots in a 7-0 win at Madison Square Garden in December, and the 6-0 shutout on 35 shots in February at Verizon Center in Washington.  In Game 1 of their opening round matchup, Lundqvist picked up right where he left off for the Rangers, turning away all 17 shots he faced over the first two periods.  For the Caps, goalie Michal Neuvirth matched Lundqvist in the goals allowed department, stopping all 11 shots he faced in the first 40 minutes.  Just two minutes into the third period, though, the Rangers broke the ice.  Brandon Prust outfought John Erskine for a loose puck in the corner to Neuvirth’s right, slid it along the end wall to Wojtek Wolski, and Wolski sent it out to Matt Gilroy for a one-timer that beat Neuvirth to make it 1-0.

Lundqvist threatened to make that goal stand up, blanking the Caps over the first 13 minutes of the period.  In the 14^th minute, however, the Caps broke out of their own end with a long pass from Mike Green to Alex Semin at the red line.  The puck squirted forward where Alex Ovechkin took over.  Ovechkin skated in but was interrupted by defenseman Dan Girardi, who was knocked to the ice for his trouble.  Semin collected the loose puck but lost control of it at the post to Lundqvist’s right.  Ovechkin took several whacks at it, and just before defenseman Marc Staal could tackle him at the post, Ovechkin batted the puck past Lundqvist to tie the game. 

That would be it for the scoring in regulation.  The first overtime seemed to be heading to its end without resolution when the Caps pinned the Rangers in their own end with a withering forecheck.  Unable to get the puck out on two clearing attempts, the puck settled on the stick of Jason Arnott at the right wing wall.  He fed Alexander Semin in the high slot, and Semin one-timed the puck past Lundqvist’s blocker to give the Caps the win in Game 1.

It was more of the same to start Game 2 – closely played by both teams in a scoreless first period.  The Caps struck twice, however, early in the second period.  Jason Chimera rewarded himself for hard work along the wall to keep the puck in the Ranger end by heading to the slot and one-timing a pass from Marcus Johansson through Lundqvist to give the Caps the lead.  Less than two minutes later, with Ryan McDonagh in the penalty box for the Rangers, Jason Arnott put back a rare rebound given up by Lundqvist to give the Caps a 2-0 lead.  Neuvirth did the rest, shutting out the Rangers with 22 saves to send the Caps to New York with a 2-0 lead in games.

Five times to that point in franchise history the Caps took 2-0 leads into Game 3.  Their record in Games 3 in those instances: 0-5.  And, they went on to lose four of those series.  If a two-goal lead is thought to be the most dangerous lead in hockey, then for the Caps a 2-0 lead in games was uniquely hazardous.  Game 3 unfolded as if it would be no exception.  The Caps seemed to be a step behind throughout.  After another scoreless first period – the third straight in this series – the Rangers broke through on a power play goal by Erik Christensen early in the second period.  Ovechkin tied the contest in the last minute of the third period, but the Rangers regained the lead on a Vinny Prospal goal in the ninth minute of the third period.  Washington tied the game a second time on a power play goal by Mike Knuble with just over five minutes left in regulation, and it seemed as if the teams would go to overtime for the second time in this series. 

It did not.  With the clock winding down under two minutes to play, Brandon Dubinsky walked out from the corner to Neuvirth’s right.  He pulled the puck to his forehand as he closed on the net, but his shot popped into the air in the Washington crease.  Neuvirth lost sight of the puck, and it dropped to his left and bounced into the net to give the Rangers a 2-1 win.

The teams returned to form in Game 4, failing to score in the first period.  In the second period, every Capital fan’s nightmare seemed to be playing out.  Artem Anisimov scored less than six minutes into the period.  Then, the Rangers scored goals seven seconds apart later in the period – Marian Gaborik and Dubinsky doing the damage – to take a 3-0 lead into the third period.

The Caps came out hard in the third period, recording five shots in the first 2:45 of the period.  It was the sixth shot that got the Caps back in the game.  With the Rangers changing personnel, Ryan McDonagh held the puck behind the Ranger net.  When the changes were finished, McDonagh tried to send the puck up the left wing to Gaborik.  What he didn’t see was Alexander Semin ready to pounce on the pass.  Semin intercepted the puck and circled in through the right wing circle.  His first shot was stopped by Lundqvist, but the puck was not secured under the goalie.  Semin poked it free and over the goal line, and the Caps – over the protests of Lundqvist that he froze the puck – were on the board. 

Less than a minute later, the Caps got to within a goal on a play that started when Marcus Johansson fed the puck across to Brooks Laich in the left wing faceoff circle.  The puck bounced over Laich’s stick, but he chased it down along the wall.  From there he sent the puck back in front where Johansson was setting up.  Johansson angled his stick blade and redirected the puck past Lundqvist’s left pad to make it 3-2 with more than 16 minutes still left in regulation.

It looked as if that would be as close as the Caps would get, but then the kids took over.  Karl Alzner (playing in his fifth career postseason game) fed the puck across to John Carlson (playing in his 11^th post season game) for a one-time blast that threaded its way to the front of the Ranger net.  Johansson (playing in his fourth career playoff game) redirected the puck past Lundqvist, and the game was tied with just under eight minutes left. 

Neither team could find the tie-breaker in what remained of regulation time, meaning that the teams would go to an extra session for the third time in four games.  Neuvirth (nine saves) and Lundqvist (13 saves) took the teams to a second overtime period, and each netminder had four saves in the first 12 minutes of the second extra period.  Rod Serling could have narrated what happened next.  The Caps broke out of their own end, Carlson sending the puck from behind his net along the wall to Eric Fehr at the right wing boards.  Fehr chipped the puck out to Johansson heading up the right side.  Just inside the Ranger blue line Johansson dropped the puck to Jason Chimera.  Up to this point it looked like a dozen other plays over the first 92 minutes.  But then Chimera took the shot.  It was deadened by defenseman Bryan McCabe and slid slowly toward the Ranger net.  Instead of allowing Lundqvist to smother the puck with his glove for a faceoff, Marian Gaborik tried to get his stick on the puck and slide it out of harm’s way.  Between his stick and Lundqvist’s glove, the puck snuck through and into the blue paint in front of the Ranger net and at the feet of Chimera.  With barely a foot between the puck and the goal line, it was quite literally a tap-in for the game-winner 12:36 into the second overtime.  The Caps had a 3-1 lead heading back to Washington.

Taking 3-1 leads into Game 5 has been a bitter experience for the Capitals over the years, but this time would be different.  The Caps played with focus and purpose from the drop of the puck.  They were rewarded just before the six-minute mark of the period when Mike Green took advantage of a Bryan McCabe penalty to give the Caps the lead on the ensuing power play.  It would be their only goal despite outshooting the Rangers by a 13-6 margin in the period.  The Caps got their second in the second period on a highlight reel play from Ovechkin.  After Jeff Schultz did some hard work to free the puck from the corner to the left of goalie Michal Neuvirth, Nicklas Backstrom started the puck up ice.  From Backstrom to Brooks Laich to Scott Hannan, it eventually found its way to the stick of Ovechkin at the red line.  Ovechkin caught Ranger defenseman Marc Staal in a bad place, facing up ice at the Ranger blue line.  That was a signal to Ovechkin to head into a higher gear.  Staal could not get turned in time, and Ovechkin had the positional edge, using his speed and strength to curl in on Lundqvist.  Ovechkin pulled the puck across the low slot to his backhand and flipped it past Lundqvist’s right pad, leaving the goalie face-down on the ice and the Caps with a 2-0 lead.  The teams played an even third period over the first 15 minutes, suiting the Caps just fine.  Alexander Semin stuck in the dagger when he and Marcus Johansson broke out on a 2-on-1 rush.  Johansson carried the puck into the zone and fed it across to Semin for the one-timer that clinched the series for the Caps.  Wojtek Wolski scored with a half-minute left to ruin Michal Neuvirth’s shutout, but it was not nearly enough to keep the Caps from heading to the second round as the only team in the East to advance to the second round in less than seven games.

In the second round the Caps faced the Tampa Bay Lightning, a club they faced only once before in team playoff history, a six-game loss in 2003, losing the last four games in succession, including the series-clinching Game 6 in triple overtime at home.  It was hard to get a read on these teams based on the season series.  The Caps won the first two games in impressive fashion by scores of 6-3 and 6-0.  The Lightning came back to win the third and fourth games, played just eight days apart in early January, by shutout -- 1-0 in overtime and 3-0.  Washington closed out the series with a pair of wins to take the series overall, 4-2.

Tampa took the early advantage in the first period of Game 1, getting a goal by Sean Bergenheim barely two minutes into the contest.  The Caps answered with a pair of goals wrapped around the first intermission, and it looked as if they were going to be able to use the same sort of stifling defense they used against the Rangers to carry that lead to a Game 1 win.  However, the Lightning struck for two goals late in the second period and then applied some stifling defense of their own.  The Caps had only five shots on goal in the third period, and Tampa Bay scored an empty net goal with 40 seconds left to take Game 1, 4-2. 

What Game 4 would be for the Capitals in their opening round series in New York against the Rangers, Game 2 would be for the Lightning in Washington against the Caps.  The teams took a 1-1 tie into the third period of the context, Tampa Bay scoring first in the opening frame and Brooks Laich tying it up in the second for the Caps.  Martin St. Louis, who scored the goal in triple overtime to eliminate the Caps in 2003, put the Lightning ahead in the eighth minute of the third period when his shot caromed off the skate of Caps defenseman Mike Green and past Neuvirth.  It might have been a frustrating way to give up a game-winning goal, except Alex Ovechkin got the Caps even with a goal with just 1:08 left in regulation.  In overtime, the Caps were burned by a sluggish line change.  As the Caps were swapping out players, Randy Jones chased the puck into the corner in his own end and sent it up the wall to Teddy Purcell at the Caps’ blue line.  It created a two-on-one advantage for the Lightning, Jones chipping a backhand pass across and out of the reach of Green that allowed Vincent Lecavalier an open opportunity to chip the puck over Neuvirth for the 3-2 win and a 2-0 lead in games.

Losing Games 1 and 2 of a seven-game series on home ice was not common in Caps history, having occurred only once before.  However, that one time was in 2009 against the New York Rangers, a team they eventually defeated in seven games.  When the Caps erased an early Lightning lead with a goal in the first minute of the second period by Mike Knuble and John Carlson’s first of the postseason eight minutes into the period, it looked as if the Caps might repeat their 2009 success against the Lightning.  Even when the Lightning tied the game up on a Lecavalier goal, the Caps regained the lead before the second intermission on a power play goal by Ovechkin, his fifth of the playoffs.  Whatever confidence Caps fans might have had that the team would turn the tables and beat Tampa Bay on their ice ended in an instant.  Steven Stamkos tied the game once more 5:23 into the third period, and Ryan Malone scored the game-winner 24 seconds later, converting a feed to the goal mouth by Nate Thompson. 

Instead of being in a position to play a Game 4 to tie the series before sending it back to Washington, the Caps were playing not to be swept for the third time in a seven game series in franchise history, dropping a four-game series to the Boston Bruins in the 1990 conference final and then again to the Detroit Red Wings in the 1998 Stanley Cup final.

One last time, the Lightning had the better finishing kick.  After exchanging goals in the first period, the Caps getting their first of the postseason from late-season acquisition Marco Sturm to answer a Ryan Malone strike, the Lightning slowly but steadily pulled away in the last 40 minutes.  Sean Bergenheim scored his third and fourth goals of the series eight minutes apart to give the Lightning a 3-1 lead.  The Caps drew within a goal 13:40 into the period, but it seemed more accident than plan. A battle for the puck behind the Tampa Bay net resulted in the puck sliding up the left wing boards.  Defenseman John Erskine pinched in and stopped the puck outside the faceoff circle hash marks.  In one motion he just flung the puck at the Lightning net, and the it sailed over goalie Dwayne Roloson’s right shoulder on the near side, just under the crossbar to make it 3-2 at the second intermission.

Tampa Bay wrapped things up in the third period, though.  The irony of it was that the game-winning goal would be scored on a power play by Marc-Andre Bergeron, who, when he was playing for Montreal in 2010 scored a power play goal in Game 7 to start the Canadiens to their series-clinching victory.   The goal seemed to stun the Caps, who were outshot by the Lightning, 4-0, over the next three minutes and 7-5 from the Bergeron goal to the 16:52 mark.  At that point, the old Caps nemesis, Martin St. Louis, drove the last nail into the coffin of the Caps’ season, snapping a shot from between the hash marks in the slot past John Carlson and Neuvirth to make it 5-2.  Carlson scored for the Caps 62 seconds after the St. Louis goal, but the damage was done, and there was too little time left in the season to rally. 

In the end, the disappointment was more in how quickly and meekly the Caps went in the second round.  It was a lot of little things and two big things.  Among the little things, the Caps could not take advantage of dominant possession numbers.  The Caps enjoyed a Corsi-for plus-minus of plus-45 over the four games (56.4 percent) for the series overall and plus-27 in close-score situations (55.4 percent).  The Caps won 51.5 percent of the faceoffs in the series.  They out-hit the Lightning, 98-79.  They could not take advantage.  On the other side, they lost the turnover battle, 57-73.  They allowed the first goal in all four games.  The allowed the first goal in the third period and overtime in all four games.  The only goals they got from defensemen were a pair from John Carlson and one from John Erskine, and Washington had only five points from defensemen in the series (Mike Green and Erskine had assists).  The little things the Caps did right didn’t matter, and the ones they did not they could not overcome. 

Then there were the two big things.  First, Michal Neuvirth had two utterly different series in the postseason.  Against the Rangers he was 4-1, 1.37, .946, with a shutout.  Against the Lightning he was 0-4, 3.74, .867.  He stopped just 18 of 23 shots in the third period and overtime against Tampa Bay (.783 save percentage).  Then there was Nicklas Backstrom.  He was almost invisible in the playoffs overall and especially against the Lightning.  The seeds of that disappointment were likely planted long before the postseason started.  In a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in late February, Backstrom took a slash from Kris Letang, breaking the thumb on his left hand, his dominant hand as a left-handed shooter.  He went all nine games of the postseason without a goal on 25 shots, and he managed only two assists, one in each series.  He was really not the same after the injury sustained in Pittsburgh.  In 25 games to close the season, including the nine he played in the postseason, Backstrom was 3-11-14.and did not score a goal in his last 17 games.  That was perhaps the single biggest hole in production the Caps could not fill in.

Being down to a one-handed first line center in the conference semi-final is not a reliable recipe for success, but the Caps did enough things right, especially in terms of possession, that a loss to the Lightning, not to mention a sweep, was confounding.  And while beating the Lightning was no guarantee of success (the Caps were the East’s top seed but lost three of four games to the Boston Bruins – the team they would have met in the conference final -- in the regular season), it was a disappointment to bow out for the second year in a row as the Eastern Conference top seed without advancing to the conference final.

Perhaps if Backstrom was healthy, the Caps might have gotten off to a better start at home to start the series against the Lightning and changed the tone of the series.  It made for an especially disappointing end to what was a solid season by the Caps to that point, dissolving into an “if only” sort of conclusion.  The trouble is, it is always something with this team – a hot opposing goaltender, a fortuitous bounce for the other team, unfortunate timing for an injury to one of their best players.  And once more, the Caps failed to reach a conference final.

Photo: Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images

Washington Capitals -- Not All Playoffs are the Same: Part II

In our first look at ranking playoffs in the Rock the Red era from most disappointing to most pleasant surprise, we talked about the 2010 postseason that ended after one round, the Presidents Trophy edition of the Washington Capitals blowing a 3-1 lead in games and losing to the eighth-seed Montreal Canadiens in 2010.  Now, in the second installment, we take a look at a club that experienced the highest of highs, then the lowest of lows.

6. 2009: Anybody but Those Guys

The Washington Capitals returned to the postseason in 2008 after a three season absence, losing in excruciating fashion to the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime of Game 7 after winning Games 5 and 6 to force a deciding game on home ice.  It was a hard learning experience, one that would be put to the test the following season when the Caps won the Southeast Division for the second straight season, improving by 14 standings points over the previous season and finishing second in the Eastern Conference. 

The Caps drew the New York Rangers in the first round of the 2009 postseason, a team they had not faced in the postseason since 1994, when they lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champions in five games.  Things started according to the script, if the Caps were doing the screenwriting.  After a scoreless first period of Game 1, Tomas Fleischmann put the Caps on top on a power play goal.  It went bad quickly for the home team, though, not long after that goal.  Scott Gomez tied the game on a power play goal just 69 seconds after Fleischmann’s tally.  It got worse for the Caps, in more than one way, as the period was winding down.  John Erskine took a penalty for the Caps, and Nik Antropov converted on the ensuing power play.  Less than a minute after Antropov’s goal, Sergei Fedorov was sent to the box for the Caps, and Markus Naslund converted that power play chance to put the Rangers up, 3-1.  The Caps tied the game on a pair of goals wrapped around the second intermission, Viktor Kozlov scoring in the last minute of the second period and Alexander Semin scoring before the third period was two minutes old.  The Caps could not pull ahead, though, as Brandon Dubinsky put the Rangers in front seconds after a Capitals power play ended, faking Jeff Schultz to the ice, cutting in, and beating goalie Jose Theodore for what would be the game-winning goal.

Losing Game 1 on home ice was a problem, and the Caps addressed part of it with a change in goal for Game 2.  Semyon Varlamov replaced Theodore, and the move had the intended effect.  Varlamov stopped 23 of 24 shots, allowing only a first-period goal by Ryan Callahan.  The trouble was, at the other end of the ice Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 35 shots he faced to get the 1-0 win and put the Caps in a deep hole, taking a 2-0 lead in games and heading back to New York for Games 3 and 4.

Varlamov became the unexpected star of the two games in New York.  He shut out the Rangers in Game 3, stopping all 33 shots he faced in a 4-0 win.  Then, he turned aside 19 of 21 shots in Game 4.  But there was Lundqvist once more, allowing only a third-period goal by Alex Ovechkin among the 39 shots he faced to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead in Games heading back to Washington for Game 5.

It was the second straight playoff series in which the Caps faced a 1-3 deficit in games and the sixth time in their history.  Only once in five previous episodes – the first time they faced such a deficit – did they win the series, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers in seven games in 1988, winning that series in overtime of Game 7 on a goal by Dale Hunter.  History was not on the Caps’ side.

The Caps did enough to fight another day when they started with a shorthanded goal by Matt Bradley less than five minutes into Game 5 – one of two goals he would have for the game (his first two career playoff goals and his only career two-goal game in the postseason) – and never looked back, riding an 18-save effort from Varlamov to a 4-0 win to force Game 6 in New York.  The Caps jumped all over the Rangers in the first period of Game 6 at Madison Square Garden, getting goals by three different defensemen (Milan Jurcina, Mike Green, and Tom Poti) to take a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.  The Caps added a pair of goals in the second period and held on to defeat the Rangers, 5-3, to force a Game 7 in Washington.

Game 7 was the sixth such game that the Caps played on home ice in franchise history.  They lost four of the previous five, two of them in overtime (1987 to the Islanders and the 2008 loss to the Flyers).  As this game progressed, it seemed as if another overtime might be in store. The teams exchanged goals in the first period, the Rangers opening the scoring on a goal by Nik Antropov and the Caps getting the equalizer from Alexander Semin.  Both Varlamov and Lundqvist were perfect in goal in the second period, making it seem that much more likely that the series would be settled in an extra frame.

The Caps came out strong in the third period, Ovechkin drawing a penalty on Dan Girardi, then recording three shots on the ensuing power play.  None got past Lundqvist, though.  It did not slow the Caps down much, however, as they would record the first seven shots in the period through the eight-minute mark.  Washington could not keep up the pace, going seven minutes without a shot on goal after that early flurry.

It was the eighth shot for the Caps that turned the series.   The play started when the Rangers’ Sean Avery took a long pass from Derek Morris and circled into the Capitals’ end.  Avery dropped the puck for Brandon Dubinsky trailing the play, and Dubinsky fired a shot that was high and wide over Varlamov’s blocker on the long side.  The puck slid up the wall where Matt Bradley was first to it.  With his back to the open ice, Bradley backhanded a pass to Sergei Fedorov streaking out of the zone.  Fedorov charged up the right wing in front of the players benches and into the Rangers’ end.   With defenseman Wade Redden trying to keep a reasonable distance and drive Fedorov wide, Fedorov slammed on the brakes just inside the far edge of the right wing circle.  It was enough to create some space as Redden tried to stop in time to maintain his proximity to the puckhandler.  Fedorov then snapped a shot past Redden and over Lundqvist’s glove under the crossbar with 4:59 left to send the Verizon Center crowd into a delirium.

If the last 4:59 seemed like an eternity to Caps fans, it was something else for the players on the ice.  They did not back off and play prevent defense, taking play to the Rangers and outshooting them, 5-0, after the Fedorov goal to clinch the series with a 2-1 win and a meeting in the second round with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Washington finished the season nine points ahead of the Penguins in the regular season and went 3-0-1 in the season series against Pittsburgh.  The Pens dispatched the Philadelphia Flyers in six games for the pleasure of trying to reverse those results against the Caps in the second round.

The series was billed as the first of what promised to be many postseason battles between Alex Ovechkin and the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby.  Neither had disappointed in the first round, Ovechkin going 3-4-7, plus-5 against the Rangers, and Crosby going 4-4-8, plus-2 against the Flyers.  Both scored in the first period of Game 1, Crosby opening the scoring four minutes into the period and Ovechkin scoring a 5-on-3 power play goal late in the period to break a 1-1 tie to give the Caps the lead at the first intermission.

The second period, however, belonged to Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov, both bad and good.  The bad came just before the 13-minute mark of the period when he misplayed a shot by Penguin defenseman Mark Eaton off his glove to allow the Penguins to tie the game.  The good more than made up for that with just under two minutes in the period.  The play began as the Penguins’ Crosby and Chris Kunitz move the puck up ice on a two-on-two rush.  Crosby left the puck for Kunitz just over the Caps’ blue line as the two were crossing in the middle of the ice.  As Kunitz carried the puck through the right wing circle, Crosby went to the net, getting a half step on Caps defenseman Tom Poti.  With Varlamov squaring up to defend Kunitz, the Penguin forward slid the puck across to Crosby, who had an open net at which to shoot.  Poti might have gotten just enough of Crosby’s stick to muffle a shot, giving Varlamov just that split second to lunge across the crease and get the blade of his stick on the puck on the goal line, turning it out of harm’s way.  For Varlamov and the Caps, it was the save of the playoffs.

Having dodged that bullet to take the tied game to the second intermission, the Caps scored early in the third period on a goal by Tomas Fleischmann.  After that the game was left in Varlamov’s hands.  He was up to the challenge, shutting out Pittsburgh in the third period, and the Caps had a 3-2 win in Game 1. 

If Game 1 was exciting, Game 2 was what hockey fans dreamed of – two players at the top of their respective games in a mano-a-mano battle.  Sidney Crosby opened the scoring with a power play goal less than seven minutes into the game.  Alex Ovechkin countered with a goal barely two minutes into the second period.  Crosby again at the 10:57 mark put the Pens back in the lead.  After a goal by David Steckel to tie the game late in the second period, Ovechkin gave the Caps their first lead at 12:53 of the third on a power play.  Ovechkin seemed to drive the last nail in the Penguins’ coffin with less than five minutes left, recording the hat trick goal – his first career playoff hat trick – that would result in a lengthy delay as the ice was cleared of hats, prompting Crosby to ask officials to make an announcement to have the fans stop throwing hats on the ice.  Crosby was not done though.  He swatted a puck out of mid-air from the goal line extended to record his own hat trick and get the Penguins within a goal with 30.4 seconds left.  That would be as close as Pittsburgh would get, though, and the Caps had a 2-0 lead heading to Pittsburgh.

Two things to note here about the Caps’ 2-0 lead in games.  First, it was arguably the high point of the season to date (and, in retrospect, of their season).  Second, there is a saying that a series does not begin until a team wins on the road.  The Caps would get close to getting that road win in Game 3, forcing overtime when Nicklas Backstrom tied the game with less than two minutes left on a power play.  Close would be as far as the Caps would get, though, as Kris Letang saved the Penguins from falling into an 0-3 hole when he fired a shot that was redirected off a Caps defenseman and off the left pipe past Varlamov.

From such thin margins series turn.  The seeds were being planted that would bloom later in the series for the Pens; they out-shot the Caps, 42-23, in Game 3, and they recorded a total of 66 shot attempts to 43 for Washington.  It would be more of the same in Game 4.  The Caps scored on a Backstrom goal just 36 seconds into the game, but the Penguins roared back with three of their own to take a 3-1 lead to the first intermission on their way to a 5-3 win.  After the onslaught of shots in Game 3, Varlamov was shaky in goal in Game 4, sending the teams back to Washington tied 2-2.

Game 5 was cruel forthe Caps and their fans.  After a scoreless first period, the Caps held a lead at the second intermission, 2-1, courtesy of goals by Ovechkin and Backstrom.  Pittsburgh took the lead in the third on goals by Ruslan Fedotenko and former Capital Matt Cooke.  Ovechkin tied the game late – his tenth of the playoffs and seventh of this series – finishing a pass from Backstrom with a shot from the right wing circle.  It was all either team could muster in regulation, going to overtime tied, 3-3.  Less than two minutes into the overtime Milan Jurcina tripped Evgeni Malkin as Malkin was splitting Jurcina and Sergei Fedorov to break in alone on Varlamov.  Rather than have a penalty shot awarded, the Penguins went to the power play.  With the power play running out, Malkin had the puck on his stick heading down the right wing.  As he was doing so, Sidney Crosby was charging to the net on the far side.  As Malkin broke through the right wing faceoff circle, he sent a pass across to Crosby.  It never reached its intended target.  That was because Tom Poti, defending Malkin on the play, dove to break up the pass.  He got just enough of the puck to redirect it past Varlamov on the short side, giving the Penguins the first road win of the series.

Once more, the Penguins pounded the Caps on the shot meter, winning that battle, 42-31.  It left Caps fans wondering if there was anything left in the tank for Game 6 in Pittsburgh with the Penguins in a position to clinch the series.  The Caps proved that there was something left.  They fell behind early, then they allowed a game-tying goal late.  But, six minutes into the overtime, David Steckel won a faceoff to the left of Penguin goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.  The puck made its way around the wall to Brooks Laich at the right point.  Laich fired an innocent looking shot at the net, and Steckel redirected it past Fleury on the short side to send the Caps off as winners, 5-4, in overtime to ensure a Game 7 in Washington.

While the Caps showed that there was something left in the tank in Game 6, it came at a price.  It was the third time in four games that Pittsburgh recorded 42 shots on goal.  The Pens had out-shot the Caps, 226-159 through six games.  Could the Caps muster one last big effort, on home ice, in Game 7?  It would have helped to get an early goal to establish some momentum, and the Caps got their chance three minutes into the game with the puck on the stick of the player they would want taking the shot.  Alex Ovechkin had a clean breakaway on Fleury and deked the goalie to the ice.  However, Ovechkin’s forehand attempt did not clear Fleury’s left pad, and the chance was foiled. 

Failing to capitalize on the early chance, the Caps were slowly worn down by the Penguins, the cumulative effect of the shot differential over six games taking its toll.  The Penguins outshot the Caps, 4-2 over the next nine and a half minutes, then scored the game’s first goal at the 12:36 mark, that by Crosby.  Craig Adams scored eight seconds later.  Then, the Penguins scored goals less than two minutes apart early in the second period to chase Varlamov out of the crease in favor of Jose Theodore.  They scored a fifth goal at the 11:37 mark.  The competitive portion of the game – of the series – was over.  Ovechkin and Crosby exchanged goals, and Brooks Laich provided the last goal of the contest, the Penguins finishing on top, 6-2, to advance to the conference final.

The disappointment in this postseason was in how far the Caps fell from their height, a streak of five wins to close the opening round series against the Rangers and to open the second round series against their arch-rivals, the Penguins.  Despite a slow start in the Rangers series, the Caps got hot at the right time and as a product of their best players standing out.  Ovechkin was 7-4-11, plus-6, in his first nine games of this postseason.  Backstrom had ten assists in those nine games.  Alexander Semin was 5-5-10, plus-4.  Mike Green was 1-5-6 from the blue line.  And, there was the rookie goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who came in relief of Jose Theodore  twice to finally assume the number one duties, going  6-2, 1.51, .945, with two shutouts through Game 2 of the Penguin series.  The Caps were within a shot off iron in overtime of putting the Penguins in an 0-3 hole in that second round series.  They allowed a fluke redirection goal in overtime on home ice to give back the 2-0 lead they earned to start the series and allow the Penguins to take a 3-2 lead.  Even with that, they fought back to tie the series one last time with an overtime win on the road.

They were so, so close.

It might as well have been a mile.  And, what makes it more difficult is that the Penguins would go on to win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in a four-game sweep in the conference final (a team the Caps finished nine points ahead of in the regular season), then beating the Detroit Red Wings in seven game in a rematch of the 2008 Stanley Cup final (the Caps defeated the Red Wings in their only meeting of 2008-2009). 

In the end, it was one of those “if only” sorts of postseasons.  If only Kris Letang’s shot in overtime of Game 3 rang off the pipe and out.  If only Tom Poti got a little more of the puck on his dive to stop Evgeni Malkin’s pass in overtime of Game 5.  If only Alex Ovechkin’s breakaway early in Game 7 had been a momentum-building score instead of a Marc-Andre Fleury save that sucked the oxygen out of Verizon Center.  If only it had not been the Penguins, of all teams, that would beat the Caps – again, the seventh time in eight postseason series between the clubs won by Pittsburgh and third that was lost in seven games by the Caps.  Then for them to go on to win the Cup.  It made that special moment when Sergei Fedorov scored the game-winning goal in Game 7 against the Rangers seem so long ago, as if it was a different season altogether.

If only it was anybody but those guys.

Photo: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Washington Capitals -- Not All Playoffs are the Same: Part I

There was a discussion last week on local sports talk radio that centered on the notion of whether “championship or bust” is too high a standard with which to evaluate a team’s performance over the course of a season.  It is the kind of topic that is in the sweet spot of fan discussion topics, sure to invite a lot of opinions and a lot of disagreement.

Thinking about the Washington Capitals in that context in this most recent era of playoff appearances, the “Rock the Red” era (2008-present), we are reminded of one of our favorite bits of dialogue from the rich history of situation comedies.  In the 1970’s show, “Taxi,” Alex Rieger and Reverend Jim Ignatowski had this exchange…

Jim: I got blueberries!

Alex: Jim, I don't think those are blueberries.

Jim: They look pretty darn blue to me.

Alex: I'm saying that those are blue berries, but they may not be blueberries. And while all blueberries are blue, not all blue berries are blueberries.

Jim: I've mistaken blueberries for blueberries?

Alex: Exactly!

What does this have to do with the Capitals and playoffs?  From a fan’s perspective, perhaps not all playoff seasons are “playoffs,” at least with respect to the satisfaction level with outcomes.  Some, though they end early, might be considered a pleasant surprise, while others that might go longer might be considered disappointments (not that the Caps ever go long into a postseason).

With that in mind, we are going to take a look back at the Rock the Red era of playoff performances – all seven of them – by the Caps and rank them, worst to first, most disappointing to the most pleasant surprise, or at least the most encouraging from a going-forward point of view.*  So, let’s go…

7.  2010: “As Good as it Gets” to “Bad Beyond Belief"

The 2009-2010 Washington Capitals were ready for prime time in the postseason.  They reached the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons, playing in three seven-game series.  They had one of the most fearsome offensive squads in the league.  They had, if not the league’s best player, then certainly its second best, not to mention a youngster growing into one of the best centers in the league and a defenseman without parallel as an offensive contributor.

The regular season was one of streaks. Consider the Caps’ first 19 games – two wins, four losses, six wins, three losses, four wins.  That left Washington with a 12-3-4 record, best in the Eastern Conference and second best in the league (San Jose: 13-4-3).  It only got streakier – and better – from there.  A six-game winning streak ending November and beginning December, a three-game streak wrapped around Christmas, another three-game streak just after the first of the new calendar year.

It was prelude for the mother of all streaks, a 14-game winning streak starting on January 13th, capped by the “Snowmageddon” overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 7th.  That streak ended with a 6-5 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the game winning goal scored with 7.5 seconds left in overtime in what would be, in retrospect, a bit of foreshadowing.  It would be the first in what would be an irritating trend of losses in the last two months.  While the Caps went 13-3-7 in their last 23 games to finish with the league’s best overall record and first Presidents Trophy, those seven losses in extra time suggested an inability to finish teams off.

Nevertheless, no one thought about that in the last ten days of the season when the Caps went 5-0-1, and few were giving the Canadiens a chance to upset the Caps in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  After all, the Caps not only had the best record in the league (54-15-13), but their big guns were obliterating the opposition.  Alex Ovechkin had not gone consecutive games without a point over his last 38 games of the season, going 24-35-59, plus-27, over that span (a 127-point, plus-58 pace over 82 games).  Nicklas Backstrom’s performance mirrored that of Ovechkin, not going consecutive games without a point starting with the same game as Ovechkin’s streak (January 7th against Ottawa, in which Backstrom had the game-winning goal in a 5-2 win), going 18-37-55, plus-23, in 40 games played (a 113-point, plus-47 pace).  Defenseman Mike Green went the entire season without more than two consecutive games without a point and did so only three times in the 2010 portion of the season.  In 42 games in the 2010 portion of the season, Alexander Semin went 26-26-52, plus-25, including two four-point games.

Even when the Canadiens took Game 1 of the opening round in a 3-2 overtime decision, folks might have thought it only a speed bump on the Caps’ path through the playoffs.  But in retrospect, there were warning signs.  The Caps had 47 shots on goal in that game and managed only two goals against goaltender Jaroslav Halak.  And, the Caps had a bizarre results profile.  Alex Ovechkin was held without a shot on goal (it would be the only game all season he was held to no shots on goal), while he had five attempts blocked.  Nicklas Backstrom scored a goal, but he also had six shots on goal; only once all season – regular season or playoffs – did he have more (seven against Florida on January 29th).  Mike Green had six shot attempts, four of them blocked.  Alexander Semin had a whopping 14 shot attempts and nothing to show for it.  In all, half of the Caps’ shot attempts (94) were either blocked (27) or missed the mark (20).

The Caps hardly fared any better to start Game 2, falling behind the Canadiens, 2-0, before the game was eight minutes old.  When Eric Fehr tied the game in the 11th minute, it might have signaled a comeback, but Montreal closed the door over the rest of the period.  Then, the Canadiens went right back to work, getting a pair of goals from Andrei Kostitsyn less than six minutes apart to make it 4-1 late in the second period.  Nicklas Backstrom got his second goal of the series less than 90 seconds before the second intermission, but the Caps were still 20 minutes away from going down, 0-2, and having to travel to Montreal for Games 3 and 4.

At that point, the sheer advantage in skill took over for the Caps. Ovechkin and Backstrom scored in the front half of the third period to tie the game.  When Tomas Plekanec scored with barely five minutes left to give the Canadiens a lead once more, that 0-2 hole looked more and more likely.  However, with just 81 seconds left in regulation, John Carlson scored to tie the contest again, sending the teams to overtime.

It took Washington just 31 seconds to break the 5-5 tie and tie the series, courtesy of Nicklas Backstrom’s hat trick goal and fourth goal of the series.  The Caps avoided a disaster, but the warning signs were still there.  Ovechkin had 15 shot attempts, seven of them blocked (he did have a four-point game on a goal and three assists).  Green had seven attempts, five of them blocked.  Semin had 13 more shot attempts, six of them blocked, bringing his two game total to 27 shot attempts, only 11 of them on goal, and no goals to show for it.

After two games, Montreal was apparently going to let the Caps chuck pucks from the cheap seats and take their chances with packing in the defense and blocking shots or forcing misses.  In Games 3 and 4 in Montreal, that did not look like a winning strategy.  Washington won Game 3, 5-1, managing to get 36 shots to the Montreal net among their 68 shot attempts.  But lurking behind those numbers was the matter of who was getting what.  Ovechkin…a goal on his only shot on goal, but otherwise five blocked shots.  Green had seven shot attempts, three of them blocked.  And there was Semin once more with double-digit shot attempts (12) but six of them blocked.

It hardly seemed to make any difference when the Caps won Game 4, 6-3, to take a 3-1 lead in the series.  But there were still those persistent ominous signs beneath the surface.  The game was closer than the final score might indicate; it was tied after 51 minutes of play, the Caps getting three goals in a 6:24 span late in the third period to break the game open and an empty netter to seal the win.  The Caps once more demonstrated that if they could get shots to the net (38 of 73 attempts in this game) they could make Montreal pay, but that was not something they were doing on a game-to-game basis.  And, Green and Semin combined for 17 shot attempts without a goal to show for it in this contest.  Through four games, Semin had 48 shot attempts, only 20 on goal; while Green had 28 shot attempts, only ten on goal.  Neither found the back of the net in those four games.  Even though the Caps had a 3-1 lead in games and were returning home with a chance to close out the series, there were problems getting consistent – and in some cases any – production from their big guns.

Over the course of the team’s history, Game 5 is often viewed as a pivotal game, especially when carrying a 3-1 lead in games.  Three times when taking a 3-1 lead in games to a Game 5, the Caps lost the series – in 1987 to the New York Islanders, in 1992 to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and in 1995 to the Penguins.

However, having won Games 2-4 by a combined score of 17-9, and having chased Halak from the Montreal crease in Game 3 and having him sit out for Game 4 in favor of Carey Price, Game 5 looked like a formality.  As it would turn out, Game 5 was one of the most frustrating games, perhaps, in the history of the franchise.

The Caps pelted Halak, who returned to the crease for this game, with 15 shots in the first period but found themselves down, 2-0 on early goals by Mike Cammalleri and Travis Moen.  It was all that Halak would need.  While he did allow a second period goal to Ovechkin, it would be all he allowed, turning away 37 shots in the odd game in which the Caps got a lot of shots to the net (37 of 68 attempts) but could not convert.  There were the continuing struggles of Semin (17 attempts, nine on goal, no goals) and Green (seven attempts, three on goal, no goals).  One had to think that if either or both found their way out of their respective ruts, the Caps would advance with a win in Game 6.

Over a large population of games, you would expect that the relative skill of two teams would be reflected in the results.  The opposite of this is that in a small population of games – in this instance two games at most remaining in the series – things can happen, and an heroic effort is magnified in its importance.  Depending on where you sit, the Game 6 performance of Halak in goal for Montreal was either heroic or blind luck.

The Caps recorded five shots on Halak in the first 75 seconds of the game.  They had eight shots before the game was six minutes old.  For all the good it did them.  Mike Cammalleri got the Habs on the board first with a goal at the 7:30 mark, then scored again just 99 seconds later to give Montreal a 2-0 lead.  It did not slow the Caps down much; they would finish the period outshooting Montreal, 18-10, but they still found themselves on the short end of that 2-0 score.

If the Caps dominated territorially in the first, they did so to an even greater degree in the second period.  They outshot Montreal, 14-3, in the frame but were stymied by Halak and the Montreal strategy to pack in their defense and let the Caps bomb away.

It was more of the same in the third period.  The Caps had seven shots attempts (four on goal) in a span of 1:46 early in the period without Montreal recording a shot attempt in response.  When the Canadiens finally did attempt a shot, it was Maxim Lapierre finding the back of the net from almost 50 feet out 4:17 into the period to give the Canadiens a 3-0 lead.  Eric Fehr got one back for the Caps with less than five minutes left, but that was as close as Washington could get in a 4-1 loss.  In all, Halak stopped 53 of 54 shots on goal.  It was the best save percentage by a goaltender facing at least 50 shots in a game ending in regulation time in the post-2005 lockout era (.981).

Despite outscoring the Canadiens through six games, 21-18; despite out-shooting them, 250-178; and despite out-attempting them by an astounding 482-343 margin, it was down to a Game 7 on home ice for the Caps.  It was, in the end, more of the same.  The Caps recorded the first four shots on goal of the game.  They had a 10-6 edge over the first 19 minutes.  However, it was in the last minute of the first period in which it would be the Canadiens getting the first goal, a power play strike from Marc-Andre Bergeron.

More, more of the same… The Caps added to what would be an 11-8 shots on goal advantage in the first period by outshooting Montreal, 13-3, in the middle period.  Halak turned all of them away.  In the third period, with the Caps’ season hanging in the balance, the Caps piled up a 7-1 shots on goal advantage in the first 6:39, a margin that might have been 8-1 (and a tie game) but for an apparent goal scored by Ovechkin that was disallowed for Mike Knuble being called in the crease.  Nevertheless, the Caps still had a 12-4 advantage in shots over the first 16 minutes of the period.  It would be the Canadiens getting the next goal, though, that from Dominic Moore with just 3:36 left in regulation to provide insurance.  Brooks Laich would get that one back 80 seconds later, but it was too late and not enough.  Halak stopped 17 of the 18 shots he faced in the third period, 41 of 42 for the game, and 131 of 134 shots over the last three games of the series to send the Caps to their most disappointing playoff exit in this era and arguably in the history of the franchise.

Why was it so frustrating?

• The Caps finished the season with 54 wins to 39 for the Canadiens, 121 standings points to 88 for the eighth-seed Habs.
• The Caps matched the Canadiens entire season win total (39) by February 4th, in Game 57 of the season.
• The Caps finished the season first in scoring offense (3.82 goals/game) and goal differential (+1.05 goals/game, a third of a goal per game over the second place club); Montreal finished 25th (2.56 goals/game) and 18th (-0.10 goals/game), respectively.
• The Caps led the league in goals for/goals against ratio at 5-on-5 (1.57, a third of a goal per game ahead of the second place finisher); Montreal finished tied for 22nd (0.90).
• Montreal’s leading goal scorer, Brian Gionta (28), would have ranked fifth in goals for the Caps in the regular season.
• The Canadiens’ top point-getter, Tomas Plekanec (70) would have ranked fifth for Washington.
• The Caps had four players with more power play points than the top point-getter for Montreal (Plekanec: 24)

Then there was the series…

• Alexander Semin: 95 shot attempts, 44 shots on goal… zero goals
• Mike Green: 58 shot attempts, 23 shots on goal…zero goals
• Alex Ovechkin: 0-for-21 in shooting over the last 156 minutes of the series after scoring 3:53 into the second period of Game 5
• The league’s best power play going 1-for-33 in the series (3.0 percent)
• The Caps’ penalty killers allowing a power play goal in six of the seven games
• The Caps allowing the first goal in five games, losing four of them
• The Caps being outscored in the first periods of games, 9-3; and being outscored 5-0 in the first periods of Games 5-7, all losses
• The Caps got 37 goals from defensemen in the regular season; they got two from defensemen in this series (John Carlson, Joe Corvo)
• In Games 1-4 the Caps scored eight of their 19 goals from beyond 30 feet, according to the official play-by-play.  In Games 5-7 they did not score one of their three total goals outside of 15 feet.
• Montreal finished the series with 194 shots on goal.  The Caps had 182 of their shots blocked by the Canadiens.
• The Caps displayed a relentless obstinacy in trying to pound pucks through a Montreal defense deployed to permit only that, evidence of an inability (or perhaps feeling it unnecessary) to adjust.  Meanwhile there was Montreal deploying Marc-Andre Bergeron as a seventh “defenseman,” but really as a power play specialist.  In Game 7 it mattered.  Of his 4:06 in ice time, 2:53 was spent on the power play, and he scored the game’s first goal on, what else, a power play.

In retrospect, the disappointment in this outcome runs deeper.  Every path to a Stanley Cup is different.  No two years present the same obstacles.  Looking back on the obstacle the Caps did not overcome in the first round, one can wonder at what might have taken place if they had cleared that hurdle. 

Had the Caps beaten the Canadiens, and the rest of the first round played out as it did, they would have faced the Philadelphia Flyers, winners over the New Jersey Devils in the opening round, in round two.  In the season series that year, the Caps went 3-0-1 against the Flyers, winning the last three contests after dropping an overtime decision in their first meeting, and outscoring Philadelphia overall, 22-13 (14-6 at even strength).

Had they dispatched the Flyers in similar fashion in the second round, the winner of Pittsburgh and Boston would have been waiting in the conference final.  The Caps swept the Penguins in the regular season (two of the games settled in extra time), outscoring the Pens by a 20-13 margin.  Had it been Boston as the conference final opponent, the Caps had a 3-0-1 record against the Bruins in the season series, all three wins by three-goal margins and outscoring the B’s by a 14-6 margin.

The regular season is no sure predictor of postseason success, but that certainly looked like a winnable path to the Stanley Cup final, where they would have faced the Chicago Blackhawks, a team the Caps defeated in their only meeting, 4-3 in an overtime decision in Chicago.  Not much to go on there, and Chicago had a 12-4 record on their way to the finals, but what a series that might have been.

In the end…

In 2010, “making the playoffs” was not going to cut it.  That was a floor for this team, not a ceiling.  Their 54 wins for the season is a club record and a total that remains unsurpassed in the post 2004-2005 lockout era; their 121 standings points is unmatched in this era and is a record for a non-Original Six team.  Their scoring offense was, and remains, the most prolific of this era.  And it was not a case of coasting into the postseason; the Caps finished with a 13-2-5 mark after the Olympic break.  They did not lose consecutive games in regulation time in the 2010 portion of the season.

Nevertheless, there were warning signs.  First, that 14-game winning streak.  It was nice while it lasted, but apart from it, the Caps were a 112-point team on an 82-game basis.  Were they merely a “very good” team as opposed to a “great” one?  Second, there were those extra-time losses.  Only four teams had more, and three of them – Columbus, Dallas, and Toronto – did not reach the postseason.  Was that evidence of an inability to finish, despite their gaudy record?  Then there was the regular season series against Montreal.  Both teams won two games, each team scoring 14 goals over the four games.  Three of the games were decided by one goal, the other by two when the Caps scored with just over three minutes left in regulation for a two-goal winning margin.  Did Montreal set up as the Caps’ worst possible first-round opponent?  Finally, there was the series nemesis, goaltender Jaroslav Halak.  He did not play a single minute against the Capitals in the regular season; Carey Price took all the minutes.  Halak did not have an especially impressive career record against the Caps (3-2-0, 2.60, .905 in five appearances), but the Caps did not see him in the 2009-2010 regular season.  Did the Caps take him too lightly?

Even with all of that, there can be no sponging away the disappointment of losing a 3-1 lead in games and the series to a club they finished 33 points ahead of in the regular season.  It ended up being the latest (at the time) episode in a horror show of blowing 3-1 leads against inferior opponents in an early playoff round.  It stands alone as the most disappointing postseason edition of the Capitals in team history and certainly the most disappointing one in the current playoff era.

Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

* Don’t worry. We have not given up looking at the Caps’ most memorable goals.  We’ll be coming back series, too.

A Goaltenders' Series

Antti Niemi… Michael Leighton

One an undrafted free agent consigned to the end of the bench for much of the season as his team tried to wring some – any – value out of their big-money free agent goaltender.

The other a sixth-round draft pick by the team he will play against in the Stanley Cup final, a backup that a gawd-awful team so badly did not want that they put him through waivers on his way to the minors, then put on re-entry waivers in the apparent hope that some team would take him off their hands. One team did.

Niemi and Leighton… your Stanley Cup finals goaltenders… a combined 161 regular season games of NHL experience.

Makes you wonder if this is the year when goalies don’t matter. The odds of having picked Antti Niemi and Michael Leighton as the starting goaltenders in the Stanley Cup finals might have had longer odds than winning the grand prize in Powerball.

But here we are, and there might even be a parallel to this in terms of the relative obscurity and lack of NHL experience of the goaltenders – one from not too long ago. Hearken back to 2006, when the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers met. The finals that year was to be a matchup of a rookie netminder who spent most of the regular season on the bench, getting into 28 games and not making much of an impression – 14-8-2, 3.68, .882; and a veteran goalie. But the veteran – Dwayne Roloson – was injured early in the finals and gave way to an unknown netminder who bounced around a bit (Finland, Edmonton, the Rangers, before returning to Edmonton), earning 106 appearances in the NHL regular season in his career before finding himself starting in a Stanley Cup final – Jussi Markkanen.

The rookie for Carolina was expected to get baseball cap duty for the post-season, but the trouble was that the number one goalie – Martin Gerber – was lit up for nine goals on 34 shots in less than 75 minutes of work in the first two games of the playoffs, both losses at home to the Montreal Canadiens. Enter Cam Ward.

It wasn’t the smoothest of rides, but Ward provided enough stability and played with a maturity far beyond his years to make his regular season just a dim memory. He went 15-8, 2.14, .920, with two shutouts (one in the finals) to lead the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup and win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the post-season.

At the other end of the ice, the unexpected presence of Markkanen might have left Oiler fans with a feeling of dread, especially after he allowed five goals in his first appearance – a 5-0 pasting at the hands of the Hurricanes. But Markkanen lifted his game from there and allowed only eight goals on the next 111 shots he faced over five games, winning three times. Unfortunately for Markkanen and the Oilers, eight ended up being one too many goals, as the Hurricanes won the Cup in a 3-1 Game 7 (the third goal being an empty-netter).

The parallels are not perfect between 2006 and 2010. But Antti Niemi and Michael Leighton, despite having just 161 games of combined NHL regular season game experience between them, have played at a level that makes each of their teams a deserving contestant in the Stanley Cup finals.

It might be a goaltenders’ series after all.

Law and Order: NHL Unit

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories…

Scene: 66 Mario Lemieux Place

Pittsburgh, Hill District

Det. Lennie Briscoe: Whaddawegot here?

Det. Ed Green: Penguins… nothing but dead penguins. Have to be really sick to pull this off.

Briscoe: Cause of death?

Green: Looks like asphyxiation.

Briscoe: You mean someone gassed ‘em?

Green: Can’t tell… looks like they might have done it themselves.

Briscoe: You mean, they choked?

Green: Looks that way….

Doink-doink…

Scene: Precinct Headquarters

Lt. Anita Van Buren: Anything on the Hill District Penguin case?

Briscoe: We have some leads, could be a gang of thugs in red-white and blue colors… similar to a case outta DC, same MO. These guys went right for the head guy, too… some Penguin they call “Crosby.” Took him right out, probably first one to choke. Then we found a really grisly scene around the one they call “Gonchar”… undressed, an athletic supporter lying next to him.

Van Buren: You can say ‘jock’ in here, detective.

Briscoe: Right… well, there was this one Penguin we found over on the bench, curled up, wearing pads and a baseball cap. Whatever they did to him must have been really nasty.

Van Buren: that one have a name?

Briscoe: Fleury… Marc-Andre Fleury.

Doink-doink…

Scene: One Chatham Center, Pittsburgh, Penguins Administrative Offices

Briscoe: Sir, my name’s Detective Briscoe, and this is Detective Green… we’re investigating a possible multiple homicide last night at Mellon Arena. A number of your Penguins were found dead on the ice. Were there any strange comings and goings around the arena?

Administrative Flunky: Well, we did have a hockey game last night. I hope you’ll understand, folks are pretty upset this morning… we were eliminated last night.

Briscoe: Eliminated?

Flunky: I take it you’re not much of a hockey fan, detective.

Green: Lennie, he’s referring to the Penguins. They played the Montreal Canadiens last night… got beat 5-2 to end their season.

Briscoe: Yeah, well, I’m a Yankee fan. And do you think the events are related, sir?

Flunky: Well, I don’t know. Have you talked to the coach?

Briscoe: The coach?

Flunky: Yeah… Dan Bylsma. He was behind the bench last night. He might know.

Doink-doink

Scene: Office of Head Coach Dan Bylsma

Briscoe: Coach Bylsma?

Bylsma: yeah…

Briscoe: I’m Detective Briscoe, and this is Detective Green. We’re investigating a possible homicide at Mellon Arena last night and…

Bylsma: Can this wait? We just had our season end last night, and we’re packing things up for the summer.

Briscoe: I’m afraid not. Sir, you were behind the bench last night. Would you say that there were any strange happenings while you were there?

Bylsma: You could say that. We stunk. Crosby takes a penalty ten seconds into the game. They score 22 seconds later. Then Cooke takes a penalty… puts us behind the eight ball.

Green: And this is unusual behavior?

Bylsma: We’re the Stanley Cup champs! Well, we were until last night. Then we go and play stupid. You’d think they were choking right there on the ice.

Briscoe: Choking?

Bylsma: Choking, gagging, taking it in the throat. You want me to draw you pictures, detective?

Briscoe: That won’t be necessary. We’ve heard that there were others in the building… a gang wearing red, white, and blue colors. You know anything about that?

Bylsma: The Canadiens.

Briscoe: And they would be…

Bylsma: The other team. The one that beat us.

Briscoe: You mean with a blunt instrument?

Bylsma: Not unless you consider a hockey stick a blunt instrument.

Briscoe: Well actually, we do. But about those…

Bylsma: Canadiens

Briscoe: Canadiens… did you actually see them beat your Penguins?

Bylsma: Like a bunch of whipped dogs. It was ugly. I had to get Fleury out of there. They were all over him.

Briscoe: Fleury?

Green: The one we found over at the bench in the baseball cap.

Briscoe: I see… and do you think these Canadiens had a motive for this beating?

Bylsma: Sure… they want to win the Stanley Cup, just like we did… well, I thought we did, but not the way we played last night.

Briscoe: And these Canadiens, could you tell us where they might be now?

Bylsma: Probably in Montreal getting drunk, waiting to see if they’ll be heading to Boston or Philadelphia.

Doink-doink

Scene: Office of the District Attorney

Executive Assistant District Attorney Jack McCoy: What do you have for me detectives?

Briscoe: Looks like it’s pointing to a homicide. Right there in the middle of the ice. A gang that calls themselves the “Canadiens” were after this cup…

Green: Stanley Cup

Briscoe: Right… and the Penguins were the bunch that had it. Robbery seems to be the motive. But there seems to be something strange about this.

McCoy: What’s that, detective?

Briscoe: These Canadiens. They’re hardly in hiding. They’ve been all over ESPN this morning and this NHL Network. Not exactly the sort of behavior you would expect of killers.

McCoy: Not exactly. Anything else you’ve been able to turn up?

Briscoe: We did some digging into their backgrounds, and it seems that last night was the seventh time these gangs locked up in the last couple of weeks – in Montreal and in Pittsburgh. No one got killed, but there was a guy who was sliced and another one who tore up his knee. The more we dig into this, the smellier it gets.

McCoy: What do you mean, detective?

Briscoe: We looked at a few of these Penguins. Take this one they call “Malkin”… won an award last year – most valuable Penguin, for all I know…

Green: …he had only one goal and two assists in the first six games. And Gonchar…

Briscoe: He’s the one we found undressed with the jock lying next to him…

Green: A couple of goals in the first six games, but he didn’t get a point last night and was on the ice for three of the first four goals the Canadiens scored. Ponikarovsky – a guy they traded for – no goals in the four games leading up to last night, and he put up another zero last night. Another one… Talbot – a hero last year, unheard from last night. But here is the strangest one. Crosby – he had three points in the last six games of the series, didn’t get any last night, and he was on the ice for three of the first four goals the Canadiens scored and was in the penalty box on the other one.

Briscoe: He’s the only one I heard of… I thought he was supposed to be clutch.

Green: Well, apparently not. Last night was the seventh time he played in an NHL playoff game where his team faced elimination. And after last night, his teams are 3-4 in those seven games, and he has only two goals and four assists in them.

McCoy: Not too clutch, if you ask me, and it sounds as if you don’t have much of a case against these Canadiens for murder. It sounds to me as if these Penguins just choked… Gonchar getting undressed out of his jock… Crosby not delivering in Game 7… Fleury getting yanked to the bench… Malkin, well, who knows what he was doing. No, I don’t think we’re looking at a homicide here, detectives. Not one I could prove in court, at any rate. They did it to themselves.

Briscoe: So you’re just sayin’ they choked? Right there on the ice?

McCoy: You said it, detective, I didn’t (smiles).

Doink-doink…