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

One of the things we have been looking back on over the summer is the history of postseason disappointments and pleasant surprises in the Rock the Red era of the Washington Capitals.  There have been seven postseason appearances by the Caps, and we have reviewed six of them.  Now, the last and the one filled with the most pleasant surprise of all...getting there in the first place.

1.  2008: “We never give up, no matter what happen….”

By the time the 2007-2008 season started, the Washington Capitals had endured the good, the bad, and the uncertain over the four and a half years since their last playoff appearance.  After dropping an opening round series in 2003 to the Tampa Bay Lightning – losing in triple overtime at home in Game 6 – the Caps family worked their way through what might be the five stages of “rebuilding” in modern sports…

Anger.  Team ownership, perhaps caught up in the emotions of the aftermath of the team’s loss to the Lightning, expressed the opinion that “…the market has spoken and I have some real re-evaluating to do on the kind of investments we're going to make in the team, because the city didn't respond. You cannot have a playoff game with 14,000 people with the kind of marketing and consumer focus that we've had." 

Denial.  Despite a 1-7-1-1 start the next season, there were those who thought the team had too much talent to be saddled with that record.  Caps forward Mike Grier said as much…. “"We've got too much talent out there for it to keep going the way it is…"

Realization.  In early December, the Caps lost to the Colorado Rockies, 4-1, their third straight loss that left them with an 8-18-1-1 record that was 14^th in the 15-team Eastern Conference.  The Caps then fired head coach Bruce Cassidy in favor of Glen Hanlon.  It was not the last move that the team would make.  

• In January they traded Jaromir Jagr to the New York Rangers for Anson Carter. 
• In the space of nine days in February they traded Peter Bondra to the Ottawa Senators for Brooks Laich and a 2005 second round draft pick, then traded Robert Lang (the league’s leading overall scorer at the time) to the Detroit Red Wings for Tomas Fleischmann and a 2004 first round draft pick (later to become Mike Green).
• On consecutive days in March they traded Sergei Gonchar to the Boston Bruins for defenseman Shaone Morrisonn and both a 2004 first and second round pick (the former later to be Jeff Schultz); then traded Michael Nylander to the Bruins for a second round draft pick.
• Later in March they traded Carter to the Los Angeles Kings for Jared Aulin and traded Greir to the Buffalo Sabres for Jakub Klepis.

Out with the old (expensive, underperforming), in with the new (cheap, promising).  The Caps were, for all intents and purposes, an expansion team.

Good Fortune.  Tearing out the old structure to the studs and foundation is one thing, but it helps to get some luck along the way, too.  The Caps got that in a big way in the 2004 draft lottery.  Having the league’s third-worst record in 2003-2004, the Caps would have picked third in the 2004 entry draft in the absence of a lottery.  But, with a lottery in place, the ping-pong ball came up “Capitals,” and the team had the rights to draft one of the most highly thought of amateur prospects in recent memory, winger Alex Ovechkin, a player who was already being compared to Mario Lemieux. 

Uncertainty.  Even with the prodigy from Russia, who scored two goals in his NHL debut in 2005, the Caps were not a very good team and had a lot of work to do, on and off the ice.  In 2005-2006 Ovechkin recorded a 52-goal rookie campaign (third in the league), but the Caps finished last in the Southeast Division and 14^th in the Eastern Conference with a 29-41-12 record, making it the first time since 1982 that the Caps finished consecutive seasons without topping 70 standings points.  It did not work out any better the following season.  In 2006-2007, Ovechkin finished with 46 goals (fourth in the league), but the Caps finished 28-40-14, another season not topping 70 points.

And that brings us to the 2007-2008 season.  Despite adding a number of pieces – Tom Poti, Viktor Kozlov, and Michael Nylander (in his second tour with the club) being the principal additions – there were not a lot of prognosticators picking the Capitals to win the Southeast Division or otherwise reach the postseason. There was one prognosticator who had the Caps playing in the spring, but he’s widely regarded as an idiot.  

The consensus view of the Caps being a non-factor in the playoff race was set aside as the season started with three consecutive wins.  However, the NHL season being 82 games in length, there was still ample opportunity for things to go bad.  They did.

The Caps went 3-14-1 in their next 18 games, failing to win consecutive games in the process, ending with an especially ugly 5-1 loss at home to the Atlanta Thrashers on the night before Thanksgiving before an announced crowd of less than 12,000.  Hours later, the Caps relieved Glen Hanlon of his head coaching duties and replaced him with Hershey Bears coach Bruce Boudreau on an interim basis.

It would be nice to say that the change bore immediate dividends, and in a way it did – the Caps beat the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime in Boudreau’s debut.  However, the Boudreau tenure began with the Caps going 3-3-1 in his first seven games.  Enough to stop the bleeding perhaps, the three wins being as many as the Caps had in Hanlon’s last 18 games, but much more would have to be done to drag the Caps out of 15^th and last place in the Eastern Conference after that seven-game start for Boudreau and into playoff contention.

Boudreau and the Caps did just that.  Starting with a 6-3 win over the Thrashers on December 8^th, the Caps went 40 games without losing consecutive contests in regulation, posting a record of 23-11-6.  However, given the depth of the hole out of which they had to climb, their 32-28-8 record on March 5th was still second in the Southeast Division and 10^th in the Eastern Conference.  They were nipping at the heels of those in front of them, though, just three points behind the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes and just two points behind the conference’s eighth-place team, the Philadelphia Flyers, for a wild-card playoff spot.

Along the way in this run the Caps made some additions for a sprint to the finish that seemed unthinkable three months earlier.  General Manager George McPhee sent forward Matt Pettinger to the Vancouver Canucks for forward Matt Cooke, and he sent prospect defenseman Theo Ruth to the Columbus Blue jackets for veteran forward and hall-of-famer in waiting Sergei Fedorov.  In what might have been the most controversial move at the time, though, McPhee sent a 2009 second round draft pick to the Montreal Canadiens for goaltender Cristobal Huet.

The move seemed odd, given that the number one goaltending spot was manned by Olaf Kolzig, who came into the season having held that position for nine years and had a total of 276 wins for the Caps over 15 seasons in all, leading the team to a Stanley Cup final in 1998.  However, the Kolzig of 2007-2008 was showing signs of age.  Less than two months shy of his 37^th birthday when the trade was made, he had a record of 21-19-6, 3.03, .888, and did not have a shutout since posting one in his first game of the season back in October.

It was not as if Huet was playing lights out when the trade was made; if he was, the Canadiens might not have parted with him or had the need to do so  (Montreal still finished with the best record in the East).  Before the trade, Huet was 21-12-6, 2.55, .916, with two shutouts.  Good, but not great numbers.

Huet’s tenure in Washington got off to a bumpy start.  He shutout the New Jersey Devils on 18 shots in his first game, but he had to leave his second game -- more often remembered for the 10 goals the Caps recorded in a 10-2 pasting of the Boston Bruins – with back spasms.  Then he lost consecutive decisions in back-to-back games against the Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins (the latter a loss coming on Nicklas Backstrom shooting the puck into his own net with less than a half minute to play). 

Perhaps it was the half smokes of DC finally kicking in, though, because Huet then proceeded to play…well, smokin’ hot after that rocky start.  He stopped 39 of 40 shots, plus both shots he saw in the freestyle competition, in his third game against the Bruins in five appearances with the Caps, a 2-1 Gimmick win.  He followed that up with a 24-save win over the Nashville Predators.

At that point, the Caps faced a situation that could have cratered their comeback and their season.  On March 19^th, with the Caps providing the competition for the Chicago Blackhawks on a night saluting hall of fame goalie Tony Esposito, the Caps provided little competition for the Blackhawks and no help to Olaf Kolzig, back in goal for the Caps.  The Blackhawks recorded four shots in the first 81 seconds of the game, broke through on their fifth shot, then their eighth shot, and then their 12^th shot.  It was 3-0 less than ten minutes into the game and 4-0 by the end of the first period.  Chicago scored another goal 10:19 into the second period and coasted from there to a 5-0 win over the Capitals.  Kolzig was in for all of it, allowing all five goals on 42 shots.  It would be his last game as a Capital.

Huet returned to the nets two nights later in Atlanta and promptly struggled.  The Thrashers spotted the Caps a goal in the first period, then touched up Huet for three goals in the second to take a 3-1 lead into the third period.  Washington got one back on Alex Ovechkin’s  second goal of the game, then they got two goals from Nicklas Backstrom 32 seconds apart to take the lead late in the third period.  An empty net goal by Boyd Gordon completed the scoring in the 5-3 comeback win, and it started the Caps on a 7-0-0 finish to the regular season (Huet playing in all seven games) to pass the Carolina Hurricanes for the Southeast Division title and a three-seed in the postseason.  From that 15th place spot in the Eastern Conference back on December 7^th, the Caps went 34-14-6 to end the season.

The Caps drew the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round of the postseason.  The Flyers, who were the six-seed, finished the regular season with 95 standings points to 94 for the Caps.  The teams split four regular season games, but in a strange twist, all of the wins were registered on the road, the Caps winning twice in Philadelphia and the Flyers doing so twice in Washington.  They also had virtually identical scoring offense (Caps: 2.90 goals/game, ranked 8^th; Flyers: 2.99/6^th) and scoring defense (Caps: 2.77/T-12^th; Flyers: 2.77/T-12^th).  It had the look of a long series.

Game 1 started in the strangest of ways, then ended in a most reliable fashion.  If you were betting on which Capital would be first to score a goal in the 2008 playoffs, you might have safely bet on Alex Ovechkin, he of the 65 goals scored in the regular season (a record for left wingers).  Or perhaps Alexander Semin, who finished with 26 goals.  Or even Mike Green, who finished second among the league’s defensemen with 18 goals.  But Donald Brashear?   The former Flyer had just five goals in 80 regular season games, but there he was pouncing on a loose puck to the left of goalie Martin Biron and stuffing it inside the post before Biron could lunge across to glove it down just 3:16 into the game.

The goal might have had more effect on the Caps than on the Flyers, and not in a good way.  Philadelphia tied the game on a Vaclav Prospal goal eight minutes into the period, and then, after David Steckel put the Caps back in front early in the second period, the Flyers scored three goals in less than four minutes to take a 4-2 lead into the second intermission.

A more normal scoring profile then took over to manage the Capitals comeback.  Mike Green scored goals less than five minutes apart early in the period to tie the game, assists by Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Semin, Alex Ovechkin, and Nicklas Backstrom.  The Caps could not get that tie-breaking goal, though, as the game ticked down to five minutes left in regulation.  It would be the Flyers making the mistake, though, not the young Capitals.  With the Flyers going for a line change, Kimmo Timonen held the puck behind the Flyers’ net.  He decided upon a pass up the right side to Jaroslav Modry, but the pass got there just as Alex Ovechkin stepped up.  Ovechkin slapped the puck off Modry’s stick, and when it bounced past Timonen, Ovechkin pounced on it.  He was patient enough to wait for Biron to commit, and when he did, Ovechkin roofed the puck into the net for his first career playoff goal.  It would be the game-winner in the Caps’ 5-4 comeback win in Game 1.

Lost in the celebration of the Game 1 win was the fact that Cristobal Huet allowed four goals on 22 shots, the first time he allowed four goals in a game as a Capital.  It would not be the last.  Huet was strong in Game 2, allowing just two goals on 41 shots, but it was two too many as Biron shut out Washington, 2-0, to send the series to Philadelphia tied at a game apiece.  It was Biron’s third shutout in four games, dating back to the regular season, which he closed with a pair of shutouts.  The “hot goaltender” that haunted the Caps throughout their history was rising again.

Biron was not quite as sharp in Games 3 and 4 in Philadelphia, but he did not have to be.  Huet’s magic was wearing thin.  He allowed five goals on 32 shots in a 6-3 loss in Game 3, then followed that up with a four goals on 46 shots in a 4-3 double-overtime loss in Game 4.  The problem was that first periods were killing Huet, and the Caps.  In the first four games, Huet stopped just 30 of 38 first period shots, a .789 save percentage.

Back in Washington for Game 5, the Capitals’ defense lent a hand in defense of Huet, allowing the Flyers only four shots in the first period.  Huet stopped all of them, and Nicklas Backstrom got the Caps on the board first – the first time they scored first since Game 1 – with a power play goal.  With the Flyers paying close attention to Alexander Semin holding the puck on the left side, Backstrom snuck in low, to the left of Biron, and tapped in Semin’s feed from the opposite side. 

Sergei Fedorov doubled the Caps lead less than two minutes in the second period, and the Caps had their first two-goal lead of the series.  They could not build on that, though, and the Flyers got within one when Vaclav Prospal scored in the last second of a 5-on-3 power play advantage.

When Alexander Semin scored his second of the series on a power play with barely five minutes left, it looked as if the Caps would live to play a Game 6 in Philadelphia.  However, Derian Hatcher scored for the Flyers less than a minute after the Semin goal, and things were tense once more.  Huet slammed the door after that, stopping all six Flyer shots he faced in the last four minutes, and the teams would make good on their date for Game 6 in Philadelphia.

Early on in Game 6 it looked as if the Caps' journey would end in a sea of orange.  Matt Bradley took an interference penalty less than three minutes into the game, and Mike Richards converted the power play opportunity to give the Flyers the lead 3:49 into the game.  Having lost all three games in which they allowed the game’s first goal, things looked bleak for the Caps.  It got worse in the second minute of the second period.  An Alexander Semin cross-checking goal late in the first period carried over into the second period, and Daniel Briere scored with just four seconds left on the power play to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead. 

At that point, Game 6 turned into a microcosm of the Caps’ regular season.  Having dug themselves a deep hole, they slowly and methodically climbed out of it.  Nicklas Backstrom finished a superb three-man rush that started in the other end of the ice with a breakout pass from Steve Eminger behind his own goal line up to Brooks Laich cruising ahead through the neutral zone.  Laich skated down the middle over the Flyers’ line and left the puck for Semin on his left.  Semin fed the puck over to Backstrom, back to Semin, and back to Backstrom one more time for the shot over Biron’s blocker to make it 2-1.

The Caps tied the game with less than two minutes left in the middle period after pressing the Flyers hard in their own end.  After pinning the Flyers in and preventing the puck from exiting the zone, John Erskine fired from the left point.  Biron did not catch the puck in his glove cleanly, and it fell to the ice where Semin grabbed it, circled around the fallen Biron, and wristed it into the back of the net to tie the game.

Early in the third period, the Caps took the lead.  With the Flyers putting pressure on the Caps in their zone, Kimmo Timonen tried to lift a shot to the Washington net.  It was deflected by Ovechkin, the puck sliding to Viktor Kozlov in the high slot.  Kozlov fed the puck out of the zone to Ovechkin streaking up the middle.  Ovechkin skated in and wasted few moves before flipping a forehand past Biron’s glove to make it 3-2, Caps, 2:46 into the final period. 

It would be the Flyers making the fatal error to seal the outcome.  In the 11^th minute of the period they took a too many men on the ice penalty to put the Caps on a power play.  The Caps, who had power play goals in four of the five previous games, had drawn a blank in Game 6 with the man advantage.  It took just 22 seconds to remedy that situation.  Sergei Fedorov tried to carry the puck into the Flyer zone, but it rolled off the end of his stick.  The veteran did not give up on the play, though, and pressured defenseman Braydon Coburn into giving up the puck to Brooks Laich along the right wing wall.  Laich curled into the faceoff circle and spied Ovechkin across the ice.  He fed the puck across, and in what would become a signature part of his game, Ovechkin one-timed the puck from the left wing faceoff circle past Biron for the final, 4-2 margin, sending the series back to Washington for Game 7.

Game 7 was the back half of a back-to-back set of games for the clubs, a situation that one might have thought would benefit the Caps, getting the opportunity to fly back into town to sleep in their own beds rather than bus to a hotel.  And, when Nicklas Backstrom scored a power play goal with less than six minutes gone in the contest, it certainly did look good for the Caps.

Joy turned to dread, though, as the Flyers turned a power play goal by Scottie Upshall late in the first period and a goal by Sami Kapanen mid-way through the second frame into a 2-1 Flyer lead.  The Kapanen goal was one – is one – that Caps fans will argue never should have counted.  It started when Martin Biron fed the puck from just outside his own crease to Patrick Thoresen skating down the left side through the neutral zone.  He sent the puck across to Kapanen in the right wing faceoff circle and continued to the net.  There, Thoresen shouldered defenseman Shaone Morrisonn into Huet, and the three players went to the ice in a heap, allowing Kapanen to shoot the puck into an open net to a chorus of boos from fans irate at the call of a good goal.

Ovechkin reset things with a game-tying goal with less than five minutes in the second period.  As a penalty to Steve Downie was expiring to end a Capitals power play, Ovechkin took advantage of a Capital and a Flyer tangled up at the Flyers’ blue line to grab a loose puck, skate into the left wing circle, and snap a shot past Biron’s glove on the long side.

That would be all of the scoring in regulation, Huet and Biron keeping their nets undisturbed in the third period.  In the overtime, just over four minutes in, R.J. Umberger was exiting the Flyers’ zone in front of the players bench.  Tom Poti tried to poke the puck off Umberger’s stick and got his skate instead.  It was little more than a love tap that did not deny a scoring opportunity, not the sort of thing you might expect to see called in overtime of a Game 7 (a point of view written by a Caps fan, to be fair), but Umberger sold it, the referee bought it, and the Flyers had a power play.

The Capitals almost killed it off…almost.  There was a faceoff to the left of Huet.  Sergei Fedorov and Daniel Briere tied one another up on the draw, and Joffrey Lupul chased the puck down below the Caps’ goal line.  He fed the puck around the boards to Mike Richards to turned and fed Briere between the hash marks for a shot.  Huet blocked the drive out to the point where Kimmo Timonen settled the puck and fired.  Huet made the stop, but he looked to his left for the puck when the rebound skittered out to his right.  It was enough time for Lupul to sneak underneath Shaone Morrisonn to backhand the puck into the open net and end the Capitals’ season.

The Caps’ first taste of postseason play in five years seemed to end barely after it began.  But what a journey it was to get there.  Given up for dead in December, a team that was too young to realize it could not come back did just that, with the help of a wily veteran who would end up creating a memory of his own and for Caps fans in the following season in the playoffs. 

This team would be a treat to watch over the last four months of the regular season.  The last two months would be insane.  As the season wound down, and “Don’t Stop Believin’” blared over the Verzon Center loudspeakers after a Caps win, it still did not seem quite possible.  But then the Caps completed their comeback, and as Alex Ovechkin put it in the aftermath of the season’s last game – the playoff clincher for the Caps:

"We never give up, no matter what happen. It's an unbelievable feeling. I never stop believing."

Even the disappointment of a Game 7 loss to a hated rival could not diminish that.  As we wrote at the time:

"They gave us one helluva ride…

A 37-17-7 record after Thanksgiving.

A season for the ages from Alexander Ovechkin

The “young guns” stepping up in a big way to make this their team – Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom – after the club lost its captain, its top center, and a top-four defenseman to injury for more than half the season.

An unexpected year from Brooks Laich, who wasn’t even supposed to be here…or at least the thinking went last summer.

A hockey lifer with a twinkle in his eye finally getting a chance to coach behind an NHL bench, and grabbing that chance by the throat to be considered a potential coach-of-the-year candidate.

A roll of the dice by a general manager with the nickname, “The Undertaker,” to bring hockey royalty, a few sheets of sandpaper, and goaltending insurance to the club for a stretch run that will be remembered long after the handshakes of this series are forgotten.

A sea of red replacing a desert of empty seats.

The experience of sound taking form and substance…

…this morning we’re sad at the result, but not disappointed in this team. Unlike past heartbreaks, when the Capitals team that lost did so as underachievers, this one fought tooth and nail for two months without a hint of quit in them. They grew before our eyes and came within an eyelash of giving us another two weeks (or, who knows…more) of memories. Although it’s small consolation to the players, coaches, staff, and fans of the club this morning, they achieved far more than anyone had a right to expect as we were sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner last November, and for that…

Bless you boys.”

Bless you boys, indeed.  Yours was the most pleasant surprise and memorable effort in the Rock the Red era.

Photo: Len Redkoles/Getty Images North America

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

Two more to go in our look at the playoff history of the Rock the Red era in Washington Capitals hockey.  The penultimate review looks at a postseason that did not end differently than any number playoff appearances by the Caps, but more than many of those others, it begged an important question.

2. 2015: Finally getting it right after all these years?

“Stability" is not a word one would immediately use when characterizing Capitals hockey in the Rock the Red era of playoff appearances.  In the past eight seasons the Caps employed two general managers, five coaches, 99 skaters, 11 goaltenders, and appeared in the postseason seven times.  Four times they advanced to the second round of the playoffs but no further.  The last of those four appearances in the second round of the postseason came in 2015 after yet another off-season and regular season of twists and turns. 

The 2014-2015 season started almost as soon as the Caps finished their 2013-2014 season out of the playoffs for the first time since 2007.  On April 26, 2014, just 13 days after the Caps’ season came to a merciful end, the club relieved head coach Adam Oates of his responsibilities and announced that they would not retain the services of George McPhee as general manager.  In 17 years under McPhee’s management the Caps had a regular season record of 613-488-108, with 69 ties.  The team reached the postseason 10 times in 16 seasons (the 2004-2005 season lost to a labor-management dispute), advancing to the Stanley Cup final in McPhee’s first season but advancing as far as the second round only three times after that.

Oates, a Hall of Fame center who played parts of six seasons with the Caps, was excused after two seasons in which he posted a 65-48-17 record, reaching the playoffs in his first season where he and the Caps lost to the New York Rangers in seven games.  Whatever magic he worked in restoring Alex Ovechkin goal-scoring production in his first season at the helm (after moving him to right wing in the 2012-2013 seasion, Ovechkin recorded 32 goals in 48 games, a 55-goal pace over a full season), Oates looked out of his depth for most of his second season, overseeing a club that lost 12 of its last 21 games to fall out of playoff contention.

Exactly one month later, the Caps promoted Brian MacLellan from assistant general manager to the general manager position, and they hired Barry Trotz, formerly head coach of the Nashville Predators, to that position with the Caps.  In hiring Trotz, the Caps broke a string of five straight coaches hired without NHL head coaching experience (Bruce Cassidy, Glen Hanlon, Bruce Boudreau, Dale Hunter, and Oates).  If the moves looked incremental or safe, the team almost admitted as much.  As principal owner Ted Leonsis put it:

“While we felt we needed to make significant changes – and we did by moving on the GM and coach – we also didn’t feel we had to completely rebuild or start from scratch…” 

MacLellan and Trotz wasted little time putting their stamp on the club.  The coaching roster was filled out with the signing of Lane Lambert and Mitch Korn, both of whom served with Trotz in Nashville, and Todd Reirden, who had been an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins.  They joined Blaine Forsyth, Olaf Kolzig, and Scott Murray, who were retained in other coaching positions.

Then the player roster was addressed.  On the first day of the unrestricted free agency signing period, MacLellan signed defensemen Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen, formerly of the Penguins, and goaltender Justin Peters, formerly of the Carolina Hurricanes, to fill specific needs.  They were the highest profile signings by the club in the early days of free agency since perhaps 2011 (Joel Ward, Roman Hamrlik, Tomas Vokoun), and might have exceeded any early-July signing group assembled by MacLellan’s predecessor, George McPhee.

It was left to play the games.  The Caps started doing so under Trotz in successful fashion, going 4-1-2 in their first seven games.  Then they stumbled, losing five in a row to drop to 4-5-3.  They were struggling in an unexpected way.  In goal, Braden Holtby was 3-3-2, 2.67, .891, with one shutout, while backup Justin Peters was 1-2-1, 3.04, .880.  Despite Capital goaltenders facing fewer than 25 shots per 60 minutes (24.8, in fact), goalie coach Mitch Korn’s effect on them was yet to be felt in any obvious way.

The light seemed to go on over Holtby’s head shortly thereafter.  Starting with a 38-save win in a 3-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on November 7^th, Holtby would appear in 42 games and lose in regulation in consecutive appearances only once.  In those 42 games he went 26-9-7, 2.04, .931, with five shutouts.  He finished the season first in the league in appearances (73) and minutes (4,247), third in wins (41), fifth in goals against average (2.22), eighth in save percentage (.923), and tied for second in shutouts (9). 

On the other hand, Peters never really got out of the rut into which he fell to start the season. After that 1-2-1 start he would appear in just eight more games, finishing the season with a 3-6-1 record, a 3.25 goals against average, and a .881 save percentage.  His was the second worst goals against average in the league among goalies appearing in at least a dozen games, and his save percentage was last in that group.

Among the skaters, it was tempting to take for granted some performances, but they were excellent nonetheless,  Alex Ovechkin won his third straight (and fifth overall) Maurice Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer and improved his plus-minus from a widely ridiculed minus-35 in 2013-2014 to plus-10.  Nicklas Backstrom did what he has done from the moment he stepped on the ice for the Capitals in 2007 – average about a point per game (78 in 82 games).  Meanwhile, John Carlson took his place among the top-echelon of NHL defensemen, finishing the season having appeared in every game for the fifth straight season, 11^th in goals among defensemen (12), tied for fifth in assists (43), tied for fifth in points (55), and second in even-strength points (38).

The Caps were blessed with good health as well, with seven skaters appearing in all 82 games and 12 appearing in at least 75 games.  The top four defensemen – Carlson, Niskanen, Orpik, and Karl Alzner – missed to total of only four games (all by Orpik).  Even Mike Green, whose mid-career had been plagued by a series of injuries, appeared in 72 games, his highest total since the 2009-2010 season (75).

It all came together for the Caps, enabling them to win 45 games and finish with 101 standings points, an improvement of seven wins and 11 points from the previous season.  Washington finished second in the Metropolitan Division, earning them home ice advantage in an opening round series against the New York Islanders.

For all the good it did the Capitals in Game 1.  In four games in the regular season between these two teams, the Caps and Isles won two games apiece.  Three of the four games went to extra  time.  Game 1 would not end that way, though.  The Islanders scored first on a Brock Nelson goal that Holtby might have wanted back six minutes into the game.  Marcus Johansson got the Caps back into the game late in the period by taking advantage of some hard work by Brooks Laich.  Mike Green started the play by working the puck up from behind the Caps’ net.  After it was swept deep into the Islander end, Laich beat two Islander defenders and goalie Jaroslav Halak to the puck.  Laich worked it around the boards in the corner, then saw Johansson filling in at the top of the right wing circle.  Johansson took the pass, curled to the dot, then ripped a wrist shot past Halak’s blocker to tie the game with 56.3 seconds left in the period.

It would be the last highlight for the Caps in Game 1.  Ryan Strome broke the tie less than four minutes into the second period, and Josh Bailey made it 3-1 seven minutes later.  Nelson added an empty net goal with 1:19 left in the contest, and the Isles grabbed home ice advantage with a 4-1 win.

Having lost Game 1 on home ice, the Caps needed a big rebound from everyone, especially goaltender Braden Holtby, who allowed three goals on 22 shots in Game 1.  Unfortunately, Holtby was, uh…indisposed with an illness that head coach Barry Trotz told reporters was “none of your business, really.”  That left it up to Philipp Grubauer, who appeared just once for the Caps in the regular season (a wion against Anaheim in February), to fill in and perhaps save the Caps’ season. 

Unfortunately, New York picked up where they left off in Game 1 at the start of Game 2.  Cal Clutterbuck scored when he called his own number on a two-on-one rush five minutes into the game.  Ryan Strome doubled the Islanders’ lead three minutes into the second period when he ripped a one-timer from the high slot off a pass from John Tavares past Grubauer.

Two goals on ten shots by the Isles, and the Caps were in trouble.  Then, the ice tilted.  The Caps outshot the Islanders, 7-2, in almost eight minutes after the Strome goal, then scored when Mike Green fed Karl Alzner at the far edge of the right wing circle for a one-timer that beat Jaroslav Halak on his glove side.  The Islanders restored their two-goal lead three minutes later on a Kyle Okposo goal, but it did not blunt the Caps’ momentum.  Alex Ovechkin scored his first of the postseason two minutes after Okposo, and the Isles took a 3-2 lead to the third period.

Then the Caps won the game within a game.  Tom Wilson, who would figure large in this series in edgy ways, drew a slashing penalty from Strome 2:50 into the third period.  It resulted in the Caps’ only power play of the contest.  With 54 seconds gone in the man advantage, Nicklas Backstrom took advantage of uncertain defense to tie the game.  Taking a pass from John Carlson at the red line and skated down the middle toward the Islander zone.  Four defenders surrounded Backstrom and backed off him in a box formation expecting a pass.  Backstrom just kept going, and when he reached the hashmarks he snapped a shot past Halak.

Less than four minutes later, the Caps had the lead.  Nick Leddy made a huge mistake, taking the puck beneath his own goal line and trying to force a pass up the middle.  It was intercepted by Matt Niskanen just inside the blue line.  He backhanded the puck to Jason Chimera, who fired it from the right wing circle toward the Islander net.  Halak made the save but the rebound was nudged by Jay Beagle back to Chimera.  He did not fail a second time.  His shot beat Halak past his blocker on the long side.

That left it up to the young goaltender, Grubauer.  He was aided by a Caps defense that allowed only five shots on goal in the last 12:23 following the Chimera goal, and Grubauer stopped them all.  The Caps salvaged a split in their first two games of the series at home and headed to Long Island.

The object here for the Caps was to obtain at least a split at Nassau Coliseum.  It would take a smart, controlled road game approach to accomplish that, and they applied just that approach to the start of Game 3.  The teams were scoreless for the first 32 minutes, but it would be the Caps who would blink first.  Finding it difficult to clear the puck out of their own end, the Caps were relying on Braden Holtby, back from his bout with illness, to keep the Isles at bay.  Finally, the Islanders broke through on a Lubomir Visnovsky drive that was redirected by Kyle Okposo for the game’s first goal.

At the other end, the Caps were having no success, having directed only 13 shots on Jaroslav Halak over the first two periods.  The Caps dialed up the pressure in the third period, and they were rewarded when Nicklas Backstrom took a pass from Mike Green along the right wing wall, curled out above the faceoff circles, found a shooting angle he liked, and snapped a shot that deflected off the crossbar and in to tie the game with 6:06 left in regulation.

That would be how the teams would go to overtime, but the extra session was over in the blink of an eye.  The Islanders won the opening faceoff of overtime and sent the puck into the Caps’ end.  Holtby gloved the dump-in down and left the puck for John Carlson in the corner to his right.  Carlson sent the puck up the wall, but without much pace, and it was intercepted by Nick Leddy at the blue line.  His drive was redirected by Nikolai Kulemin, but Holtby stopped it.  He did not control the rebound, though, and it ended up on the stick of John Tavares, who put it back to end the overtime at the 15 second mark in a 2-1 Islander win.

The Caps found themselves in the position of facing a two-game deficit when Game 4 began.  They did, however, break on top in the first period when a harmless looking John Carlson shot from the blue line was redirected by Alex Ovechkin as he was skating between the hashmarks in front of Halak.  The Isles tied the game with just 12.6 seconds left in the period when Casey Cizikas jumped on a rebound of a bouncing Cal Clutterbuck shot that handcuffed Braden Holtby.

And that was it for the scoring in regulation.  Holtby stopped 21 shots over the last 40 minutes; Halak turned away 13.  In overtime, though the Caps dominated play.  It would be Backstrom taking things into his own hands to end it.  After winning a faceoff to Halak’s left, the puck came back to him in the corner.  Waiting for John Tavares to commit on defense, Backstrom stepped aside and up the right wing wall, whereupon Tavares lost his stick.  Backstrom continued turning around the top of the faceoff circle and slung a long-distance shot that flew through a maze of players and past Halak to tie the series.

Game 5 in Washington meant that the Islanders would have to play shorthanded.  In the second period of Game 4, Tom Wilson took two penalties.  The first, a kneeing call when he encountered Josh Bailey, pased without undue turmoil.  The second, taken just 22 seconds after he returned to the ice, was much more consequential. 

Wilson was sent back to the box with a charging penalty, but Visnovsky left the ice, not to return to this or any other game in the series, having suffered a concussion.  The Islanders dressed Griffin Reinhart in Visnovsky’s place for Game 5, and while he had a fairly good game, at least at the start, his teammates did not.  After taking the early lead on a Josh Bailey goal less than six minutes into the game, they were steamrolled by the support troops for the Caps.  Evgeny Kuznetsov tied the game when he won a faceoff in the Islander end, then circled around to the far side of the net just in time to swat a loose puck out of mid-air and past Halak.

The Caps took the lead mid-way in the second on some persistent play from Troy Brouwer.  Calvin deHaan sent a weak pass up the middle from below his own faceoff circle that Jay Beagle deadened.  The puck rolled off Beagle’s stick, but Brouwer was there to collect it and get a shot off.  Halak trapped the puck, but not securely, and Brouwer poked it loose.  Carrying it around the back of the Islander net, he found Karl Alzner pinching down through the left wing circle.  Alzner’s one-timer beat Halak, and the Caps never looked back.  Brooks Laich scored less than three minutes into the third period, Kuznetsov scored his second of the game less than four minutes later, and Jason Chimera capped the scoring at the 9:00 mark for the final margin in the Caps’ 5-1 win.

As happens so often with the Caps, though, once they push a team to the edge of the cliff, they can’t manage to shove them off.  Back on Long Island, the Islanders and Caps exchanged goals in the first period – John Tavares for the Isles and John Carlson for the Caps, the latter scoring with just 4.3 seconds left in the period.  The second period passed without a red light going on, but the Islanders would ensure the series would go to one last game when Nikolai Kulemin scored mid-way through the period, and Cal Clutterbuck added an empty net goal with 52.6 seconds left to clinch Game 6, 3-1.

Game 7 in Washington.  We’ve been here before.  Seven of nine postseason series played to this point in the Rock the Red era went to a seventh game for the Caps.  The Caps were 2-5 in those series, 1-4 in Games 7 played at home.  The eighth Game 7 in their past ten playoff series started in tense fashion.  Neither team could score in the first period, although the Caps held an 11-3 edge in shots.  The Caps maintained the pressure in the second period, outshooting the Islanders, 18-6, over the first 18 minutes.  It looked as if the Caps were squandering yet another opportunity to close out a team in Game 7 on home ice.

Then, the “heavy” style of hockey the Caps adopted this season bore fruit.  With less than two minutes left in the period, Nicklas Backstrom slid the puck down the wall behind the Islander net.  Joel Ward locked up with Nick Leddy in a battle for the puck.  Ward won that battle and moved the puck to Alex Ovechkin in the corner.  Ovechkin sent the puck out to Brooks Orpik at the left point, during which Ward made his way to the front of the net.  Orpik fired a shot from the point that Halak stopped, but Ward had position on Leddy and Johnny Boychuk and stuffed the puck under Halak’s pads and in to give the Caps the lead.

The Islanders tied the game in the third period when Frans Nielsen fired a shot that Braden Holtby misplayed through his pads.  It looked as if the teams might have to settle this in overtime, but Evgeny Kuznetsov put an end to that thinking.  Jason Chimera fought off Boychuk in the corner to Halak’s left to move the puck up to Kuznetsov along the wall. Kuznetsov cut to the middle, slipped between three defenders, held the puck as Halak committee to the ice, then wristed the puck into the open net 12:42 into the period to give the Caps a 2-1 lead. 

The Caps clamped down from there, allowing just one Islander shot over the next 4:24.  But with 2:54 left in regulation, there was still some suspense to be dealt with.  John Carlson took a roughing penalty to put the Islanders a man up.  The Caps shut down the Islander power play, allowing only one shot attempt – a miss by Bailey – in the two minute advantage.  It was the last gasp for the Isles as the Caps closed the door on the game and the series, 2-1, to move on to the second round.

Caps…Rangers.  Again.  For the fifth time in seven years, the two teams met in the postseason.  The teams split their previous four meetings, the Caps winning in 2009 and 2011, the Rangers coming out on top in 2012 and 2013.  Game 1 was what this extended series was all about.  Coming into this game the teams had played 26 games in four series, and 18 of them ended in one goal decisions.  This contest would make it 19 in 27 games.  The Caps got started late in the first period in simple fashion.  On a power play, John Carlson skated out from behind his net and fed a long pass to Alex Ovechkin skating down the left wing in the neutral zone.  Ovechkin carried the puck into the Ranger end, backing off Brian Boyle.  At the top of the left wing circle Ovechkin snapped a shot that sailed over goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s glove and into the top corner of the net. 

Washington held that 1-0 lead for almost 40 minutes, but it was not long enough.  Jesper Fast tied the game with 4:39 left in regulation by being there.  A shot by Kevin Hayes from the blue line struck a Capital on its way through, then hit Fast’s leg, redirecting the puck just enough to elude goalie Braden Holtby to tie the game.

Overtime looked like a certainty in the last minute, but the Caps had one more push left.  Alex Ovechkin carried the puck into the Rangers’ zone but lost control of the puck and his balance.  Brian Boyle chased the puck into the corner for the Rangers, but Nicklas Backstrom separated him from the biscuit long enough for Ovechkin to get back into the play.  Ovechkin took the puck around the end wall, and as he was curling behind the Ranger net he threw a pass back and around Derek Stepan from the direction he came where Joel Ward was filling in.  Ward snapped a shot from the top of the crease that slid under Lundqvist’s left pad, and the Caps took the lead and Game 1 with 1.3 seconds left.

The Caps met a different Ranger team in Game 2, one that would get out to a quick lead.  Chris Kreider put the Rangers on top just 38 seconds into the contest.  Dan Boyle added to the Ranger lead on a power play late in the period to put the Rangers up, 2-0, heading to the first intermission.  It proved to be a bit much for the Caps to match.  Evgeny Kuznetsov got the Caps within a goal late in the second period by chasing his own dump-in and putting back a rebound of a shot by Jason Chimera.  Unfortunately, the Caps could not get the tying goal before the Rangers restored their two-goal lead, that coming when Derick Brassard got behind the Caps’ defense and scored six minutes into the third period.  Ovechkin scored four minutes later on a highlight goal, splitting two Ranger defenders and wristing the puck past Lundqvist as he was falling to the ice, but it was as close as the Caps could get in dropping Game 2 to the Rangers, 3-2.

Caps-Rangers series have been marked by a scarcity of goals, and Game 3 in Washington was no exception.  Neither team could put a mark on the score sheet in the first period, and they went another seven minutes into the second period before a red light was lit.  It was a frustrating moment followed by a surprising one.  Evgeny Kuznetsov lifted the puck into the Ranger zone from the red line to start a line change.  Troy Brouwer stayed on and put pressure on Martin St. Louis trying to reach the puck.  With those two locked up, the puck slid to Dan Girardi, who was pressured by Andre Burakovsky in the corner to Lundqvist’s right.  Burakovsky backhanded the puck to the middle, right on the tape of Jay Beagle skating down the middle.  Beagle had a wide-open opportunity for a one-timer, but Lundqvist got enough of the puck going by to steer it into the end wall.  Beagle followed up his own shot and got control of the puck behind the Ranger net.  From below the Ranger goal line he backhanded the puck in an effort to find Burakovsky closing on the net.  However, the puck struck the skate of defenseman Keith Yandle, hit Lundqvist’s pad, and caromed into the net to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.  That was all that Braden Holtby would need.  He faced 30 Ranger shots and turned all of them aside to earn his second career postseason shutout.

The teams played things close in the first three games, all of them ending in one-goal decisions.  Game 4 would prove to be no exception to the pattern.  In fact, Game 4 followed the script of Game e rather closely – no scoring in the first period followed by an extended scoreless stretch to start the second period.  Unlike Game 3, however, it was the Rangers that broke through first.  Martin St. Louis’ pass from the left wing to Derick Brassard darting down the middle was right on the tape of Brassard’s stick, and he had just enough of a lead on Alex Ovechkin bearing down from behind to lift the puck over the left arm of Holtby to make it 1-0 at the 6:12 mark.

Just over ten minutes later, the Caps tied it.  Andre Burakovsky, who recorded his first NHL postseason point in Game 3 with an assist, stole the puck from Chris Kreider along the right wing wall, curled to the middle, held the puck, then snapped it past Lundqvist’s blocker. 

It took less than half a minute of the third period to break the tie.  Ranger defenseman Ryan McDonagh had trouble controlling the puck at the red line in front of the penalty boxes.  It was kicked ahead by Troy Brouwer to Burakovsky behind the defense.  Burakovsky curled in and with McDonagh trying to annoy him off the puck, he shielded himself from the defender and unleashed a backhand the beat Lunsqvist on the far side to give the Caps a 2-1 lead 24 seconds into the period.  It was Braden Holtby’s game after that, and he stopped all nine Ranger shots he face in the third period to record the win and send the teams back to New York with the Caps in a position to clinch.

And that is just what the Caps were poised to do, nursing a goal by Curtis Glencross 11 minutes into the third period into the last two minutes of Game 5.  But Chris Kreider one-timed a pass from Derek Stepan from the left wing circle past Holtby to tie the game with just 1:41 left.  It was a place the Caps found themselves all too often over the course of their history, unable to close a team out in Game 5, and they paid for it mid-way through overtime.  From just outside his own blue line, Glencross tried a diagonal pass up ice to Brooks Laich.  The pass was knocked down by Jesper Fast, who turned and headed down the right wing into the Caps’ end.  As this was going on, Laich went to the bench, and that exchange might have created a fatal opening.  Fast sent the puck across to Stepan, who left it for McDonagh entering the zone, into a gap where either Laich or his replacement might have filled in.  Instead, there was nothing but open space, and McDonagh stepped up and fired a shot past Holtby to send the teams back to Washington for Game 6.

With a chance to close out the Rangers at home, the Caps laid an egg.  Kreider scored goals in the first and last minute of the first period, the second with two-tenths of a second left when a shot of a faceoff win was stopped by Holtby, but John Carlson kicked the puck back and between Holtby’s pads, leaving Kreider with a tap in. 

Jason Chimera got a tap-in of his own 28 seconds into the second period when Henrik Lundqvist did not handle Joel Ward’s shot from the top of the right wing circle cleanly.  The Caps could not get the tying goal in the second period, and the Rangers pulled away in the third.  Goals by Rick Nash and Dan Boyle less than five minutes in gave the Rangers a 4-1 lead.  Evgeny Kuznetsov made things more interesting in the eighth minute when Ward poked the puck off the stick off the stick of Stepan, and Kuznetsov rifled the loose puck off the post past Lundqvist on the short side. 

Ward got one of his own less than three minutes later when his persistence was rewarded in front of the Ranger net.  Jason Chimera fired the puck at the net from the left wing wall, and when Lundqvist made the save, Ward was there to poke it past Lundqvist’s left pad to get the Caps within a goal.  That would be as close as the Caps would get, though, and the Rangers skated off winners, 4-2, to send the series back to New York for Game 7.

For the fourth time in five series in seven years, the Caps and Rangers went to a seventh game.  In the previous three Games 7, the Rangers scored first.  Not so in this one.  As the first period was reaching he 13-minute mark, Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff in the Ranger end to the right of Lundqvist.  The puck came back to Ovechkin, who managed to poke free to Backstrom, who sent it down the wall to Marcus Johansson.  From the far edge of the faceoff circle, Johansson found Ovechkin cutting down the middle, and Ovechkin snapped the puck over Lundqvist’s glove to make it 1-0.

In the seventh minute of the second period, Kevin Hayes tied the game on a power play when he took a feed from J.T. Miller on the back side and slid the puck behind Holtby.  And that would be it.  For the second time in three games and second straight time in Madison Square Garden, the teams would go to an overtime tied, 1-1.

In the end, it ended quickly, but in slow motion.  The Rangers won a faceoff to the left of Holtby.  The puck slid back to Keith Yandle, who fed Dan Girardi for a one-timer.  Holtby kicked out the drive, but the rebound went straight to Derek Stepan, who wasted no time spiking the puck past Holtby, on his back in the paint.  Cue the handshakes.

***** 

For the fourth time in the Rock the Red era, the Caps made it to the second round, but no further. This one, however, felt different from the others.  There was a lot to build on, even in another second round loss.  For starters, there was Braden Holtby.  He was excellent in his first playoff appearance, that against the Boston Bruins in 2012, but he cemented his position as a goalie who could reasonably anchor a Cup winning team with his performance in this postseason.  Among goalies appearing in five or more games in the 2015 postseason, he had the best goals against average (1.71) and best save percentage (.944).   He is the only goalie since the 2004-2005 lockout having appeared in at least 25 postseason games with a career goals against average under 2.00 and a save percentage above .930.

Alex Ovechkin, for the fourth time in five postseasons, recorded five goals, but he had an interesting supporting cast.  Evgeny Kuznetsov, appearing in his second postseason, tied Ovechkin in goals with five.  John Carlson became only the third Capital defenseman in the Rock the Red era to finish with more than five points for a postseason (1-5-6), joining Mike Green (three times) and Tom Poti.

The Caps were within two minutes of clinching their second round series in Game 5 and an overtime away from it in Game 7 against the Rangers.  While there might be truth in that there are only so many bites at the apple a team might get in advancing to a Stanley Cup, the 2015 team looked to be closer to realizing that goal than perhaps any team in the Rock the Red era.  For the first time, perhaps ever in this era and certainly since 2010, one had the sense they were closer than they ever were to getting it right in the postseason.

Photo: Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images

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

In Part V of our look at the playoffs in the Rock the Red era of the Washington Capitals, we take a look at a hard working crew who overcame much, if not quite enough to make a deep run into the postseason.  Not so much disappointing as equal parts frustrating and promising.

3.  2012: “Great job, kid….”

In 2010 the Washington Capitals could not parlay a Presidents Trophy won in the regular season into so much as a single playoff series win.  In 2011 they changed their game, and what it bought them in the postseason was one series win before an disconcerting sweep in the second round at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

In the 2011-2012 season it all came apart, or so one might have felt in the 2011 portion of the season.  Oh sure, the Caps ran off to a 7-0-0 record in the first two weeks of the season.  However, things deteriorated.  Quickly.  On a trip to the Canadian west after winning their first seven games they managed only one goal against their old nemesis in goal, Nikolai Khabibulin, in a 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers despite outshooting the Oilers, 35-19.  Then the Caps moved on to Vancouver, fell behind, tied the game, fell behind again, tied the game again, then allowed three unanswered third period goals in a 7-4 loss to the Canucks.

Losing in a low-scoring game and losing in a high-scoring game, the Caps returned home to face the Anaheim Ducks to open November.  Washington fell deeper into a hole, allowing the Ducks to score three goals on just nine shots in 29 minutes to take a 3-0 lead.  That made it 11 goals allowed in the Caps’ last 116 minutes of hockey.  The Caps slowly whittled away at the deficit against the Ducks, though, scoring goals three minutes apart late in the second period to make it a 3-2 game after 40 minutes.  After spotting the Ducks the first third period goal to make it 4-2, they got one back mid-way through the period to set up a wild, if strange, finish. 

With a faceoff coming in the Anaheim zone with 1:02 left to play, head coach Bruce Boudreau took his time out, pulled goalie Tomas Vokoun, and sent out six skaters: Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Liach, Joel Ward, Jason Chimera, Dennis Wideman, and John Carlson.  Conspicous by his absence was Alex Ovechkin, whose last shift ended with 3:11 to play in regulation.  Ovechkin was not happy, and it was captured on national television:

It worked out for the Caps, though.  Backstrom put back a rebound with 42 seconds left to send the game to overtime, then he won it just over two minutes into overtime.  If not a Pyrrhic victory, it was a win with a cost nevertheless.  The Caps beat the Carolina Hurricanes in their next game, but then the wheels spun off the wagon.  They went 3-7-1 in their next 11 games, outscored by a 44-25 margin, going 4-for-45 on their power play (8.9 percent) and 33-for-40 killing penalties (82.5 percent). 

It came crashing down with losses to the New York Rangers, 6-3, and the Buffalo Sabres, 5-1, as November was winding down.  On Monday, November 28^th, the ax fell on Boudreau, who was relieved of his duties in favor of former Capitals captain Dale Hunter, who was co-owner and head coach of the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. 

If the Capitals “were no longer responding to Bruce,” as Washington general manager George McPhee put it, perhaps they would respond to a coach who, as a player, was not shy about engaging in confrontation.  As it was, things did not change much at first.  The Caps lost three of their first four games under Hunter, an overtime win over the Ottawa Senators after giving up a third period lead being the only thing between the Caps and a four-game losing streak to open Hunter’s NHL coaching career.

At 13-12-1 on December 5^th, the Caps were at their low point, record wise, for the season to date.  They were seven points behind the Florida Panthers for the Southeast Division lead and in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind the Senators.  The Caps started their slow climb back up the standings with a nice run to end December and start the new year, going 8-3-1.  A pair of 5-2 losses on a west coast trip to San Jose and Los Angeles barely slowed them down.  They went 7-4-2 after their west coast trip before one more stretch of adversity had to be confronted.

It actually started with a win.  The Caps defeated the Calgary Flames, 3-1, in the first game of the new year.  However, it came at a heavy price.  In the third period of that game, the Flames’ Rene Bourque elbowed Nicklas Backstrom in the head at center ice, Backstrom suffering a concussion that would cost him and the Caps 40 games. 

Starting with the first game after Backstrom’s injury, a 3-2 Gimmick loss to the Winnipeg Jets (lost after blowing a two-goal third period lead), the Caps went 4-7-2 to slip once more out of the top-eight in the Eastern Conference.  Then, on March 8^th, Alex Ovechkin scored an overtime goal to lead the Caps to a 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.  It might have been the product of some simple wisdom from Hunter, who told the club at the second intermission to “just quit trying to use your skill, and use your will a little bit more." 

Whether you think small inspirational message like that have an effect, the overtime win started the Caps on 10-4-2 run to close the regular season.  They did not win the division, finishing two points behind the Florida Panthers, but they did sneak into a wild card berth, ending up in seventh place in the conference by virtue of a tie-breaker with the Ottawa Senators.

What the seventh-place finish earned the Caps was a first-round playoff date with the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Boston Bruins.  Not that Caps showed much fear in dealing with the champs in the regular season.  They beat Boston in three of four games, all four of the games played under Dale Hunter.  There would be an important difference for the Caps in the postseason, though.  In the Caps’ last meeting against the Bruins in the regular season, on March 29^th, goaltender Tomas Vokoun suffered what was then called a “lower body injury,” aggravating a groin strain that caused him to miss 14 of the team’s previous 18 games.  Then, in the penultimate game of the regular season against the Florida Panthers, Michal Neuvirth suffered a knee injury in the second period.  Both goalies were done for the season, leaving the Caps’ fortunes in the untested hands of Braden Holtby.  In parts of two seasons, Holtby appeared in 21 regular season games (14-4-3, 2.02, .929,  three shutouts) and no postseason games.  He had not faced the Bruins since making his NHL debut in November 2010, playing the last ten minutes of a 5-3 win over the Bruins and getting credit for the win.

Neither the regular season results nor Holtby’s brief success against the Bruins were of any help to the Capitals in Game 1 of the series, although there was the glimmer of what might have been an emerging star.  Washington managed only 16 shots on  defending Vezina Trophy winning goalie Tim Thomas in regulation time.  Thomas stopped all of them.  At the other end, Holtby got more work – 29 shots faced in regulation – and he stopped all that he faced, too.  Both teams recorded a shot on goal in overtime, but it was Chris Kelly’s slap shot from the top of the left wing circle just 78 seconds into the extra period that gave the Bruins the win.

It would take extra time to settle Game 2 as well.  And once more, it was the goalies who starred.  Troy Brouwer put the Caps ahead 18 minutes into the second period for Washington’s first goal of the series.  Benoit Pouliot tied the game 12 minutes into the third period.  That would be as much scoring as the teams could muster despite 59 total shots on goal in regulation (Holtby was 29 for 30 in saves, Thomas was 28 for 29).

The clubs played a scoreless 20 minutes of overtime, sending the game to a second extra period.   Less than three minutes into the frame, from about six feet from where Chris Kelly ended Game 1, Nicklas Backstrom ended Game 2, sending a wrist shot under the right arm of Tim Thomas and the series back to Washington tied at a game apiece.

Compared to Games 1 and 2, Game 3 was an offensive explosion.  Where there were just two goals scored in 120 minutes of regulation time in Boston, the Caps needed just 16 minutes to get one – and Alexander Semin power play goal – and the Bruins needed just 35 seconds of the second period to get one of their own, from Rich Peverley.

When Alex Ovechkin split the defense and snapped a shot past Thomas just 13 seconds after the Peverley goal, one might have thought that it would be a happy day for Caps fans at Verizon Center.  It wasn’t.  Boston beat Holtby for the game’s next two goals to take a 3-2 lead.  Brooks Laich scored with six minutes left to tie the game once more, but with less than two minutes left the Caps and Holtby suffered one of those plays that seem unique to hockey.   Patrice Bergeron fed Zdeno Chara for a one-timer that was redirected on its way to the net by Caps defenseman Roman Hamrlik.  It was just enough for the puck to sneak past Holtby’s glove for what would be the game-winning goal in the Bruins’ 4-3 win.

Game 4 might have been an announcement that Braden Holtby was going to be a big-time goaltender.  With Nicklas Backstrom suspended for taking a match penalty against Rich Peverley at the end of Game 3, the Caps were without one of their most important offensive players.  It put more pressure on Holtby to improve on his Game 3 effort.  He almost singlehandedly kept the Caps in the game in the first period, allowing only one goal – by Peverley – on 14 shots faced.  The Bruins held the Caps to three shots in that first frame, although one by Marcus Johansson got through in the game’s second minute. 

Holtby’s effort allowed the Caps to get their feet under them, and it paid off late in the second period.  With Patrice Bergeron off on a hooking penalty, Alexander Semin circled from the left wing wall into the faceoff circle, double pumped, then sent a wrist shot over Thomas’ glove on the far side to put the Caps up, 2-1.  That put the game in Holtby’s hands in the third period, and he was up to the task.  Despite outshooting the Caps, 13-3, in the period and getting their only power play of the game, the Bruins could not find their way to a second goal.  Holtby stopped 44 of 45 shots in all (the Caps had 21 shots) to enable the Caps to avoid having to head back to Boston facing elimination.

Holtby was not as sharp in Game 5 as he was in Game 4, but then again, neither was Thomas.  A scoreless first period gave way to a second period in which the Caps took a 2-0 lead on goals barely three minutes apart.  Semin recorded his third of the series, and Jay Beagle got his first in an example of sustained effort.  He battled Brian Ralston to a draw for the puck, Ralston taking Beagle down at the right wing wall in the Bruins’ end.  It was sufficient to allow Matt Hendricks to bat the puck off the side wall and out where Jason Chimera took it in stride.  Chimera skated down the left wing and fired a shot that was kicked out by Thomas.  David Krejci tried to clear the puck, but Beagle, trailing the play, stopped the puck at the blue line.  He stepped up into the left wing faceoff circle and snapped a shot that was deadened in front, sneaking though Thomas for a 2-0 Caps lead.

Boston tied the game on goals by Dennis Seidenberg and Brad Marchand just 28 seconds apart late in the second period.  After the Caps took the lead early in the third period, Johnny Boychuk scored a power play goal to tie the game, 3-3.  With 2:50 left, Benoit Pouliot took a slashing penalty against Nicklas Backstrom, and the Caps made good on their opportunity.  It was a simple enough play.  John Carlson collected the puck behind the Caps’ net and started up ice.  From his own blue line he fed the puck up to Troy Brouwer closing on the Bruin blue line.  Brouwer had the advantage of momentum as defenseman Andrew Ference tried to close the gap.  Ference was late getting over, allowing Brouwer to fire a shot from the right wing faceoff circle that beat Thomas for the winning margin in the Caps’ 4-3 win.

With a chance to clinch the series at home, the Caps spent the entire contest a step behind.  The Bruins took the lead early on a goal by Rich Peverley six minutes into the game.  The Caps tied it on a Mike Green goal less than four minutes later, establishing a pattern.  The Bruins would score, the Caps would tie the game.  Washington could never get that lead goal, though, and the teams went to overtime for the third time in the series.  The Caps got sloppy early in the overtime, and it cost them.  Nicklas Backstrom sent a pass from inside his own blue line up the middle, but it lacked pace.  Krejci knocked it down in the neutral zone and fed the puck over to Milan Lucic heading into the offensive zone on the left side.  Lucic slid the puck across to Tyler Seguin skating down the middle.  Getting behind the Caps’ defense, Seguin deked Holtby to the ice and slid a forehad past Holtby’s left pad to send the series back to Boston one last time.

Six games, all one-goal decisions, three of them settled in overtime, two of them in Boston.  Did anyone think Game 7 would be different?   It certainly was not as the game unfolded.  Washington scored the first goal in the 12^th minute when Matt Hendricks redirected a John Carlson drive past Thomas.  Boston evened the score in the 15^th minute of the second period when a Johnny Boychuk drive from the right wing circle snuck under Holtby’s arm and crawled toward the open net.  Seguin fought to get between Karl Alzner and John Carlson to poke the puck into the net.  It would be all the scoring for regulation time.

Boston got the overtime’s first shot on goal 36 seconds into the extra period.  It would be their last of their season.  As the clock approached the three-minute mark, Boston tried to get a line change with Benoit Pouliot shooting the puck into the Washington end from in front of the players bench.  The puck made it only just inside the blue line where it struck Mike Knuble’s shin pads.  With the players coming on and going off for Boston, Knuble headed up ice ahead of the pack.  Pouliot desperately tried to get back into the play and interrupt Knuble’s progress, but what that did was leave a skating lane for Joel Ward to cross behind Knuble.  When Knuble’s backhand attempt was stifled, Ward was in perfect position to slide the puck through the pile of players and past Thomas for the game-winning, series clinching goal:

The Caps moved on to face the New York Rangers in the second round, the third time in four postseasons the teams would meet.  If there was a hangover from winning the Boston series in dramatic fashion, it was not apparent in the first half of Game 1.  In fact, it resembled the Boston series in that neither team could score.  It would be the Rangers drawing first blood, though, courtesy of Artem Anisimov in the 13^th minute of the first period.  Washington tied the game with 3.5 seconds left in the period when Jason Chimera converted a pass from Brooks Laich through goalie Henrik Lundqvist’s pads, his third goal in six career playoff games against the Rangers.  That would be all the Caps would get, though, as the Rangers got goals 90 seconds apart mid-way through the third period to take Game 1.

In Game 2 it was the Caps’ turn for some third period magic.  Washington wasted a two-goal lead provided by first-period goals from Mike Knuble and Chimera, allowing the Rangers to tie the game in the third period on a power play goal by Michael Del Zotto.  The Rangers returned the favor, though, with Brad Richards taking a holding penalty at the 12:29 mark to put the Caps on a power play.  On the ensuing faceoff to the right of Lundqvist, Nicklas Backstrom won the draw cleanly to Alex Ovechkin at the left point.  Ovechkin circled to the middle of the ice and fired a wrist shot that beat Lundqvist to the glove side just four seconds into the power play for the game-winnnig goal.

The teams took the series to Washington and played a game all too familiar to Caps fans.  After a scoreless first period the teams exchanged goals four and a half minutes apart in the second period.  John Carlson’s goal at 11:10 to tie the game would be all the scoring in the last 29 minutes of regulation…and a first overtime…and a second overtime.  For the Rangers, a third overtime was uncharted territory.  It was their first such playoff game since defeating the Chicago Blackhawks in triple-overtime in Game 6 of the 1971 Stanley Cup semifinals (the Rangers lost Game 7).  For the Caps it was their second multiple overtime game of the 2012 postseason and 12^th multiple overtime game in club history.

The problem for the Caps was that they were 4-7 in the 11 multiple overtime games played in franchise history.  That record went to 4-8 in the blink of an eye.  In the 15^th minute of the third overtime defenseman Dan Girardi stopped the puck along the right wing wall and fed it down to Brad Richards behind the Caps’ net.  Richards wasted no time sliding the puck out to Marian Gaborik in the low slot for a one-timer that snuck between Holtby’s pads to give the Rangers a 2-1 win and a 2-1 lead in games.

The Caps did not need extra time to tie the series in Game 4, but they did need some help from the Rangers in the third period.  It came in the form of a Carl Hagelin slashing penalty.  Then, the Rangers could not clear the puck out of their end on the ensuing power play.  Dennis Wideman easily stopped a weak clearing attempt and sent the puck across the rink to Mike Green at the right point.  Green took a couple of strides forward and leaned into a shot that beat Lundqvist cleanly to give the Caps a 3-2 win as the teams headed back to New York tied in the series.

Overtime was once more unkind to the Caps.  The teams exchanged a pair of goals early – New York’s Antron Stralman in the first period and Brooks Laich in the second period.  They then exchanged a pair of goals in the third period – John Carlson early and Brad Richards late.  The Caps had a chance between the two goals to get an insurance goal on a Nicklas Backstrom breakaway 13 minutes into the period, but he was foiled by Lundqvist’s left pad.  While that was disappointing, it would be the circumstances of the Richards goal would haunt the Caps for the rest of the series.

With the Caps nursing the one-goal lead in the last minute, Joel Ward was whistled for a double-minor penalty for high-sticking Hagelin.  The Capitals almost escaped.  With Lundqvist pulled for an extra skater, the Rangers had a 6-4 advantage.  It allowed them to get numbers in front of the Capitals’ net.  There were enough blue shirts at the top of the crease to keep the puck alive before Holtby could get a glove on it.  The puck squirted out to the opposite post where Brad Richards whacked it in, just 6.5 seconds left in regulation.  Then, just 95 seconds into the overtime, after the Rangers won a faceoff in the Caps’ end, Marc Staal sent a shot through a maze of bodies in front of Holtby and into the back of the net to give the Rangers a 3-2 win and a 3-2 lead in games heading back to Washington.

With goals at a premium and power plays not plentiful (16 for Washington through five games), the Caps were going to have to dig deep to find success in both in Game 6.  They did, less than 90 seconds into the contest.  Anton Stralman took a tripping penalty just 1:13 into the game to put the Caps on a power play.  The Caps moved the puck around the perimeter smartly to start their power play with Alex Ovechkin camped in the slot.  He was in perfect position to take a pass from Nicklas Backstrom and whip a shot past Lundqvist to open the scoring.  Given that the team scoring the first goal won each of the first five games, that goal could be considered important.

When Jason Chimera scored his fourth of the playoffs and third of the series mid-way through the second period it gave the Caps their first two-goal lead since the first period of Game 2.  They would need that goal as Marian Gaborik threw a scare into the Caps in the last minute, rattling a shot off the far pipe with 50.5 seconds left to halve the Caps lead.  The Caps weathered those last 50 and a half seconds without allowing the Rangers a shot attempt, and the teams were even heading to Game 7 in New York.

An extra day off between Game 6 and 7 only added to the suspense.  The suspense turned to dread for Caps fans less than two minutes into the contest.  The Rangers broke out of their own end cleanly, and a long lead pass from Michael Del Zotto from his own end was chipped into the Caps end and chased down behind the net by Carl Hagelin.  Hagelin circled out from behind the net and found Brad Richards for a one-timer from just inside the top of the left wing circle that beat Holtby on the long side to give the Rangers the first goal in a series dominated by teams scoring first.

After a scoreless second period, the Rangers added to their lead just after the ten-minute mark of the third period when Del Zotto recorded a goal of his own.  Just 38 seconds later the Caps got that one back on a goal by Roman Hamrlik.  His first of the postseason came as the late trailer on a Capitals rush, sneaking into the high slot to snap a shot past Lundqvist. 

It would be the Caps last goal of the season.  The Caps were awarded a power play less than a minute after the Hamrlik goal, but lost that advantage without recording a shot on goal when Nicklas Backstrom took a slashing penalty 1:38 into the power play.  Washington managed only two shots in the last seven minutes, one by Matt Hendricks and a 60-foot drive from Alexander Semin in the last half minute.  The Rangers ensured that for the seventh time in seven games, the team opening the scoring would go off as victors.

In the end, it was another “two and through” for the Caps, but it seemed very different from the finish to the 2011 postseason.  It might be summed up by what Tim Thomas said to Braden Holtby in the handshake line at the end of the opening round series against Boston: “great job, kid.”  While Joel Ward’s goal was the takeaway highlight of this postseason, it was Holtby who came though it as an emerging star.  He finished third in the postseason among qualifying goaltenders in goals against average (1.95), third in save percentage (.935).  His two series were copies of one another, a 2.00 goals against in the opening round series against Boston and a 1.90 goals against in the second round series against the Rangers.  His save percentage of .940 in the opening round series against the Bruins dropped to .929 in the Ranger series, but even that lower save percentage would have been sixth best among qualifying goalies in the postseason.

In a more general sense, this postseason was something of a precursor to what would be characterized in a season down the road as a “heavy” game played by the Caps.  When Bruce Boudreau was replaced by Dale Hunter (who departed at the end of the 2012 postseason to return to the London Knights), any remnants of the freewheeling style employed by the Caps from 2008-2010 were gone.  The Caps played games with a rougher edge, even if that meant playing a lot of “coin toss” hockey, games decided by a goal in low scoring affairs.

Unlike the hard to explain collapse in the second round of the 2011 playoffs to the Tampa Bay Lightning, one had the feeling the Caps did more right than wrong overall in the 2012 postseason.  And, given the turmoil that surrounded the early part of the season, the unknowns that came with changing coaches in mid-season, and the changes in style on the ice that Dale Hunter brought, it was not the disappointing postseason that characterized so many that came before.  The Caps might have gotten as much as they could have out of this season under the circumstances and might have planted the seeds for more success later, especially with a goaltender who emerged as a budding star.

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