Washington Capitals -- Memorable Goals: Number 4

Up until now, our look at ten memorable goals in the history of the Washington Capitals franchise has been limited to memories in the regular season.  With the fourth most memorable goal, we enter the history of the postseason and a player considered by most to be among hockey’s royalty.

4.  April 28, 2009 – Sergei Fedorov: “One More for the Road”

When Washington Capitals General Manager George McPhee woke on the morning of February 26, 2008, his Capitals were fighting for their playoff lives.  It was an unexpected development, given that the Caps started the season going 3-13-1 to finish October after starting the schedule with a three-game winning streak, firing their coach on Thanksgiving, and finding themselves in last place in the Eastern Conference on December 28th. 

But on February 26th – trading deadline day – McPhee’s Capitals were 14-8-3 since finding themselves in last place in the East and had closed to within five points of both the Southeast Division leading Carolina Hurricanes and the eighth place in the conference Philadelphia Flyers.  Instead of sellers at the trading deadline, looking to next season, the Caps were looking to add pieces to validate the hope that the push in the 2009 portion of the season sparked.

And so it was that McPhee, looking to add experience to a squad brimming in talent but yet quite green, pulled the trigger on a trade that sent defenseman prospect Theo Ruth to the Columbus Blue Jackets for 17-year veteran Sergei Fedorov.  Having appeared in almost 1,200 regular season games and another 162 in the postseason – almost as many as the combined total of the Washington roster of skaters (169) -- Fedorov was the embodiment of experience.  More to the point, of those 169 games of postseason experience on the Caps’ roster, 60 games of that experience was on the bench, injured (Michael Nylander and Brian Pothier).  They needed veteran contributions.

Fedorov provided both a spark (2-11-13 in 18 games) and a steadying influence on the “Young Guns” -- Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, and Mike Green.  While his presence no doubt contributed to the Caps’ amazing stretch run that saw them go 11-1-0 to close the season and reach the playoffs, it was not enough to get the Caps over the hump of the first round of the playoffs and the Philadelphia Flyers, to whom they lost in seven games.

It was, as they say, a learning experience.  It was one that the Caps put to good use in the 2008-2009 season.  Fedorov returned to the Caps to fill the role of second line center behind Nicklas Backstrom, and although injuries limited him to 52 games, Fedorov was still top ten on the club in goals, assists, and points, going 11-22-33 overall.  It helped the Caps finish the season with a 50-24-8 record, the first time they finished a season with 50 wins since the 1985-1986 season and only the second time in franchise history that they did so.

Their Southeast Division championship and second-place finish in the Eastern Conference earned the Caps a first round playoff matchup with the New York Rangers, a foe of long standing from their Patrick Division days, but one they had not met in the postseason since falling in five games to the eventual Stanley Cup champions in 1994.  The Caps took the 2008-2009 season series against the Blueshirts, but that outcome is a bit deceiving.  Three of the four games were decided by one goal, two of them in extra time, the clubs splitting those decisions.  The fourth decision, a 3-1 win by the Caps, featured an empty net goal by Semin.  These were two evenly matched clubs.

It was not an evenly matched series at the start, though.  The Rangers delivered a serious blow to the Caps’ chances of advancing to the second round when they took Games 1 and 2 at Verizon Center in Washington.  It did not get a lot better for Washington when they split two games at Madison Square Garden in New York to leave them in a 1-3 deficit in games.  They did, however, have the potential of playing two of their last three games at home, should it come to that.  It did.  They shutout New York, 4-0, in Game 5 at home, then went back to New York and beat the Rangers, 5-3, to force a Game 7 in Washington.

Game 7 started in shaky fashion for the Caps.  Nik Antropov scored for the Rangers just 5:35 into the contest, and the Caps did not record their first shot of the contest until the 13:04 mark of the first period.  For a while, it seemed as if it might be their last shot of the period, the Rangers piling up an 8-1 advantage over the first 15 minutes of the frame.  However, the Caps evened up the contest on their second (and last) shot of the first frame on a goal by Alexander Semin.

The teams continued to play things tight to the vest in the second period, the Caps finishing the middle 20 minutes with nine shots but holding the Rangers to only six.  Neither team could take the lead.  In the third period, things changed, but only to a point.  The Caps rattled the Ranger cage with shots in machine gun fashion – four in a space of 1:36 early in the period, another three over a 1:32 span a few minutes later.  The Rangers did not get their first shot on goal until the 9:29 mark.  But that shot seemed to silence the Caps as well.  Staring at the 7:55 mark of the period, the Caps went the next seven minutes without a shot on goal. 

What happened next changed that.  The Rangers were in their own end looking for a line change.  Derek Morris held the puck in the faceoff circle to the left of goalie Henrik Lundqvist.  He had an open passing lane up ice and sent the puck to Sean Avery circling just outside the Caps’ blue line.  Avery curled into the offensive zone and left the puck for Brandon Dubinsky trailing the play while the Rangers swapped out what players they could.  Dubinsky wrong-footed a shot that missed on the far side of Caps goalie Semyon Varlamov, the puck skittering off into the corner and up the wall where the Caps’ Matt Bradley was looking to get off the ice himself. 

Facing the wall just inside his own blue line, Bradley collected the puck and backhanded it to Sergei Fedorov heading up ice.  Fedorov sped out of the zone and down the right wing, backing off Ranger defenseman Wade Redden.  With Redden trying to maintain position that would keep Fedorov to the outside, Fedorov carried the puck to the right wing circle, then slammed on the brakes, opening up a bit of daylight between Redden and himself as Redden tried to stop and gather himself.  It was just enough of an opening for Fedorov to fire a laser of a blast that caught Lundqvist dropping into his defensive posture a half-second too soon.  The shot sailed over Lundqvist’s glove and into the top of the net, and the arena exploded as Alex Ovechkin tackled Fedorov in celebration along the boards with just 4:59 left to play. 

The Caps did not merely hold on in that last 4:59, they held the Rangers without a shot on goal and limited them to a single shot for the entire third period, outshooting them 13-1.  But it was the one goal from the stick of the wily veteran Fedorov that made the difference and justified the trade made by the Caps more than a year before that moment.

For Capitals fans, it was a special moment.  For years, Fedorov, while he did not face the Capitals often as a member of the Detroit Red Wings, made life for the Caps a special kind of hell when he did.  There was the time in 1996 when he became the first Red Wing in more than half a century to score five goals in a game, torching the Caps for five goals, including the overtime winner, in a 5-4 win.  There was the Stanley Cup final in 1998 when he recorded the game-winning goal in Game 3 to put the Caps on the brink of elimination, then assisted on the Red Wings’ first goal 150 seconds into Game 4 to help propel them to a 4-1 win and a sweep of the Capitals.

For Fedorov as a Capital, it would be the only goal that he would score in the 2009 postseason, and it would be his last goal in the NHL.  He returned to Russia the following season, leaving a hole in the second line center position that the Capitals spent years trying to fill.  In all those years, as difficult as it was to fill that void, there was still the memory of that one last and memorable goal from a legend, that sent an arena into a frenzy and the Capitals into the second round of the playoffs.

It's quarter to three,

There's no one in the place 'cept you and me

So set 'em' up joe

I got a little story I think you oughtta know

We're drinking my friend

To the end of a brief episode

So make it one for my baby

And one more for the road…

Photo: Len Redkoles/Getty Images North America

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 -- Memorable Goals: Number 5

In our look back at ten memorable goals in Washington Capitals history, number five comes from Alex Ovechkin, only it is not the one you might be thinking of.  Sure, when you think of memorable Ovechkin goals, “The Goal” is what immediately springs to mind.  That is not the one we are thinking of… there is another, one that came just four days after our Memorable Goal number 6.

February 18, 2009 – Alex Ovechkin: “Absolutely Brilliant!”

Mid-week games in the dead of winter do not generally generate a lot of excitement, and even though it was the Montreal Canadiens visiting Washington on a Wednesday night in mid-February, one cannot say that excitement was expected.  At least, not of the sort fans would be treated to in this contest.

The Caps and the Canadiens were going in opposite directions in the month of February when the Canadiens came calling.  Washington was 5-1-1 for the month and found themselves in their customary standings position atop the Southeast Division.  On the other hand, Montreal was 2-6-0 for February and had not won a road game in the Eastern Conference in a month.

This would be the fourth and last game of the season series between the clubs, a series in which the Caps won two of the first three games, outscoring the Canadiens overall by a 9-6 margin.  There was something of an odd subplot to this game.  Alex Ovechkin faced Montreal seven times at Verizon Center in his career, and seven times he recorded at least one point.  He was 7-6-13 overall in those seven games, including a four-goal/five-point performance on January 31, 2008 (his career first hat trick at home), on his way to a 65-goal season.

It was Montreal that would score first less than three minutes into the contest.  With Mike Green in the box for sending the puck over the glass, Chris Higgins converted on the ensuing power play.  It was the only score in a first ten minutes that has the teams going back and forth.  In those first ten minutes the Caps and Canadiens split 12 shots on goal down the middle.  Montreal had seven shots blocked to three for the Caps, but Washington had seven missed shots to six for the Canadiens, a total of 17 shot attempts for Montreal and 16 for the Capitals.

Just as the clock was hitting the 10:00 mark, though, the excitement level ramped up in a big way.  It started in the Montreal end with defenseman Mike Komisarek looking to move the puck up and out of the defensive zone to get a line change.  He sent the puck diagonally up ice to teammate Roman Hamrlik and headed to the bench. 

The pass was too far for Hamrlik, and seeing the opportunity to take advantage of the miscue, Alex Ovechkin darted down the center red line toward the referees’ crease opposite the player benches. As he got to within a stride of the side boards, in one move he spun counterclockwise and backhanded the puck off the wall.  Now facing up ice, he darted past Hamrlik to take what amounted to a pass to himself.  Kyle Chipchura tried desperately to get back on the play to cut off Ovechkin’s path to the net, but Ovechkin lowered his right shoulder into Chipchura as he circled through the left wing circle to the net.  Chipchura could do little but hang on as Ovechkin closed on goaltender Carey Price, eventually hauling Ovechkin down to the ice.  As Ovechkin reached the edge of the goal crease sliding on his right hip, he managed to flip a shot at the net, and by the time he reached the other side of the crease, Ovechkin had his left arm raised celebrating the goal he scored past Price’s right pad to tie the game.

It was a goal that the Caps would need in what ended up being a special teams contest, the Caps scoring a power play goal and allowing three man-advantage scores by the Canadiens on the way to a 3-3 tie after 60 minutes.  After a scoreless overtime, the Caps would win in the freestyle competition.  It was the Caps’ third straight win and part of what would be a 19-9-3 finish after February 1^st that enabled the Caps to finish first in the Southeast Division and second in the Eastern Conference.

For Ovechkin, the goal was his 42^nd of the season, fifth in three games and ninth in eight games in February on his way to a 56-goal season and his second straight Maurice Richard Trophy leading the league in goals.

So, why is this goal memorable and not “The Goal?”  It is almost like asking which one is your favorite Beethoven symphony.  There are a lot to pick from, and there really is not a wrong answer.  “The Goal” was an announcement – with a bull horn into a public address system – of a rookie’s skill and virtuosity.  And, even though it was the last goal scored by the Caps in what was a 6-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes, it showed a relentless appetite for goal scoring that has fueled Ovechkin’s career for ten years.

This goal against the Montreal Canadiens was the entire Ovechkin package, though.  There was the split-second realization of an opportunity – the too-long pass from Komisarek to Hamrlik – and the absence of hesitation or doubt in pouncing on the chance.  There was the instinct to make the only play available to him that would yield a scoring opportunity, backhanding the puck off the boards and chasing it down.  There was the speed to fend off a closing Kyle Chipchura and the strength to keep his momentum with Chipchura draped all over him as he curled to the net.  There was not giving up on the play, getting the shot off and beating an up-and-coming goalie in Carey Price.

The context of this goal was important as well.  The Caps were closing in on a playoff spot in this game, while in the January 2006 game in which Ovechkin scored “The Goal, the Caps were already out of playoff contention, in 14^th place in the Eastern Conference, 16 points behind the New Jersey Devils.  The goal against Montreal tied the contest; “The Goal” was the sixth and last of a 6-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes.  The Caps were playing a Montreal Canadiens club that was fifth in the East; the 2006 Caps were facing a Phoenix Coyotes team that ended the season 12^th in the Western Conference.  When the Caps and Ovechkin faced Phoenix in 2006, they were facing a goalie – Brian Boucher – making only his ninth appearance of the season.  It was the fourth time in six  appearances in which he played all 60 minutes that he allowed four or more goals.  When Ovechkin and the Caps faced Montreal in February 2009, they faced a goalie – Carey Price – who was struggling (he allowed 15 goals on 91 shots in his previous four appearances), but who was being groomed to assume the number one duties for the Canadiens and who had an 8-0-4 run earlier in the season.

In the end, it amounts to a distinction without a difference.  About the only thing that really distinguishes these two goals is that the goal scored against Montreal was done in the friendly confines of Verizon Center where 18,000 fans could share a memorable goal in person.

Washington Capitals -- That Was The Week That Was: Fireworks at the End of July

We are in the last throes of what passes for action in the summer of the hockey season.  After the Cup is hoisted, the draft is held, and the first of the big name free agents are signed, the end of July is for tending to restricted free agents who are arbitration eligible. 

For the Washington Capitals, two important pieces were on the clock.  Goaltender Braden Holtby and forward Marcus Johansson each elected to submit to arbitration after insufficient progress was made in signing them to new contracts with the Capitals.  Holtby was scheduled for his hearing with the arbitrator on July 23^rd, and Johansson had his hearing scheduled for July 29^th. 

Both players went through with their hearings with the arbitrator, but the results were slightly different.  In the 48-hour window between hearing and decision, Holtby and the Capitals agreed on a five year/$30.5 million contract.  His $6.1 million average annual value ranks him seventh among league goaltenders.  He is the youngest of ten goalies with cap hits of at least $6.0 million.  In fact, Holtby is the youngest of the top-27 goaltenders in average annual value.  One would have to go to Martin Jones of the San Jose Sharks ($3.0 million AAV) to find a younger netminder.  It is the longest contract for a Capitals goaltender since Olaf Kolzig was signed to a four-year/$25 million deal in 2001.

Johansson also proceeded with the arbitration hearing, but the 48-hour window expired, and then some, without the sides coming to agreement on a negotiated contract.  On the evening of Friday, July 31^st, hours after the deadline for a decision expired, the decision was announced – a one-year/$3.75 million contract. The deal puts Johansson in the top-15 among forwards in cap hit of age 24 or younger.

The deals leave the Capitals with 13 roster forwards, seven roster defensemen, and two roster goalies (assuming one of either Philipp Grubauer or Justin Peters is sent to the Hershey Bears).  That would leave the Caps with a total salary cap hit of $69,980,959, leaving $1,419,041 in cap room (numbers from generalfanager.com).

It does not mean that the Caps are done.  Certainly they were not in the last week of July.  Washington signed defenseman Ryan Stanton on July 24^th.  Stanton, most recently of the Vancouver Canucks, appeared in 119 regular season games over three seasons, recording four goals and 27 points with a plus-15.  He can carry a decent workload.  In 54 games with the Canucks last season, the 26-year old defenseman averaged 16 minutes a game.  It is unlikely he will see that many games or that many minutes for the Capitals, but he could be a better seventh defenseman option for the Caps than Taylor Chorney, and he is cheaper, with a $575,000 cap hit on a one-year/two-way contract (Chorney’s is $700,000, but he is on a one-way deal that complicates the competition).

And that brings us to “if’s.”  If it is Stanton who makes the squad instead of Chorney, and if forward Zach Sill slotted to start the season in Hershey, the Caps would have just over $2.1 million in cap room with which to seek a bottom six forward.

For now, the top six is set…sort of.  There are Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Justin Williams, and Johansson.  Oh wait…that’s seven.  At the moment, it would seem as if Burakovsky and Johansson will battle for the second line left wing position, the loser perhaps centering the third line.  It is a good problem to have going to camp, but the fact is that the other five bottom-six forward positions do not inspire as much confidence, at least in the offensive end of the ice.  Brooks Laich has only 16 goals in 126 games over the last three seasons.  Jason Chimera has 25 goals in 206 games since posting 20 in 82 games of the 2011-2012 season and will be 36 years old on Opening Night.  Jay Beagle, Tom Wilson, and Michael Latta combined for 14 goals last season, and that included a career-high ten from Beagle.  As for special teams, one would not expect any of these five to see much, if any power play time (although Laich was once a productive power play scorer), but only Laich, Beagle, and Chimera averaged more than a minute of power play time over the course of last season (they are the top three returning forwards in penalty killing time per game last season), while Latta (six seconds per game) and Wilson (no penalty killing time) did not participate.  One would have to think there is yet work to be done here.

The Caps did have another transaction this past week.  They signed Jonas Siegenthaler to a three-year entry level contract on Thursday.  Siegenthaler was taken with the 57^th overall pick (second round) in the entry draft this past June.  It would seem that his debut in pro hockey in North America (likely with the Hershey Bears) will wait a year as it seems probable he will return to the Zurich Lions of the Swiss-A league for the 2015-2016 season. 

It was an eventful week for the Caps, perhaps more so than one would normally expect this time of year.  It might be the last one before rookie camp starts in September (although August has occasionally had some surprises).  Except for a couple of tweaks here or there, this now looks like the team the Caps will send out in search of their first Stanley Cup next season.

Washington Capitals -- Memorable Goals: Number 6

Our look back at ten memorable goals in the history of the Washington Capitals is up to number six and the first one in the Rock the Red era of the franchise.

February 14, 2009 -- Mike Green: Lightning Strike for a Record

In 2007-2008, his second full season in the NHL, Mike Green established himself as one of the top offensive defensemen in the NHL.  Playing in all 82 games that season (still the only time he accomplished that feat in his ten-year career), Green near the top among defensemen in a number of offensive categories:

• Goals: 18 (2nd)
• Assists: 38 (T-10th)
• Points: 56 (7th)
• Power Play Goals: 8 (T-6th)
• Power Play Assists: 15 (T-18th)
• Power Play Points: 23 (T-16th)

There was one area in which he was clearly the best – game-winning goals.  Green notched four game-winning scores that season, tied for the league lead, and three of them came in overtime (tops in the league), earning him the nickname, “Game-Over Green.”

That season was merely prelude to one of the best single offensive seasons by a defenseman in a generation of hockey.  Green started with a flash, going 4-2-6 in his first five contests.  You could say he slowed down a bit after that, recording eight goals in his next 30 games.  Still a nice pace for a defenseman (a 22-goal pace over 82 games), but not extraordinary. 

Then came a game in Boston against the Bruins on January 27th.  Mike Green scored a goal barely two minutes into the contest to give the Caps the early lead.  That goal was lost, however, when the Capitals got a scare seeing Alex Ovechkin take an awkward fall into the end boards that left him prone on the ice for 15 seconds (he returned to the game in the third period), and then when the Caps eventually lost the game on a David Krejci bank shot off the skate of defenseman Shaone Morrisonn in overtime in the 3-2 Bruins win.

The Caps returned to the ice four days later to host the Detroit Red Wings in the last game of January, but the hiatus did not seem to affect Green.  After serving two minutes for a hooking penalty earlier in the second period, he atoned for his penalty with a goal that gave the Caps a 2-1 lead on their way to a 4-2 win (he also assisted on the fourth goal to record his 11th multi-point game of the season).

Scoring goals in consecutive games four days apart was one thing, but the Caps took the ice the day after their win over Detroit to face the Ottawa Senators.  It took less than ten minutes for Green to record a goal in his third consecutive game, a power play goal that tied the contest, 1-1.  Less than a minute later, with the Caps on another power play, Green assisted on a goal by Alex Ovechkin to put the Caps in the lead for good.  When it was over, Green had a goal and three assists for his first career four-point game (he has had two since), and the Caps had a 7-4 win over the Senators.

Green was on a roll.  He followed up his three-game goal streak with goals in each of his next four games, including the game-winning and empty net insurance goals in a 3-1 win over the Florida Panthers, to tie an NHL record for consecutive games with goals scored by a defenseman – seven games.  It was a record set in the 1983-1984 season by Boston Bruin defenseman Mike O’Connell.

Only the Tampa Bay Lightning stood between Green and the record on Valentines Day 2009.  The Lightning were struggling, winning just twice in their previous seven contests and falling to fourth in the Southeast Division standings, 11th in the Eastern Conference.  They played like a struggling team against the Caps, too, falling behind by a 3-0 score at the first intermission.  None of those three goals, however, were scored by Green. 

The suspense ended early in the second period.  Former Capital Jeff Halpern was in the penalty box for the Lightning, serving two minutes for a hooking penalty.  With the Lightning a man short, Alexander Semin stripped Matt Smaby of the puck in the corner to the right of Tampa Bay goaltender Karri Ramo.  Semin spied Green sliding down between the circles and sent the puck that way.  Green collected the puck and wristed it at the Tampa Bay net.  The shot was blocked by another former Capital, Matt Pettinger, but the puck popped up and dropped at Green’s feet.  Green swatted the puck through Smaby, who by this time made his way to the front of the net, and past Ramo to take the record for himself and help propel the Caps to a 5-1 win.

The goal was Green’s 22nd of the season, and he would go on to finish the 2008-2009 campaign with 31 goals, the most by a defenseman since Kevin Hatcher (yet another Capital or ex-Capital in this story) recorded 34 goals in 1992-1993.  With 31 goals in 68 games, Green finished the season with the eighth-highest goals-per-game for a season among defensemen in the modern era of hockey (post-1967 expansion), surpassed by only Paul Coffey (three times), Bobby Orr (three times), and Doug Wilson.

What made Green’s goal on that night even more memorable was that he scored it with his father, Dave, in attendance.  It was part of the “mentors’ trip” that the team shared with many of the Capitals’ fathers.  For that, the record-setting performance, and being part of a superb season for Green, it is a memorable goal for Caps fans, too.

Photo: Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images

Is NHL Expansion a Done Deal?

Well, the Four-Letter Network seems to think so, or so one might one interpret when perusing their NHL team schedule pages.  We were looking at the Caps' 2015-2016 schedule, and when pulling down a menu to select teams, found this...

Ten Years In

Today is our tenth anniversary in this space.  This is our 3,941st post (we counted…Cheerless ran out of toes along the way). 

We’ve seen and written about some bad hockey and some great hockey, some disappointments and some pleasant surprises, the periodic table of the elements and all-alphabet teams.  We've watched and written about Capitals from "Alzner" to "Zubrus," from Alex Ovechkin (832 regular season and playoff games) to Jonas Johansson (one game, four minutes on ice).

There were some posts that seemed to get more than their share of attention over the years. In no particular order, the top half dozen in page views over the last ten years include…

“Enough Already!” 

In the aftermath of the 2011 Winter Classic in Pittsburgh, a fair amount of attention was being paid to the hit by David Steckel on Sidney Crosby that started the concussion problems that would affect Crosby's participation in games over the next two seasons.  The subtext to the whole matter was whether the hit was intentional at worst or avoidable at best.  We set out to debunk those notions.

“A Tale of Two Stories” 

This was one of those cases of being an example of the saying, “where you stand depends upon where you sit.”  Same media personality expounding on two athletes in similar situations, with very different takes. 

“Caps Fans, The Seventh Man” 

We never would have imagined that so few words would get so many views.  All it was, was a quote from New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur commenting on losing a shot from John Carlson in a sea of red and “not (being) used to playing in a building like that,” meaning Verizon Center.

“How the Game is Played: Who is the Most Influential Person in the Post-Lockout Era?” 

When the Caps blew a 3-1 lead (again!) to lose the 2010 opening round playoff series to the Montreal Canadiens, it was due in no small part to the astonishing performance of Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak.  His performance in Games 5-7 in that series might have altered the very trajectory of how the game was (and is) played in the NHL.

“I'm Sick, I'm Tired, and I'm Done” 

We wrote this as the NHL was emerging from its 2012-2013 lockout, it second lockout in eight years and third in less than 20 years.  It was the most commented-on post in the ten years we have been doing this and is the second most viewed post we have had.

“Cheerless Talks Fancystats” 

This is the mother of all posts in our ten-year history, the most viewed and by a wide margin.  Even today, almost two years since we wrote it, it shows up among the most viewed posts on a month-to-month basis.  Maybe it’s the dogs.  Everybody likes dogs.

And there you have it.  We thank all of you who have stopped by from time to time to read our scribbles, and we hope that there are a lot of posts ahead.  We would sure like to do one someday that says, “Finally!”  And I think all of you know what that might refer to.  Something about a silver chalice and a parade. 

Until then, though, on behalf of Fearless and Cheerless, and all the other characters who have been a part of these posts, thanks for all of your support.

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.