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

Disappointments and pleasant surprises are, for the Washington Capitals fan, a long history of understanding the meaning of the term, “asymmetry.” There have been far more disappointments in the playoffs than pleasant surprises, especially as the years go on.  We are at the mid-point of our look at the Rock the Red era of Capitals playoff history, and we are still dealing with the matter of disappointments.

4. 2013: “Horseshoes and Hand Grenades”

The 2013 season for the Washington Capitals was a strange one, as it was for all 30 NHL teams, albeit to differing degrees.  There was the matter of it being the “2013 season,” not the 2012-2013 season.  That was the product of a labor-management dispute that cost the league the 2012 portion of its season and 34 regular season games. 

For the Capitals it was a case of not only losing 34 regular season games off their schedule, but gaining something as well – their third head coach in seven months.  After Bruce Boudreau was relieved of his duties on November 28, 2011, former Capitals captain Dale Hunter was tasked with taking the helm to try to save the 2011-2012 season.  He lasted until the Caps were eliminated from the playoffs the following spring, returning to his London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.  In June 2012 the Caps hired Adam Oates, previously an assistant with the New Jersey Devils and the 18th-highest point-getter in Caps history as a center for six seasons from 1996 to 2002.  It was the fifth straight hire of a first-time NHL head coach by the Caps.  The average tenure of the previous four was 185 games.  More was hoped for from the hall of famer Oates.

One of the things one might have hoped for under the new regime was stability, especially after a season with another in-season change behind the bench (like Hunter in 2012, his two immediate predecessors – Bruce Boudreau and (edit) Glen Hanlon – were in-season replacements).  Instead, Oates made perhaps the most potentially destabilizing move possible, that of flipping Alex Ovechkin from his left wing position – one from which he had earned five first-team NHL all-star positions and two second-team positions – to the right wing.

With a 48-game season ahead of them, it would be important for a team with playoff aspirations to get off to a good start.  Neither the Caps nor Ovechkin, in his new position, did so.  Washington lost their first four games and nine of their first 11 contests, going 2-8-1.  They staggered over the first two months of the abbreviated season, falling to 12-16-1 when they dropped a 2-1 decision to the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 19th.

The Caps were a mess.  They sat in fourth place in the Southeast Division, 14th in the Eastern Conference.  Ovechkin had just 12 goals in 29 games and was on a pace to finish with just 20 goals in the 48-game season.  Braden Holtby, now in his first season as the Caps number one netminder, was limping along with a record of 10-10-0, 2.92, .911.  Three shutouts against Southeast Division clubs (Florida, Carolina, and Winnipeg) saved Holtby’s record from being even worse.

That game against Pittsburgh might have been a turning point, even if it was a loss.  The Penguins took the ice at Consol Energy Center that night on a nine-game winning streak and were sailing along with the best record in the Eastern Conference (22-8-0).  They had held their previous five opponents to a total of just five goals.  They faced only 10 shorthanded situations in their last five home games, killing off nine of them.  Yet the Caps, who had not won a road game outside the Southeast Division in more than a month, got a power play goal from Ovechkin, 34 saves from Holtby, and played the Penguins even until Matt Niskanen scored the game-winner for Pittsburgh with eight minutes left.

It propelled the Caps to a superb finish to the regular season.  They went 15-2-2 over their last 19 games to win the Southeast Division and earn a three-seed for the playoffs.  They outscored their opponents by a 67-43 margin.  Their power play hummed along at 30.8 percent, while the penalty kill was a respectable 81.8 percent.  Holtby was impenetrable, going 13-2-1, 2.20, .931, with one shutout.  Ovechkin played his last 19 games with a scoring line of 20-12-32, plus-9 (a stunning 86-52-138, plus-39 pace per 82 games), good enough to win his third Maruice Richard Trophy as the league’s top goal scorer and his third Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.  And, in an odd bit of voting by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, Ovechkin was named a first team NHL all-star at right wing and a second team all-star at left wing.

One would have thought that finish was just what the Caps needed for what they experienced so rarely in the postseason – a deep run, perhaps to the Finals.  Their first round opponent would be the New York Rangers, a club that had a similar profile to that of the Caps.  Meandering around at 16-15-3 at the end of March, they went 10-3-1 over their last 14 games to finish second in the Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference, taking the higher seed from the Ottawa Senators on the basis of having more regulation and overtime wins (the teams finished tied with 56 points).  Perhaps more ominously, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist played all the minutes in goal for the Rangers in April, going 10-3-1, 1.89, .934, with one shutout over those last 14 games.

The Rangers took two of three games against the Caps in the regular season, Washington’s only win coming in a Gimmick in the last meeting of the clubs in late March.  It would be the Rangers breaking on top in Game 1 as well, Carl Hagelin stepping out from behind the Caps’ net and snapping a shot off the skate of defenseman John Erskine and past Holtby’s right pad inside the far post.

The Caps could not solve Lundqvist in the first 20 minutes but had no problem with the winning formula in the second period.  With Arron Asham in the penalty box for the Rangers, a Mike Green drive from the top of the offensive zone was kicked out by Lundqvist.  His direction might have been better, the rebound ending up on the stick of Ovechkin who put it back from the bottom of the left wing circle to tie the game.

Late in the period the Caps got a pair of quick strikes.  The first came on a brilliant pass from defenseman Steve Oleksy from between his own hash marks though the center of the ice and onto the stick of Marcus Johansson at the Ranger blue line.  Johansson, behind the Ranger defense, broke in alone on Lundqvist and snapped the puck under his glove to give the Caps the lead.

Less than a minute later, the Caps worked the puck free in the corner to Lundqvist’s right.  Jason Chimera skated it up the wall, but when his path and passing lane was closed off by Brad Richards, he spun back and fired the puck at the net.  Perhaps distracted by Mathieu Perreault crossing in front, Lundqvist let the shot sneak through, and the Caps had a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.  That left the game in Holtby's hands, and he was up to the task, turning away all 12 Ranger shots in the third period to give the Caps a Game 1 win.

If one was a fan of goaltenders playing a the top of their game, Game 2 was their kind of contest.  Holtby faced 24 shots in regulation and stopped all of them.  Lundqvist more than matched him, turning aside all 30 shots he faced in 60 minutes of regulation time.  In the extra session it came down to special teams.  Each side would suffer the same call.  First, Steve Oleksy was sent to the penalty box just 1:51 into overtime for delay-of-game when he shot the puck over the glass.  The Caps killed the two minutes without allowing a shot on goal.  If it did not result in inspiration, it might have provided resolve.  To that point the Caps did not have a shot on goal in the extra session.  Upon Oleksy’s exit from the penalty box, the Caps ramped up the pressure in the Ranger end.  A flurry of four shots on goal in less than a minute ended with Ranger defenseman Ryan McDonagh shooting the puck over the glass and heading to the penalty box to pay his own penance.

McDonagh was paroled early from his two minute sentence, though not in the manner he or the Rangers might have preferred.  Mike Green held the puck at the top of the offensive zone with two options, Alex Ovechkin on his left and Mike Ribeiro on his right.  He chose to slide the puck to Ribeiro along the right wing wall.  Ribeiro walked in to the top of the right wing faceoff circle and faked a shot.  It had the effect of pulling three Ranger defenders to that side of the ice and opening up clear space for a return pass to Green.  Ribeiro slid the puck back to the middle, and Green stepped into one, one-timing the puck low to the glove side of Lundqvist.  The glove was not quite quick enough, and the puck settled into the back of the net to give the Caps a 1-0 win and a two games to none advantage as the clubs headed to New York for Games 3 and 4.

With 17 wins in their last 21 games dating back to the regular season and a goalie who had stopped 59 of 60 shots in Games 1 and 2 of the series so far, one might have wondered what could go wrong for the Caps in Game 3 and beyond.  A Caps fan might wonder, what “would” go wrong.  It was not when Nicklas Backstrom scored barely four minutes into the contest, outworking three Rangers along the end wall to get into a position to slide the puck up to John Erskine, then get to the front of the net to redirect a John Carlson drive past Lundqvist.  It was Brian Boyle who started the Rangers on a sunnier path and the Caps down a dark road when he walked in from the right wing wall and snapped the puck over Holtby’s left shoulder to tie the game.  Teams that win playoff series get goals from those sorts of players (it was just his fourth goal in 25 career playoff games); teams that lose allow them to such players.

From there the teams started exchanging goals, but the Caps found themselves on the wrong side of the exchange, having to score to re-tie the game.  After Derick Brassard scored just 83 seconds into the second period, Mike Green tied the game late in the period when he took a pass from Mathieu Perreault, stepped up, and wristed a shot past Lundqvist.  Arron Asham – another of those sorts of players you cannot allow to score goals in series such as this – did just that less than three minutes into the third period.  Jay Beagle got that one back (just his second goal in 19 postseason games) when he redirected a Jack Hillen drive from the left point after a faceoff win in the Rangers’ end.

The Caps were on the wrong side of the exchange one last time.  Derek Stepan redirected a Rick Nash shot past Holtby with less than seven minutes left in regulation.  It was enough time for one last comeback, but the Caps managed just three shots on goal in the last 6:25, none in the last 1:54 in which they they had a power play and what amounted to a six-on-four advantage for the last 90 seconds of the game after they pulled Holtby.

Going into Game 4, a Caps fan might have been forgiven for thinking a 2-1 advantage in games was not really much, if any, of an advantage.  By the time Game 4 was over, the Caps didn’t even have that.  They played from behind the entire game, falling behind, 2-0, in the first 30 minutes thanks to goals from Brad Richards and Carl Hagelin.  To their credit, the Caps fought back to tie it, Mathieu Perreault scoring first at the 13:08 mark of the second period when he put back a loose puck after Henrick Lundqvist foiled a Joel Ward stuff attempt off a rush.  Troy Brouwer tied it in the last minute of the period when he cut across the Ranger zone between two defenders and backhanded the puck past Lundqvist’s blocker.

The Caps could not get that third goal, however, before the Rangers restored their two-goal lead.  Dan Girardi scored on a power play less than a minute into the third period.  Then, as HBO’s John Oliver might put it…this:

A goal by Karl Alzner 90 seconds later through a maze of bodies in front of Lundqvist got the Caps close once more, but Lundqvist turned away the last eight Capital shots over the last 12:29 after the Alzner goal, and the Rangers were even in the series.

With the teams holding serve on home ice through four games, the series moved back to Washington for Game 5.  If 18,000 people could do a simultaneous face-palm, they would have done it in the first minute.  The Rangers scored on the first shot attempt of the context, and they made it look easy.  Just after jumping on ice for his first shift of the game, Brian Boyle swept the puck behind the Capitals’ cage and out to Dan Girardi at the right point.  Girardi wasted no time in throwing the puck back into the Caps’ end, where it ended up on the stick of Derick Brassard behind the Caps’ goal line to the right of goalie Braden Holtby.  As Brassard collected the puck, the Caps’ defense lost Boyle, not an easy feat considering Boyle is 6’7”, 245 pounds.  But there he was, wide open at the top of the crease for a pass from Brassard that he slipped past Holtby, and the Rangers were up, 1-0, 53 seconds into the game.

That is the way things stayed until deep into the second period when Boyle took a penalty slashing Mike Ribeiro.  On the ensuing power play, the Rangers won the draw to the left of goalie Henrik Lundqvist, but neither defenseman – Ryan McDonagh or Girardi – could secure the puck.  Marcus Johansson stepped in to gather it up and fed Nicklas Backstrom on the right wing wall.  Off a set play, Backstrom sent the puck back down to Johansson, and Johansson one-timed a pass to the slot where Joel Ward snapped the puck past Lundqvist, and the game was tied.

Just as the Rangers failed to build on their early success, the Caps were unable to build on that second period goal.  The teams skated a scoreless third period and went to overtime for the second time in this building in the series.  It was hardly a deliberate, defensive sort of overtime.  The teams combined for 13 shots on goal in the first nine minutes of the overtime.  Then came a sequence filled with so many twists and turns and “what-ifs” that is seemed to take far longer than the ten seconds or so that elapsed. 

It started with the Caps’ Eric Fehr and the Rangers’ Anton Stralman racing to run down a puck sliding toward the Ranger goal line to the right of Lundqvist.  Eric Fehr used every bit of his 6’4” frame and long stick to reach past Stralman to swipe the puck back toward the middle of the ice.  Ribeiro split two Ranger defenders to grab the puck, but it was poked off his stick by Dominic Moore.  Troy Brouwer darted in to beat a Ranger to the loose puck and move it out to Karl Alzner at the left point.  Alzner slid it across to Mike Green, who took a shot from the right point that was blocked by Moore.  This time, a Ranger – Derick Brassard – got to the puck first and tried to flip it out of the defensive zone.  His attempt got as far as Green, who settled the puck and sent it to Alzner on the opposite side.  Alzner fired it past Brassard trying to block the shot but couldn’t get it past Stralman in front of the Ranger net.  The puck struck Stralman and skittered to the opposite side of the crease, where Mike Ribeiro was fending off Moore.  Ribeiro had position on Moore and an open net at which to shoot.  He did not miss, Lundqvist skated off and slammed his stick against the ledge at the players’ bench, and the Caps escaped with a 2-1 win to send the series back to New York for a Game 6. 

This time it was the Caps that would skate off in frustration.  The Caps fought through having to kill off five power plays while receiving none of their own (extending the Rangers’ power play advantage to 26-14 through six games), wasted a 26-save effort by Holtby (whose save percentage for the series was now .938), allowing only a second period goal by Derick Brassard on a shot from near the blue line that struck defenseman Steve Oleksy’s arm on the way through and deflected down and through Holtby.  Lundqvist did the rest, stopping all 27 shots he faced, including 12 in the third period to ensure that every Capital fan’s worst nightmare would be re-lived – a Game 7 at home.

If the playoffs have been unkind to the Capitals through their history, Games 7 at home have been a special circle of hell.  Starting with the Easter Epic in 1987, the Caps took the ice in this Game 7 with a record of 2-6 in Games 7 on home ice.  The one consolation was that the last time the Caps won such a game was in the 2009 Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the Rangers.

Whatever consolation that 2009 memory might have brought to the minds of Caps fans, it was extinguished in about 25 minutes.  That was how long it took for the competitive portion of the game to be settled.  It started once more with a foot soldier, not a star, opening the scoring.  Arron Asham got the Rangers off and running with his second goal of the series, taking a drop pass from Chris Kreider and snapping a very stoppable shot past Braden Holtby 13:19 into the first period.  Early in the second, the game, the series, and the season turned against the Caps in a space of 130 seconds.  Taylor Pyatt – another of the Rangers’ unsung brigade – scored his first goal of the series, assisted by Derek Dorsett (his first assist of the series) and former Capital Steve Eminger (yes, his first assist, too) just over three minutes into the period.  Then, Michael Del Zotto notched his first goal of the series when he fired a slap shot from the top of the left wing circle that Holtby misplayed through his pads to make it 3-0.

If there was any glimmer of a comeback, it was snuffed out 13 seconds into the third period when Ryan Callahan scored (tell us if you’ve heard this) his first goal of the series, pilfering the puck from John Erskine at the red line, skating in alone on Holtby, and lifting a backhand over Holtby’s right pad.  All that was left was for Mats Zuccarello to put the whipped cream on top of the Big Apple Pie with – you guessed it – his first goal of the series I the seventh minute of the period.  It was a sound 5-0 thrashing put on the Caps by the Rangers, wholly unexpected given the way the series unfolded through six games, but not unexpected in the experience of such games in Caps history. 

What made this postseason so disappointing?  Let’s start with that Game 7.  The five-goal loss was the first time the Caps lost a home playoff game by more than one goal since Game 1 of the 2011 conference quarterfinals against the Tampa Bay Lighting.  The Caps went four straight home losses having lost by one goal, three of them in overtime.  It was the largest margin of defeat on home ice in a playoff game since they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-0, in Game 1 of the 2000 conference quarterfinals.

Then there was the inability to win on the road.  The Caps had the ninth-best road record in the league in the regular season (the Rangers were tied for 19th) yet could not find a way to win at Madison Square Garden. 

Then there were the stars.  Alex Ovechkin…one goal in seven games, that coming in Game 1.  Nicklas Backstrom…just one even strength point for the series.  Mike Ribeiro…one even strength point for the series (a game-winning overtime goal, so there was that). 

The Caps got ten points (three goals) from defensemen in the series.  Karl Alzner was the second-leading point-getter (1-1-2) and was the only defenseman to finish on the “plus” side of the plus-minus ledger (plus-3).

Troy Brouwer, Joel Ward, and Jason Chimera combined for two goals, the same number scored by both Brian Boyle and Arron Asham.


Martin Erat, for whom the Capitals traded one of their top prospects, played three games plus four minutes in Game 4.  His absence in Games 4-7 might have been missed just enough required some juggling among the forward lines.

In a way, the disappointment of that outcome is mitigated to a point by the fact that the Caps started the season in unsettled circumstances, perhaps more so than most other teams.  They weathered what could have been a disastrous start to the season, a start made more dangerous by the abbreviated schedule, and closed with a mad rush to reach the postseason.  Their best player accepted a different role – a new position – and scored goals at a pace that rivaled some of his best years before or since.

But in the end, it was another first round exit, the 14th time in 24 playoff appearances to that point the Caps were one-and-done.  They fought the Rangers to a draw through six games, then wilted in Game 7.  They came within a goal scored off their own player of perhaps forcing overtime in Game 6, and the Caps had won both of the overtime games in the series played to that point.  The Caps had their chances in that Game 6, despite the absence of any power plays – Ovechkin just after the Brassard goal, Ribeiro on a backhand from all alone in the left wing circle, Ovechkin on a one-timer from a Backstrom pass from below the goal line.  They were oh, so close to driving that spike into the Rangers’ season.  But then you already know the only things in which “close” counts.

Photo: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

Washington Capitals -- Memorable Goals: Number 3

We have looked at seven goals from seven different players in our look at memorable goals scored in the history of the Washington Capitals franchise.  For the eighth goal we look at an eighth different player, a player making good on the investment made in him as a free agent.

3.  April 25, 2012 – Joel Ward: “Long Term Capital Gain”

Joel Ward was a late bloomer.  An undrafted forward out of the Owen Sound Platers of the Ontario Hockey League, Ward completed four seasons in Canadian Junior with the Platers, then took the Canadian Interuniversity Sports route, playing for four seasons with the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers.  He did not sign his first professional contract, that with the Houston Aeros of the American Hockey League, until two days after his 25^th birthday.  He did not play in his first NHL game until he was two weeks past his 26^th birthday.  He did not score his first NHL goal until he was within two months of his 28^th birthday.

It was the profile of a singularly determined individual whose resume did not suggest he would have a long and productive career in the NHL.  However, in three full seasons with the Nashville Predators (after a brief stint with the Minnesota Wild), Ward appeared in 230 games, recording 40 goals and 98 points.  More than that, he became a clutch postseason performer, especially in the 2010-2011 season when he scored seven goals in 12 games for the Predators.

It was that 2011 postseason that appeared to get the attention of the Caps, who signed the now 30-year old Ward to a four-year/$12 million in July 2011.  Ward got off to a decent start with his new club with four goals in his first dozen games with the Caps.  But then he went 25 straight games without one.  Over those 25 games the Caps fell from first in the Southeast Division and third in the Eastern Conference standings to second in the division and seventh in the conference.

Ward’s slump did not end with that goal on January 7^th to break his 25-game drought.  After scoring against the San Jose Sharks, he went another 21 games without a goal, scoring what would be his last goal of the season on February 24^th against Montreal.  All in all, it was part of a long slow end to the regular season for Ward that saw him finish with only six goals in 73 games.

Things really did not go a lot better for Ward as the first round series against the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins began.  He did not score a goal in any of the first six games, shooting blanks on just eight shots in those six contests.  Heading into a deciding Game 7 of that series, Ward had a total of two goals on his last 75 shots over 67 regular season and playoff games.  And, in the six games against the Bruins in the first round, he was down to averaging less than ten minutes of ice time per game after averaging 12:26 a game in the regular season.

Through three periods of Game 7 in Boston, the Caps and Bruins played an inspired and hard-fought 60 minutes.  The Caps opened the scoring mid-way through the first period on a fine play by Matt Hendricks.  As Boston was trying to exit their zone, Hendricks was skating hard up the middle to provide defensive support.  Milan Lucic had his pocket picked along the wall by Jason Chimera, and Hendricks curled back to head to the front of the net.  Chimera sent the puck back up the wall to John Carlson at the right point.  As Carlson wound up for the shot, Hendricks was positioning himself in the line of the shot.  Carlson let fly, and Hendricks barely had time to spin around to attempt a redirection.  He managed just fine, altering the path of the puck just enough for it to sail past Bruin goalie Tim Thomas’ right shoulder to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.

Tyler Seguin tied the game for the Bruins mid-way through the second period when his shot slithered through goalie Braden Holtby and crawled over the goal line before either John Carlson or Karl Alzner could sweep it out of the paint. Thomas and Holtby would keep their nets clean thereafter, Holtby finishing regulation stopping 31 of 32 shots and Thomas turning away 24 of 25 shots. 

For the Caps it meant facing their fourth Game 7 overtime in club history.  They lost their first, a four-overtime defeat at the hands of the New York Islanders in the 1987 “Easter Epic.”  In 1988 the Caps evened their record in series-clinching Game 7 overtime wins, Dale Hunter breaking in alone on Philadelphia Flyer goalie Ron Hextall to score the game-winner in a 5-4 overtime win.  The Flyers returned the favor in 1988, Joffrey Lupul scoring a power play goal six minutes into overtime in Game 7 to eliminate the Caps.

This was the Caps’ first Game 7 overtime on the road, and prevailing over the defending NHL champion would be no easy task.  The extra session opened with the clubs doing some early feeling out, Boston recording one shot on goal in the first two minutes, as did the Caps.  Then, with 2:48 gone in the period, the Bruins tried to get a line change.  Benoit Pouliot circled through the neutral zone until he found himself with the puck in front of the Bruins’ bench.  He fired the puck in to gain time to complete the line change, but the puck struck Mike Knuble in the shin pads and rebounded back into the neutral zone.  Knuble took advantage of the confusion at the Bruins’ bench to jump on the puck and head up ice with Ward on his right, Greg Zanon back for the Bruins and Pouilot trying to run down Knuble.  As Knuble closed on the net, Ward curled to his left and crossed behind Knuble, just as the latter was trying to finish the play on goalie Tim Thomas.  The puck was blocked but Ward was in perfect position for the rebound.  With Knuble and a pair of Bruins churning the water in front of Thomas, Ward backhanded the puck through and into the back of the net, sending the Caps into a celebration on the ice and a second round matchup against the New York Rangers.

For Ward it was his tenth career playoff goal in his 25^th career playoff game and his second game winner.  If you count the first 60 minutes of hockey in Game 7 as a complete hockey game, the goal broke a 20-game streak for Ward without one dating back to the February 24^th game against Montreal.  But the goal was consistent with Ward’s 2011-2012 profile in one respect.  He had only six goals in the regular season, yes, but four of them were third period tallies.  And while he had only those six regular season goals, it was the postseason record Ward assembled in Nashville that made him a target of the Caps in free agency.  Here, in what could have been the season’s final game for the Caps, Ward made good on that investment made by the Caps in the previous summer.  It made for one of the most memorable goals in the history of the Washington Capitals’ franchise.

Photo: Greg M. Cooper/US Presswire

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Photo: Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images

Washington Capitals -- 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