Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Bruins at Capitals, March 29th

The ninth of our ten games that mattered to the Washington Capitals in the 2013-2014 season was the end of a brutal stretch of the schedule in which the Caps would play 11 of 13 games against teams that would qualify for the 2014 playoffs.  With the Capitals among four teams tied with 80 points occupying the 7th through 10th places in the conference, it was time to treat these games like playoff games.  Who better to do it against than a team steamrolling its way into the playoffs?  

March 29, 2014: Boston (50-17-6) at Washington (34-27-12)

Result: Bruins 4 – Capitals 2

The Background:  When the sun came up on March 29^th the Capitals were in eighth place in the Eastern Conference holding the last ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Holding on to that reservation on this day would be a formidable task.  For the third time in four weeks the Caps faced off against the Boston Bruins.  This would be the rubber match of that series, the Caps winning on March 1^st and the Bruins winning on March 6^th.  Washington came into this game having played in three consecutive Gimmicks, two losses to the Los Angeles Kings wrapped around a win in San Jose against the Sharks.  Boston was coming off their 50^th win of the season, a 3-0 shutout of the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks.  Since the Bruins lost to the Caps on March 1^st they were 13-0-1 heading into this contest.

Why It Mattered: One might have thought that the Caps caught a break when Boston head coach Claude Julien called on backup goaltender Chad Johnson to face the Caps.  Trouble was, Johnson had not lost a game in regulation in more than three months dating back to a 4-3 loss against the Ottawa Senators on December 28^th when he allowed the winning goal in relief of starter Tuukka Rask.  Since then he was 10-0-1, 1.82, .934, with two shutouts in 13 appearances.

At the other end, Braden Holtby went into this game with a career record against the Bruins of 4-1-0, 2.13, .940.  This had the potential to be a goaltenders’ game.  It started that way, too.  Neither team found the back of the net in the first period, Johnson turning aside nine Washington shots, while Holtby stopped 15 Bruins’ shots.

Holtby cracked first, though, 2:48 into the second period.  The Bruins caught the Caps being out of position at the end of a Washington power play.  A slashing penalty to Carl Soderberg had just expired when David Krejci chopped the puck out of the Boston zone to center ice.  Karl Alzner could not settled the puck at the players’ bench, and the puck bounced onto the stick of Soderberg.  When Alzner’s partner John Carlson slid over to cover, Soderberg fed Jarome Iginla ceuising down the middle.  With Alzner and Carlson trapped on the same side of the ice, Iginla had a break.  Tom Wilson could not close the distance in time on the back check, and Iginla snapped the puck low over Holtby’s right pad to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Soderberg got one of his own just under five minutes later on a power play when he redirected a Patrice Bergeron shot through Holtby’s pads.  Less than a minute after that it was Iginla once more.  It was Johnny Boychuk sending the puck up ice this time, trying to find Krejci in front of the Boston bench.  Krejci, who was tied up with John Erskine, managed to get a stick on the puck giving Iginla a chance to move it along.  Iginla fired a shot from the right wing faceoff dot that Holtby stopped, but Iginla followed up his own shot.  With Milan Lucic’ presence at the top of the crease preventing Holtby from diving on the loose puck in front of him, Iginla retrieved it and slipped it through Holtby’s pads to make it 3-0.  It was his 30^th goal of the season making it 12 seasons he reached that mark and only the 12^th player in the last 30 years to hit 30 goals having reached 36 year of age or older.

The Caps were not entirely out of it, though.  Late in the period Washington was cruising through the neutral zone in numbers.  Mike Green was skating on his off wing when he crossed the Boston blue line.  Boston looked to have the play covered, though.  Brad Marchand cut off Green’s angle down the wall, and Jason Chimera, who was filling in the middle, looked to be covered by Johnny Boychuk.  Green sent a pass to Chimera nonetheless, but it was Boychuk’s stick that redirected the puck into Johnson’s pads.  The goalie could not secure the puck, though, and it was loose just long enough for Chimera to nudge it the last few feet to make it 3-1 with ten seconds left in the period.

The Caps could get no closer in the third period.  Patrice Bergeron restored the Bruins’ three-goal lead 13 minutes into the period when he cleaned up an unsuccessful Carl Soderberg attempt off a rebound from a shot by Dougie Hamilton.  That pretty much ended the competitive portion of the game.  Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on a severely angled shot with 55 seconds left, but it was not enough as the Bruins skated off with a 4-2 win.

The Takeaway:  The Caps started the day in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, holding one of the eight post-season slots available.  At the end of the day the Caps were in 10^th place and would not find themselves in the top eight again for the rest of the season.  For one Capital it might have been especially frustrating.  Alex Ovechkin went his 14^th straight game without an even strength goal, a streak that would eventually reach 16 games.  And, in none of those 16 games was Ovechkin on the plus side of the ledger (minus-19 overall).

It was Ovechkin who captured this game and perhaps the season in the post-game...

"It seems like we [were] afraid to do something out there, afraid to create the play and we give them easy chances.  It's details. We knew they [are a] physical team but we have to take a hit and make a play. You can see we [were] not [a] desperate team in the first two periods. We can't play like that."

Too often this season, it seemed, the Caps played like that.

In the end… 

This would be the last game that Washington played against an Eastern Conference playoff team while the Caps were still in the race for a spot.  In those 28 games the Caps compiled a record of 13-13-2.  Four of the wins came via the Gimmick, as did one of the extra time losses.  The Caps found especially difficult sledding late.  In the 2014 portion of the season they went just 4-9-2 against those eight teams, and with the loss to Boston lost their last six contests against those playoff teams (0-5-1).

This game put a period on an uncomfortable truth about this team this season.  It was not luck, it was not injury, it was not sunspots that kept the Caps out of the playoffs.  They just were not good enough.  And that’s why this game mattered.

Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images North America

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Capitals at Sharks, March 22nd

Game eight on our journey through the games that mattered in the Washington Capitals’ 2013-2014 season takes us to the other side of the continent, to a place where momentum went to die – often – if you were a Washington Capital.

March 22, 2014: Washington (33-27-11) at San Jose (46-18-7)

Result: Capitals 3 – Sharks 2 (OT/SO)

The Background: If the Greek mythology figure Sisyphus had been a hockey fan, he would recognize the relationship between the Capitals and San Jose, California. Just like poor Sisyphus rolling that boulder up the hill, only to watch it roll back down every time, the Capitals flew to San Jose 12 times since winning there in October 1993, and 12 times they returned to D.C. without a win (0-11-1). All in all, it was 7,447 days that the Caps went without a win in San Jose. Getting one on the 7,448th day was not looking too promising, what with the Sharks having gone 12-3-1 since February 1st heading into their match with the Caps.

Why It Mattered: The teams spent the first three minutes feeling each other out, the Capitals recording the only shot on goal. The pace quickened shortly thereafter, though, with rapid bursts – four shots by the Caps in a 56 second span, three by San Jose in a 38 second span. And that was before the game was nine minutes old.

Both goalies held firm, but it would be Holtby’s sturdiness that was rewarded at the other end of the rink in the 12th minute of the period, thanks to some hard work and a nod from the hockey gods. Logan Couture tried to skate the puck out of harm’s way in the Sharks’ end but had the puck poked off his stick by Eric Fehr. Jason Chimera beat Couture to the loose puck and skated it below the San Jose goal line to the left of goalie Antti Niemi. Chimera fed the puck back out to the right wing circle for Fehr, and that’s when the hilarity started (well, it was funny to Caps fans).

Fehr leaned into a shot from the right wing faceoff dot that Niemi blocked with his right pad. However, the rebound was left in the low slot. Sharks defenseman Justin Braun got to the puck and tried to shoot it out of danger toward the left point and off the wall. What he did not count on was teammate Matt Nieto skating into the path Braun chose. Braun’s clearing attempt hit Nieto in the right leg and caromed toward the open net. If that wasn’t enough, it appeared that Braun nudged it further on its way as it was sailing through the air, essentially backhanding the puck into his own net. The gift was hardly compensation for all the grief the Caps took in this arena over the years, but it was accepted nonetheless.

This being a Caps game in San Jose, though, things could not go right forever. With just 15 seconds left in the period. Nieto and the Caps’ Jack Hillen were dueling over a puck bouncing toward the Caps’ blue line. Nieto spiked it into the corner to Holtby’s right where Mike Green recovered it. Green tried to spin and backhand the puck along the back wall to Hillen, but Nieto intercepted the weak pass. After circling from around the cage from Holtby’s left, Nieto took two whacks at the puck. Neither got past Holtby, but Holtby could not cover either attempt. The puck squirted out to Holtby’s right where Patrick Marleau banged it home with just 5.6 seconds left in the period.

After a scoreless middle frame it was San Jose’s turn to score first in a period. It started when Jason Chimera tried a shot from the right point. His attempt hit the shin pads of James Sheppard and rebounded out into the neutral zone. Sheppard jumped on the loose puck in the neutral zone and was off on a breakaway. Sheppard drew Holtby out to cover what looked to be a backhand attempt, but it was a fake. Sheppard slid the puck between Holtby’s pads along the ice, and the Sharks had a 2-1 lead five minutes into the period.

Any other time, that would have been it for the Caps in this building. But the Caps got a life from a most unexpected source. Tom Wilson started the play skating down the right wing and into the San Jose zone. Scott Hannan stood Wilson up just inside the blue line, but not before Wilson sent the puck in deep along the wall. Both men went for the puck behind the Sharks’ net, and Wilson annoyed Hannan enough for him to lose control of the puck to Dustin Penner. From behind the net to Niemi’s right, Penner sent the puck out to Chris Brown at the inside edge of the left wing circle. Brown’s shot pinballed off both Nieto and Dan Boyle before settling behind Niemi for the goal to tie the game 12:30 into the third period.

That would be all the scoring in the hockey portion of the game. After Logan Couture was denied in the first round of the Gimmick, Evgeny Kunzetsov got the Caps off to a good start in their half of the round with a laser of a snap shot over Niemi’s right pad. Holtby made that goal stand up with a save on Joe Pavelski in round two, but he was beaten by Marleau in the top of the third round. That left it up to Nicklas Backstrom in the bottom of round three. After an achingly slow walk up to the Sharks’ net, Backstrom deked Niemi to the ice and flicked a backhand past the goalie’s outstretched glove and the Caps had something they had not experienced in more than 20 years.

A win in San Jose.

The Takeaway: The win in San Jose was thrilling enough, but it capped what was the most successful California trip in team history. With a win over Anaheim and a trick shot loss to the Los Angeles Kings, the Caps went 2-0-1 on this trip. Never had the Caps won as many as five of six possible standings points on a three-game trip to California. It was an especially noteworthy achievement coming near the end of a brutal March schedule that had the Caps playing 11 games against what would be playoff teams out of 14 contests over a span of 28 days. Further, the Caps were doing it with defense and goaltending. On the three game California trip the Caps allowed only five goals, part of a stretch in which they allowed only 17 goals in eight games.

In the end…

The “Death March” of a schedule in March saw the Caps finish 6-5-4.  It was not a bad record given the quality of competition the team faced.  The California trip, which loomed so large and inspired much trepidation in Capitals Nation, turned out to be the highlight of the month.  But even with that there was a catch.  The San Jose win was followed by five straight losses (0-3-2) that effectively put an end to the Capitals’ playoff hopes.  But in this moment, slaying the monster that was a 20-year losing streak, beating the San Jose Sharks mattered.

Photo: Don Smith/NHLI via Getty Images

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Capitals at Penguins, March 11th

As long as Alex Ovechkin skates for the Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby skates for the Pittsburgh Penguins, games between these teams will matter. However, one game in the 2013-2014 series meant more than the others. It is to that game we turn in the seventh game that mattered this season.

March 11, 2014: Washington (30-26-10) at Pittsburgh (43-17-4)

Result: Penguins 2 – Capitals 0

The Background: When the Capitals beat the Phoenix Coyotes on March 8th in what was goaltender Jaroslav Halak’s debut with the club, the Caps found themselves within one point of Detroit for eighth place in the Eastern Conference and two behind the New York Rangers for seventh place. If they could complete a successful back-to-back home-and-home set with the Pittsburgh Penguins, it would mean a three-game winning streak that might give the club momentum for a late season push to the playoffs. When the Caps lost at home in the first half of the set, it set up an important rematch in Pittsburgh the following night, not only for the Caps to keep contact with the teams in front of them in the standings, but to get a win against an arch rival they had yet to defeat in three tries this season.

Why It Mattered: In the first 16 minutes and change of the game there were more hits recorded (18) than shots on goal (11). Worse for the Caps, the Pens had nine of those shots on goal. Then, instead of merely being dominated, the Caps went all stupid. It started at the 16:26 mark when Dmitry Orlov collected a loose puck in the corner to goalie Jaroslav Halak’s left and threw it up ice to no one in particular. Evgeni Malkin stopped it with his skate, circled around Orlov, and made a beeline for the cage. But for a quick thinking Nicklas Backstrom, who hustled back on defense, Malkin would have had an easy set up to Taylor Pyatt all alone in the slot. Backstrom got his stick on the pass, though, and the puck skidded off to the left wing wall.

The Caps could not get the puck out of their end though, Pyatt beating Backstrom to the loose puck along the wall and nudging it back to the point where Rob Scuderi kept it in. Scuderi tried to bang the puck back down the wall, but it was deflected to the middle and onto Orlov’s stick once more. Orlov tried to move the puck up to Marcus Johansson, but there was Malkin and his skate again to stop the puck before it reached its intended target. Malkin skated down the right wing wall, turned and fed the puck back to Matt Niskanen at the right point. Niskanen sent a shot to the net that was dulled just enough by the stick of Jussi Jokinen to upset Halak’s timing on his save attempt. The puck slid through Halak’s pads and in, giving the Pens a 1-0 lead on their tenth shot of the period.

That is the way it remained for the next 37 minutes. Then, with the clock ticking under six minutes to play, Orlov was victimized one more time. This time he gloved a puck down at the left point in the Penguins’ end, but could not collect it and send it back down the wall before Lee Stempniak stepped up on him. They collided, and as they were getting untangled from each other, Sidney Crosby jumped on the loose puck and took off on a 2-on-1 break with Chris Kunitz, only Connor Carrick back on defense for the Caps. Crosby held the puck as he skated down the right side, then called his own number an instant before Carrick could poke the puck off his stick, sending a wrist shot under Halak’s right arm and into the far side of the net for a 2-0 Pittsburgh lead.

The Caps would muster some pressure in the next 5:48, putting seven of their 20 shots of the period on goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. None of them found the back of the net, though, and the Caps skated off with their second loss in two nights to the Penguins.

The Takeaway: It was the fourth loss in four games to the Penguins in the 2013-2014 season and the Caps eighth straight loss to Pittsburgh overall. For Adam Oates it would be the last game he coached against the Penguins for the Capitals, contributing a record of 0-7-0 to that eight-game losing streak. He became the first coach to complete his tenure without having beaten Pittsburgh since Roger Crozier failed to do it. We should mention that Crozier coached the Caps for only one game, a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers on November 7, 1981.

For the Caps it was their fifth loss in six games (1-4-1) and the second time they were shut out in a span of four games. Only four teams – Nashville, New Jersey, Edmonton, and Buffalo – would be shut out more often than the Caps, who were blanked eight times in 2013-2014. In this one the big guns were all but silent. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green combined for three of the Caps’ 32 shots on goal. Meanwhile, Jason Chimera (6) and Jack Hillen (5) accounted for more than a third of the total shots. On the other hand, the Penguins got shots from the players from whom they wanted them. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, and Matt Niskanen (assuming a bigger power play role in the absence of Kris Letang, who was recuperating from a stroke) combined for 15 of the Penguins’ 34 shots on goal. It spoke to a fine effort by the Caps’ new goalie, Jaroslav Halak.

In the end…

The Capitals-Penguins regular season rivalry has always been punctuated by streakiness. The Caps owned the series in the 1980’s. The Penguins dominated in the 1990s and early 2000’s. The Caps had a run in the Bruce Boudreau era. Now, the Penguins are on top. But really, no wins in eight tries, just one standings point earned in an overtime loss, and getting outscored by 30-14 in the process? The current streak ties the series’ longest winless streak for the Caps dating back from November 28, 1992 through November 26, 1993 (0-6-2). The Caps still own the longest winning streak in the series with Pittsburgh, nine games from December 2, 1984 through November 20, 1985, but to give you an idea of how long ago that is, the end of the streak came in Adam Oates’ rookie season as a player in the NHL.

It was the end of a gruesome 24 hours for the Caps against arguably their most hated rival. All games against the Pittsburgh Penguins matter in Capitals Nation, but the manner in which this one slammed home the point that one team was superior, and it was not the Caps, made this one matter a little bit more.

Photo: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images North America

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Capitals at Canadiens, January 25th

The sixth game that mattered in the Washington Capitals’ 2013-2014 season pitted two slumping teams against one another.  So who would be the game’s pivotal player?  One in a slump, of course.

January 25, 2014: Washington (22-21-8) at Montreal (27-19-5)

Result: Capitals 5 – Canadiens 0

The Background:  When the Capitals visited Montreal on January 25^th, they were taking on a team spinning its wheels in the mud.  Montreal was 4-6-2 in their previous dozen games and in the midst of a three-game losing streak.  That looked like a hot streak compared to the Caps, though.  Washington went into their contest with the Canadiens on a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2), their longest of the season to date and the longest since losing eight in a row in December 2010.  The resistible force was meeting the moveable force.  The question was, which team was which?

Why It Mattered:  As befits two slumping teams, the first period passed without a red light having been lit.  Not that it passed without excitement.  Montreal outshot the Caps by a 12-3 margin and out-Fenwicked the Caps by a 17-4 margin.  That’s called weathering the storm if you look at it from the Capitals’ perspective.

From the Canadiens’ perspective it was an opportunity squandered, and they paid a price for that in the second period.  The Canadiens put a down payment on that price late in the first period when Lars Eller was docked four minutes for a high-sticking double minor.  The Caps’ Nicklas Backstrom has a coincidental single minor for high sticking that knocked two minutes off the power play, but the Caps still had those two minutes to work with. 

As that man advantage was expiring early in the second period, the Caps worked the puck around the perimeter from Martin Erat on the right wing wall (in Backstrom’s place) to John Carlson at the top of the offensive zone.  Carlson snapped a long shot toward the Montreal net that was deadened by Jason Chimera at the top of the crease.  Chimera got two whacks at the puck, but goalie Carey Price turned both away.  On the second save the puck popped out to Price’s right where Alex Ovechkin was camped.  Ovechkin juggled the puck on his stick at the goal line then swatted it out of mid-air, off Price, and in to give the Caps a 1-0 lead just as the power play expired.

That goal unleashed the deluge and from the least likely of sources.  Just 79 seconds after the Ovechkin goal Washington would score again.  It started when Carlson wired a pass from the defensive zone in the direction of Troy Brouwer on the far side of the red line.  Brouwer was backing up and almost had the puck slide by, but he managed to get his stick on it where Erat picked it up with speed heading into the Montreal end.  Erat stopped at the right wing boards and let the noise clear out, then found John Erskine coming late.  Erskine shoveled an innocent looking attempt at the net that slid slowly along the ice.  Price was apparently anticipating a redirect attempt from Brooks Laich in the low slot, but Laich did not get his stick on the puck.  It slid though Price’s pads for what was a spectacularly ugly goal and a 2-0 lead for the Caps.

Barely three minutes later it was time for the fourth line to shine.  It started with Montreal’s P.K. Subban moving the puck up the wall to Brendan Gallagher, who lost the puck to Tom Wilson at the blue line.  Wilson threw the puck deep where Brooks Laich collected it.  Laich circled out and fanned on a shot attempt but regained control of the puck.  He left it for Mike Green, who sent a pass to Wilson in the left wing circle.  By this time the Canadiens were hopelessly running around in their own end and managed to lose Jay Beagle on the right side.  Wilson found him.  Beagle took the pass, stepped out, and backhanded the puck into an open net to put the Caps up 3-0.

If that wasn’t weird enough, things took a turn for the bizarre mid-way through the period.  At the Capitals’ end of the ice John Carlson circled out from behind the net with the puck.  Montreal’s Brandon Prust tried to cut Carlson off, but he was upended, it appeared, by a hook from Joel Ward.  The referee did not see it that way.  His arm went up, but to signal a delayed penalty coming to Prust for embellishment.  Play continued.  The Caps hustled the puck up ice into the zone where it ended up on Carlson’s stick.  As on the Caps’ first goal, Carlson threw the puck at the net from the top of the Montreal zone.  This time, though, it made it all the way through, sailing over Price’s glove to give the Caps a 4-0 lead and end Price’s night.  Oh, Prust’s night was over, too.  He received unsportsmanlike conduct, misconduct, and game misconduct penalties for his effort at performance art.  Add that to his five-minute major for dropping the gloves with Tom Wilson not two minutes into the game, and it was a full night for Mr. Prust.

Casey Wellman put the cherry on top of the sundae when he converted a pass from Ovechkin on a 2-on-1 break mid-way through the third period for his first goal as a Capital.  At the other end, Braden Holtby was putting the finishing touches on a 21-save shutout, his first shutout since blanking the Flyers in Philadelphia, 7-0, back on November 1^st.

The Takeaway:  What the Caps got in this game was something missing too often – a 20-man effort.  The five goals were scored by five different players.  Thirteen different Caps registered points.  Fifteen Caps finished on the plus side of the plus/minus ledger (parenthetically, Alex Ovechkin had his best plus/minus of the year, plus-3).  It was the first time the Caps recorded five even strength goals in a game since the 7-0 win over Philadelphia in November (they would do it three times in 2013-2014, the last time at Carolina on April 10^th, all three times on the road).

Most important from a larger perspective might have been the performance of Braden Holtby.  It was his first win in goal in seven weeks.  In seven appearances since beating Nashville on December 7^th, Holtby was 0-3-1, 4.20, .854.  Starting with this win Holtby would finish the season 10-3-2, 2.70, .920, with three shutouts in 17 appearances.

In the end…

The Caps stopped the bleeding of their seven-game losing streak and including this win would finish the season with a 16-9-6 record over the remaining schedule (a 101-point pace).  The damage to the season had been done, though.  The Caps would need a sustained winning streak over their last 30 games but would not get it.  Four straight would be the best that they could manage, twice.  What they provided, however, was a glimpse at what was possible with this group of players against a very good team, if struggling at the time.  And, they might have rediscovered the goaltender they thought they had when the season started, even if – given the trade for Jaroslav Halak six weeks later – they did not know it at the time.  That is why this game mattered.

Photo: Francois Lacasse/NHLI via Getty Images

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Sabres at Capitals, January 12th

The fifth game in our look back at games that mattered in the Washington Capitals’ 2013-2014 season provides an illustration of one reason the Capitals struggled so much to build momentum over the course of the season, an inability to win low scoring games.

January 12, 2014: Buffalo (12-26-5) at Washington (22-16-6)

Result: Sabres 2 – Capitals 1 (OT/SO)

Background:  When the Buffalo Sabres came to town on January 12^th, they were a team made to order for the Capitals.  The Capitals were in the midst of gaining momentum after enduring a four game losing streak that spilled over from the end of 2013 into the start of the new calendar year, winning consecutive games over the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Toronto Maple Leafs before the Sabres came to town. 

On the other hand, the Sabres came to Verizon Center not having won a road game in more than two months.  Since earning a 5-4 Gimmick win in San Jose on November 5^th the Sabres were 0-9-2 away from First Niagara Center as they descended on D.C.

What could go wrong?

Why It Mattered:  The last time these clubs met, in the penultimate game of the 2013 portion of the season, the Capitals had a devil of a time trying to solve Sabres' goaltender Ryan Miller.  They did not do so until the third period when a Troy Brouwer goal tied the game.  It would be the only puck the Caps put behind Miller all night, including six rounds of a shootout in a 2-1 Buffalo win.

The Caps found home ice more to their liking in their rematch against Miller, at least early. Mid-way through the first period Washington scored on a bit of a fluke play.  It started when Joel Ward laid off the puck to Jason Chimera at the Buffalo blue line.  Chimera skated the puck down the wall to the far edge of the left wing circle and wristed a pass toward Marcus Johansson heading to the far post.  The puck never got to Johansson, though.  Brian Flynn was backchecking on the play for the Sabres and had inside position on Johansson.  He tried to interrupt the pass by extending his stick into the path of the puck, but the result was to redirect the biscuit over Miller’s right pad and in, giving the Caps a 1-0 lead.

Once more, however, it would be the only puck the Caps would be able to put behind Miller.  That meant that for the Caps to win, they would have to find a way to keep the Sabres off the scoreboard unless they wanted to put their faith in trick shots again.

They did not. 

In their December 29^th meeting, Buffalo scored their lone goal with less than two minutes remaining in the second period.  On this night they would score their lone goal with less than two minutes remaining in the first period.  With the Sabres on a power play they gained the offensive zone with speed as the clock ticked under two minutes to play in the opening frame.  Cody Hodgson backed off the Capital defense and slid the puck to Matt Moulson on the left wing at the Capitals’ blue line.  Moulson sent the puck across to Christian Ehrhoff who, from along the right wing wall, fired the puck to the Washington net.  The shot was hung up in the skates of Hodgson, who charged the net.  The puck squirted out to the low slot where Tyler Ennis was all alone to put the puck past goalie Philipp Grubauer.

The irony of the sequence was that when it started in the Capitals zone with Hodgson carrying the puck out, Ennis and Joel Ward got tangled up with both tumbling to the ice behind the play.  Ennis popped up and beat Ward down the ice to put himself in a position to pounce on the loose puck.  The Caps just did not have enough men to cover as much space as there was for Ennis to find an opening.

That would be all the Sabres could manage against Grubauer, who held the Sabres to a single goal in the hockey portion of the December 29^th contest as well.  So, in a replay of that December 29^th game, the teams went to the freestyle competition.  Miller turned an attempt by Eric Fehr aside.  Grubauer blockered away a Matt Moulson attempt.  Alex Ovechkin deked Miller to the ice but could not lift the puck over Miller’s left pad.  Linus Omark tried to distract Grubauer with a kick step as he approached, but Grubauer smothered his shot.  When Nicklas Backstrom failed at the top of the third round, it was up to Cody Hodgson for Buffalo.  When Hodgson snapped the puck over Grubauer’s glove and in, the Sabres had their second straight 2-1 trick shot win over the Caps in two weeks.

The Takeaway:  With this loss the Caps had a record of 3-13-4 in games in which they scored two or fewer goals in the hockey portion of games.  All of their wins were officially recorded as 3-2 wins earned in the Gimmick.  They would finish the season 4-25-7 in 36 games in which they scored two or fewer goals in regulation or overtime, all four wins coming in the après-party phase of those contests.

The more immediate problem was that this loss was the first in what would be a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2), the Caps’ longest since the eight-game winless skid chronicled by HBO in the run-up to the 2011 Winter Classic.  Buffalo had a strange effect on the Caps in this season.  There was the streak following this loss, and the Gimmick loss to the Sabres on December 29^th was the first in what would be a four-game winless streak (0-2-2).  Not even beating the Sabres seemed to work; the Caps beat them, 5-4 in overtime, on January 28^th then lost their next two games.  If the Caps never had to play the Sabres, they might have avoided 13 losses (0-8-5 in games following those played against the Sabres).

All joking aside, the Caps’ inability to win low scoring games reflected the lack of having goalies steal games when scoring was at a premium.  Grubauer could hardly be faulted for this loss or the one on December 29^th.  He stopped 46 of 48 shots in those two games, a .958 save percentage, and only allowed the two game-deciding trick shot tallies.  However, it remained that Capitals goalies were just not quite good enough to ever find themselves on the good side of those low-scoring affairs. 

In the end…

If it was these sorts of games that George McPhee had in mind when he claimed in early February that better goaltending would have meant ten more standings points, it would be a high bar for goalies anywhere to clear.  Still, going winless in 36 such low scoring games, save for the Bettman Miracle, played at least a part in the Caps’ failure to reach the post-season for a seventh consecutive year.

There is another issue here.  The Caps were 1-0-2 against the Sabres in 2013-2014.  Overall they were 19-10-8 against teams not qualifying for the playoffs.  While that might look, at first glance, like a good record (it is a 102-point pace over 82 games), it is hardly dominating over the also-rans of the league.  It is in no small part a reason why the Caps were also-rans themselves. 

There was, however, one far more important more reason why this game mattered.  It was an opportunity to grant a wish over a weekend to a tough guy in the best sense of the term… 

 Grubauer Photo: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Lightning at Capitals, December 10th

We are up to the fourth game in our look back at games that mattered in the Washington Capitals’ 2013-2014 season, and this one was a virtuoso performance by one from whom such performances are too often taken for granted or set aside in favor of less flattering portrayals.  However, this being hockey, it is never on one player alone, for good or for bad.

December 10, 2013: Tampa Bay (17-10-2) at Washington (16-12-2)

Result: Capitals 6 – Lightning 5 (OT/SO)

The Background:  Goal scorers are streaky, even one as prolific over the course of his career as Alex Ovechkin.  However, he came out of the gate fast in 2013-2014.  He had ten goals in his first ten games and ten more over his next 12 games.  But then the inevitable cold streak hit.  Ovechkin had two goals over his next six games (“cold” being a relative term) leading up to a December 10 matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning.  What’s more, his running mate, Nicklas Backstrom, had only three points in his previous nine games leading up to this contest, the Caps spinning their wheels with a 4-4-1 record over those nine games.

Why it Mattered:  For 14 seasons the Capitals and the Lightning dueled in the Southeast Division and for five seasons before that as members of the Atlantic Division, the Caps holding a 68-29-5-6 regular season record against the Bolts as divisional rivals.  Realignment would separate them in the 2013-2014 season and make their meetings less frequent.  December 10^th would be the first meeting of the clubs of the 2013-2014 season.

One thing the Caps had been able to do in recent games leading up to this one was hold down opponents’ scoring.  In their previous five games Washington allowed opponents a total of only 11 goals, going 4-1-0 in the process. Braden Holtby was the goaltender of record in four of the five games (3-1-0, 2.64, .926).  However, he lasted barely 11 minutes in this game.

Tampa Bay started quickly with six shot attempts (three on goal) to none for the Caps barely two minutes into the contest.  The lightning scored on their fourth shot just 2:26 in when Martin St. Louis took a feed from Sami Salo along the right wing wall, circled out around the faceoff circle, and flung a dart past Holtby through a maze of players in front to score on a power play and give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.

Tampa added to the Caps’ woes with goals just 18 seconds apart mid-way through the first period, the first coming on a Nikita Kucherov power play goal from the high slot on a one-timer, the second coming when Nate Thompson finished a two-on-one rush by converting a feed from J.T. Brown.  That goal would end Holtby’s evening in favor of Philipp Grubauer.

The Caps got one back before the first intermission by displaying some rapid fire skills of a different sort.  At 14:14 of the period Thompson and Nicklas Backstrom leaned in to take a faceoff to the left of goalie Ben Bishop.  Backstrom won the faceoff cleanly back to Alex Ovechkin who one timed a rocket past goalie Ben Bishop’s blocker on the far side.  Time of the goal: 14:15.

The Caps and Lightning exchanged goals in the second period to make it 4-2, which might have suited the Lightning just fine.  What did not suit them fine was Richard Panik taking a major penalty for boarding Karl Alzner with just 3:29 left in the period.  Ovechkin made the Lightning pay just seven seconds into the power play when he converted a back-door feed from Marcus Johansson.  Just 2:10 later Ovechkin charged interest on the payment when he completed the hat trick with a one-time shot from the left wing circle off a feed from Mike Green.

The teams carried the 4-4 tie into the third period, but Tampa Bay regained the lead in the ninth minute of the period on an Ondrej Palat goal.  It looked as if that might be enough when the Caps pulled Grubauer for an extra attacker with 1:28 left.  It looked more frustrating for the Caps when they could not manage a shot on goal for almost a minute despite having the man advantage.  But with the clock approaching the last 30 seconds of regulation the Caps worked the puck around the offensive zone, from Nicklas Backstrom in the right wing corner to John Carlson at the right point, then across to Ovechkin at the top of the left wing circle.  Ovechkin’s one-timer off Carlson’s feed eluded Bishop on the short side and tied the game at 5-5 with just 32.4 seconds left, his fourth goal of the game.

The rest might have seemed anticlimactic, but after a scoreless overtime the teams went to the Gimmick where they were tied through the first three rounds.  In the fourth round the teams exchanged goals, bringing the competition to a fifth round.  There, Troy Brouwer roofed a shot over Bishop’s glove, and it was up to Grubauer to clinch the deal.  He did, turning away an Ondrej Palat shot, and the Caps had a 6-5 win.

The Takeaway:  For Alex Ovechkin it was the third time in his career he scored four goals in a game and the first time he accomplished the feat since torching Montreal for four goals in a 5-4 overtime win over Montreal on January 31, 2008.  For Nicklas Backstrom, who had a goal and four assists, it was his fourth career five-point game and his first since recording the game-winning goal and four assists in a 6-5 win over the New York Rangers on February 4, 2010.  However, Ovechkin and Backstrom were on ice for two Lightning goals, and both players recorded only one point apiece at 5-on-5.  Both players finished the night “even.”

In the end…

A theme was being written in bold print by this point of the Capitals’ season, and it was all on display in this game:

• Falling into a hole early: This was the sixth time in 31 games that the Caps found themselves behind by two or more goals in the first period.
• Losing the even strength portion of the contest: Tampa Bay outscored the Caps, 3-1, at 5-on-5.
• Depending too much on the power play: The Caps were 3-for-5 with the man advantage, lifting them to 24.4 percent in power play efficiency to that point of the season and their 29 power play goals to that point representing almost a third of their total production (31.9 percent).
• Depending too much on Ovechkin and Backstrom: Ovechkin or Backstrom either scored or assisted on all five goals.  The rest of the team combined for five assists.

The Caps had the skill to win games like this on occasion, but it was not a formula for sustained success as their 17-12-2 record after this game suggested.  This game was not unlike those against Calgary or Detroit among those that mattered this year, making one wonder what it was about this game that mattered.  It was this – getting virtuoso performances from Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom was nice, but when you get career-high tying performance from your two top players and manage only to eke out a trick shot win, you are a team with issues.  That is why this game mattered.

Photo: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Capitals at Red Wings, November 15th

In Game 3 of the ten games that mattered for the Washington Capitals this season they kicked off a new rivalry with an old opponent.  In doing so, some familiar early season trends were being further established for both clubs.

November 15, 2013: Washington (9-8-1) at Detroit (9-5-5)

Result: Capitals 4 – Red Wings 3 (OT/SO)

The Background:  Until the realignment for the 2013-2014 season that put the Washington Capitals and the Detroit Red Wings in the same conference, the two clubs had not occupied the same conference since the Red Wings and Caps were part of the Norris Division of the Prince of Wales Conference in 1978-1979.  How long ago was that? Only four members of the Red Wings who dressed for this game had been born when that took place and none of the current Capitals.  In the intervening 33 seasons the teams met just 69 times, the Caps holding a slight 30-28-9-2 edge (oh yeah, there was that Stanley Cup finals thing, too). 

Moving to the present, the Caps went into this game on a 5-1-1 run to start November, although three of those five wins came in extra time.  The Red Wings went into the contest having lost four in a row, the last three of them in extra time.  They also found themselves curiously unable to win games at home with any regularity, sporting a record of 3-2-5 (0-1-5 in their last six home games) as they took to the ice at Joe Louis Arena. 

Why it Mattered:  When visiting an opponent that struggles on their own rink, it is good to score first and disabuse them of any notion that this game will right the wrongs and end the agony.  It took a while, but the Caps did just that, taking advantage of some dodgy Red Wings efforts.  The play started when defenseman Danny DeKeyser tried to hit Justin Abdelkader at along the wall at the Caps’ blue line.  Steve Oleksy blocked the attempt, then threaded the puck past DeKeyser to Brooks Laich at the Detroit blue line.  Laich sped down the right side with the Wings’ Johan Franzen and Kyle Quincey in pursuit to try to cut Laich off from the net.  Both Red Wings tried to poke the puck off Laich’s stick, but Laich managed to get a shot on goalie Jimmy Howard that might or might not have been deflected by either Franzen or Quincey’s stick.  The puck hit Howard in the winged wheel logo of his jersey but popped up into the air before he could pin it to his chest with his glove.  Neither Franzen nor Quincey bothered to take Laich out of the play after the original shot, and Laich took advantage of that lapse to take a second swipe at the puck as it dropped to the ice.  The second time was the charm as Laich backhanded the puck past Howard’s left pad and in to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.

The Caps could not hold that lead as far as the first intermission.  Detroit came back with goals 2:18 apart late in the second period, the first on a power play on a low angle shot by Franzen from the left wing circle that beat goalie Braden Holtby over his right shoulder and off the near post.  Franzen got the second one, too, when from the right wing corner he fed the puck to Tomas Tatar behind the Caps net, then circled out and all the way around to the goal line extended to Holtby’s right.  He took a return feed from Tatar in stride and snapped a shot that Holtby got a piece of with his right pad.  It was not enough, though, merely deflecting the puck up and into the back of the net to give Detroit a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.

The second period was relatively quiet until Tom Wilson took a holding penalty with 2:06 left.  On the ensuing power play DeKeyser atoned for his mistakes on the Laich goal by one-timing a cross-ice feed from Franzen past Holtby to give the Red Wings a 3-1 lead with just 12 seconds left on the power play and 18 seconds left in the period.

The Red Wings might have solved their home ice problems except for the minor detail of there being 20 more minutes left to play.  The Caps scored early in the third when the Caps got the puck in deep where Marcus Johansson found Alex Ovechkin at the bottom of the left wing circle.  Ovechkin one timed the puck through defenseman Nicklas Kronwall’s legs, over Howard’s blocker and off the crossbar to cut the lead to one goal.

The Caps made it all the way back mid-way through the period on a play started when the Caps applied offensive zone pressure, getting the Red Wings to chase the puck as the Caps worked it around to John Carlson at the right point.  Carlson fired a shot that reached the net as Jason Chimera was crossing Howard’s line of sight.  The distraction kept Howard from fielding the puck cleanly, the puck squirting to Howard’s right.  Michael Latta jumped between Quincey and Pavel Datsyuk to backhand the loose puck into the Detroit net for his first NHL goal that tied the game at 3-3.

That would do it for the scoring in the hockey portion of the evening.  That left it to the trick shot phase, and it was true to its nickname.  After the teams exchanged unsuccessful attempts in the first two round, Detroit’s Todd Bertuzzi stepped out to open round three.  Bertuzzi picked up the puck at the center dot, looped to his right and skated through the right wing faceoff circle.  Then, as he cut into the low slot he tried to effect a spin-a-rama move to freeze Holtby.  It had a certain “dancing bear” aspect to it that was enchanting.  It was also unsuccessful.  Holtby poked checked the puck off Bertuzzi’s stick, leaving it up to Nicklas Backstrom in the bottom half of the third round.  Backstrom displayed a more subtle form of trickery.  Skating in from center Backstrom bent right, then moved down the middle where he opened the blade of his stick to suggest he might go over Howard’s blocker.  Howard bit on the move, opening his five hole.  Backstrom wasted no time capitalizing on the opening, firing the puck through Howard’s legs to give the Caps a 4-3 win.

The Takeaway:  For the Caps it was just the ninth visit to Detroit since the teams met in the Stanley Cup finals in 1998.  The win made the Caps 4-3-2 in those nine meetings in Detroit.  More important, the win and the extra standings point drew the Caps to within a point of the Red Wings in the conference standings.  It also was the first time the Caps came back from a two or more goal deficit to win a game since they defeated Calgary, 5-4, after falling behind by three goals twice in the Caps’ home opener.  This contest would be an interesting debut of the season series.  All three of the meetings of these teams in 2013-2014 would go to extra time, the Caps winning twice.

For Michael Latta, that first NHL goal would be his only NHL goal of the season; he would play only seven more games for Washington before being sent down to Hershey permanently on January 11^th.  At the other end of the forward lines, the goal by Ovechkin and assists by Johansson and Backstrom on the play gave each of the members of the top line 15 or more points (Ovechkin and Johansson with 15, Backstrom with 16).  For Backstrom it was the fourth of what would be seven trick shot goals in the 2013-2014 season and his second of what would be four game-deciding goals.

In the end…

It was a hard earned win, but it was part of a deceptive stretch of games for the Caps.  The win made the Caps 6-1-1 in November, but four of the wins came in extra time, three of them by the Gimmick.  The wins were welcome, but it was part illusion, too.  The Caps were depending too much on fate and circumstance, going 6-1 in all extra time games (5-1 in the Gimmick) with this win.  They would go just 8-13 in extra time games over the rest of the season (5-10 in the freestyle competition).  One could see that the Caps had the capacity to come back from deficits.  But one could also see in this game that they were playing with fire and very well might be burned as the season wore on, which is why this game mattered.

Photo: AP/Carlos Osorio

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Capitals at Flyers, November 1st

In the second of this series of games that mattered for the Washington Capitals in the 2013-2014 season we go back to a game that renewed a rivalry dating back to the earliest days of the franchise, one that featured opponents separated by less than 150 miles.  This edition would resemble many of the earlier battles, but it would be quite different as well.

November 1, 2013: Washington (5-7-0) at Philadelphia (3-8-0)

Result: Capitals 7 – Flyers 0

The Background:  Over 38 seasons the Caps and Flyers faced off 194 times in the regular season, the Caps holding a 73-97-19-5 record.  Many of those games were knock-down, drag-out battles.  If one took quick stroll through the Capitals record book, you would find that the Capitals’ team record for penalty minutes in a home game (147 minutes) and for a road game (177 minutes) would be set against the orange and black.  You would also find that the games setting Capital records for penalty minutes by both teams, both home (294 minutes) and road (344 minutes), were set against the Flyers.  This is a different era than that in which those records were set, more than 20 years ago, but this game did not lack for a certain pugilistic excitement.  For the Caps, though, it was a good deal more.

Why It Mattered:  Neither team had what you would call a good first month of the season. The Caps almost salvaged one with a three-game winning streak late in October, but gave back a portion of that with consecutive losses and a 5-7-0 record heading into their contest in Philadelphia to open November.  For the Flyers it was worse.  Philadelphia started the season losing seven of their first eight games and couldn’t find the back of the opponent’s net with a map and a flashlight, scoring only 11 goals in those eight games.  Philadelphia then won consecutive games but lost to Anaheim before hosting the Caps.

The game itself started innocently enough for a Caps-Flyers hockey game.  The teams were scoreless through the first 17 minutes with only three minor penalties called.  The Caps did not record their first shot on goal until 15:05 elapsed.  The Caps broke the ice on their second shot, though, on a play featuring some slick eye-hand coordination on the part of defensemen Nate Schmidt.  Flyer defenseman Braydon Coburn tried to backhand the puck out of his right wing corner up the wall, but the bouncing puck made it only as far as the Flyers’ blue line.  Schmidt stilled the puck with his right skate, then as he was backing up flicked the puck to the middle onto the stick of Martin Erat.  From the high slot Erat found Nicklas Backstrom at the top of the right wing circle for a one-timer that beat goalie Steve Mason over his glove on the far side at 17:28 of the period.  The Caps would carry that lead to the locker room at the first intermission, the calm before the storm of the last 40 minutes.

It started with a thunderclap just 84 seconds into the second period.  Joel Ward took a feed from Jason Chimera behind the Flyers’ net, and when his path around the wall was blocked by Brayden Schenn he lugged the puck out in front to Mason’s right.  The puck slid off his stick, but Mark Streit could not get it puck out of danger when he took a swipe at it.  From a tangle in front of Mason, Ward got his stick on the puck once more and batted it through Mason’s pads to give the Caps a 2-0 lead.

That goal would start the deluge.  Jason Chimera scored 80 seconds after Ward’s goal to give the Caps a 3-0 lead and end Mason’s night…well, for the time being.  Just 65 seconds after that Nicklas Backstrom scored on relief goalie Ray Emery, and it was 4-0.  Then the Caps struck twice late in the period.  First it was Ward with his second goal of the game, wristing the puck in off the post to make it 5-0.  Then things took an ominous turn.  A minute after the Ward goal, Aaron Volpatti dropped Matt Read along the wall.  Steve Downie took this as a cue to start something, and he jumped Volpatti.  It was Volpatti who made short work of Downie after connecting with a left to Downie’s left eye, and both were sent off for fighting.  Downie received an extra two minutes as the instigator and suffered a concussion to boot.  The Caps would rub salt in that wound when they scored on the ensuing power play with just 1:40 left in the second period to take a 6-0 lead into the second intermission.

That might have been it, but there was still the matter of actually playing the third period.  The Capitals kicked the extra point 5:23 into the period when Ward completed his first career hat trick, cleaning up a loose puck in the low slot in front of Emery.  Apparently, “six” was the goal tolerance for the Flyers.  When the teams faced off after goal number seven for the Caps, it took eight seconds for the ill will to manifest itself.  Off the faceoff the Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds ran over Steve Oleksy chasing down the puck along the wall, where he then got tangled up with Tom Wilson. 

While those two were dropping the gloves Ray Emery saw his chance to race the length of the ice to challenge Braden Holtby to a bout.  Emery, who is trained in the pugilistic arts, indulged himself with an uninterrupted barrage on Holtby, who is not trained in the sweet science.  For his trouble, Emery received 19 minutes in penalties – two for leaving the goalie crease, two for instigating, five for fighting, and ten for a game misconduct.  It would end his night, bringing Steve Mason back for mopping up the mop-up job.

But before Mason could take the ice, there was other action to unfold as part of this kerfuffle.  For fans who thought two fights was on the light side of entertainment (and this being Philadelphia, you can bet that was the prevailing attitude), Alexander Urbom and Brayden Schenn squared off in what fans of such things might describe as “entertaining,” with both players throwing punches with frequency and enthusiasm, Urbom eventually dropping Schenn to the ice and pinning him there.  If three fights wasn’t enough, there were Steve Oleksy and Vincent Lecavalier going at it.  Despite giving up four inches and 25 pounds to Lecavalier, despite having four fights on his NHL resume to 24 for Lecavalier, Oleksy loosened some of Lecavalier’s teeth and left the Flyer center with injuries that would put him on the shelf for the next Flyers contest.  The Flyers might have indulged their rough housing pedigree, but it was the Caps skating off with a 7-0 win.

The Takeaway:  The Flyers (99) and Capitals (65) combined for the third highest number of penalty minutes in a game for the 2013-2014 season (164), topped only by Calgary and Vancouver on January 18^th (204 minutes), and St. Louis and Colorado on April 5^th (165 minutes).  For the Caps it was their second highest number of penalty minutes since the 2004-2005 lockout, topped only by the 99 minutes they were docked in a 4-2 loss to the Atlanta Thrashers on November 22, 2006.

But there was the game, too.  The 7-0 win was the worst beating the Caps gave the Flyers in Philadelphia in history of series, largest margin of loss by the Flyers at home in more than four decades.  It was the first time the Caps shut out the Flyers in Philadelphia since Don Beaupre did it in a 3-0 win on March 28, 1991.

The seven goals would be a team high for the season, and no Caps team scored so many goals in a shutout on the road since the Caps beat Pittsburgh, 8-0, on October 29, 1991.  And, they did it without the services of Alex Ovechkin, who sat out this game with an upper-body injury.

In the end…

There was an odd mythology that attached to this game.  Some folks, those in Philadelphia for instance, saw this game and the line brawl it produced as some sort of galvanizing event, one that brought the Flyers together in a uniquely Philadelphia sort of way.  The fact is that the Flyers did not follow this game up with a winning spurt.  They beat New Jersey in their next game, and then lost a pair.  But they did go 39-21-10 after this game through the end of the season. 

On the other hand, this was the first win in what would be the Capitals’ first four-game winning streak of the season (they had three such streaks).  It propelled them to a 7-1-1 run to start the month of November, their best nine-game record all season.  It would not be something they could sustain, though.  After that 7-1-1 run the Caps went 26-22-13 to close the season and did not beat the Flyers again in regulation time, going 1-2-1 (winning in a Gimmick in December).

Still, what with the back-to-the-future vibe of a four-fight line brawl, the first-ever NHL hat trick by Joel Ward, a career-high four-point game for Jason Chimera (1-3-4), a three-assist night for Mikhail Grabovski, and the Caps scoring a touchdown on the Flyers in the absence of Alex Ovechkin, it was one of the most entertaining and satisfying games of the season.  Even with Braden Holtby serving as a speed bag for Ray Emery, he got the last laugh with a 30-save shutout.  And that made this a game that mattered.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America

Washington Capitals: The 2013-2014 Season -- Ten Games that Mattered: Flames at Capitals, October 3rd

The first game in our look at games that mattered in the Washington Capitals’ 2013-2014 season is the first game at Verizon Center, the home opener.  It would be a first in a number of ways, one historic, one encouraging, one disturbing, one unsettling, and one that would be a foreshadowing of what would come as the season wore on. 

October 3, 2013: Calgary (0-0-0) at Washington (0-1-0)

Result: Capitals 5 – Flames 4 (OT/SO)

The Background: For the first time in club history the Capitals’ opponent for the home opener would be the Calgary Flames.  The Caps were coming off a disappointing 6-4 loss in their season opener against the Chicago Blackhawks, a game in which they held a 4-3 lead on the defending Stanley Cup champions in the third period at United Center.  For the Flames it was their season opener.

Washington had an especially successful record in recent home openers, winning 10 of their previous 11 debuts on home ice.  On the other hand, Calgary’s history in season openers was not particularly successful – 12-18, with ten ties and no losses in extra time.  They were 3-12-1 in their previous 16 season openers.

Why it Mattered:  For the Capitals, getting off to a good start was a paramount ambition in Year Two of Adam Oates’ tenure behind the Caps’ bench.  In Year One the Caps started poorly, going 2-8-1 in their first 11 games.  The “glass half full” version of that is that the Caps finished up the abbreviated 2012-2013 season with a 25-10-2 record.  That kind of finish might have been the harbinger of a fast start to the 2013-2014 season.

A fast start is precisely what the Caps did not have on this night.  The Caps held Calgary without a shot on goal for almost five minutes to open the game, but the Flames scored on their second shot when David Jones picked up a loose puck at the Capitals’ blue line, went wide on defenseman Jack Hillen, and roofed a shot over goalie Braden Holtby’s glove and under the crossbar to put the Flames in front 5:18 into the game. 

Calgary added goals by Lee Stempniak and Jiri Hudler before the game was 17 minutes old to end Holtby’s night with three goals allowed on 11 shots.  It would be up to Michal Neuvirth to mop up the mess as the Caps looked to be getting off on the wrong foot on their 2013-2014 home season. 

Sandwiched between those two goals was an incident that would reveal one of the weaknesses in the Washington lineup.  Just 11:50 into the game, Hillen was hit along the boards by Flames forward Lance Bouma.  Taking the hit in an awkward fashion, Hillen suffered a tibial plateau fracture – a broken leg – that would cost him five months of the season and that would expose a lack of depth on the blue line.

The second period started slowly enough, playing into the visitors’ hands.  It looked better for the Flames when rookie defenseman Connor Carrick took a hooking penalty 5:21 into the period.  Calgary managed two shots on goal, but Neuvirth turned both away.  The penalty kill bore instant dividends when Marcus Johansson spied Carrick up ice having just left the penalty box.  Johansson laid the puck out for Carrick at the Flames’ blue line, and the rookie did the rest, skating in, getting goalie Karri Ramo to bite on a deke, then sliding the puck past Ramo’s left skate to put the Caps on the board 7:30 into the second period.  It was the rookie’s first NHL goal and first NHL point in what was his second NHL game.

Calgary restored their three-goal lead just 1:35 after Carrick’s goal, though, the second time in two games that the Caps allowed a goal within two minutes of scoring one of their own.  That, however, would do it for Calgary’s scoring.  The Caps scored two goals four minutes apart to close within a goal at 4-3 going into the second intermission.

The teams split 26 shots on goal in the third period, but only the Caps would have one find the back of the net, that coming on a power play 14:10 into the period when the Caps dug out a loose puck that squirted to the left of Ramo where Nicklas Backstrom was waiting.  Backstrom flipped it past Ramo, and the teams went to extra time. 

The teams split the shots again in overtime, each recording three on goal, but none were successful.  That sent the game to the Gimmick.  Mikhail Grabovski, playing in his first game at Verizon Center after signing a free agent deal with the Caps, led off for the Caps.  Skating in and deking Ramo to the ice, Grabovski lifted a backhand over the sprawled goalie for the goal.  After Michal Neuvirth stopped Sven Baertschi’s attempt, Alex Ovechkin produced a mirror image of Grabovski’s goal, deking Ramo to the ice and backhanding the puck in from the other side.  That left it up to Jiri Hudler to keep the Flames in the contest.  Neuvirth was up to the challenge, though, gloving Hudler’s attempt aside to give the Caps a 5-4, come-from-behind win in their home opener.

The Takeaway:  The top line played like a top line, at least after a slow start.  Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and an assist, and Marcus Johansson had three assists.  It was part of a hot start to the season for Ovechkin, who was 1-1-2 in the opener against Chicago, and for Backstrom, who had a pair of assists in that contest.  But at the other end, Braden Holtby’s early exit meant that he allowed eight goals on the first 45 shots he faced for the season..  For Holtby it would make for an odd relationship among numbers.  After that poor two-game start in which he had a .822 save percentage, Holtby had a .920 save percentage over the rest of the season.  This would be the first of two poor games against the Flames for Holtby, getting pulled in both over which he allowed six goals on 25 shots, a .760 save percentage.  He would finish with a .920 save percentage against the rest of the league.

In the end…

At the top we noted that this game “would be a first in a number of ways, one historic, one encouraging, one disturbing, one unsettling, and one that would be a foreshadowing of what would come as the season wore on.”  Well, let’s recap…

• Historic: It was the first time the Caps played Calgary in a home opener.
• Encouraging: Connor Carrick recorded his first NHL goal and first NHL point in his second NHL game. 
• Disturbing: The Caps allowed a goal less than two minutes after scoring one of their own for the second straight game.  They would experience that occurrence 29 times in 27 games of the 2013-2014 season.
• Unsettling:  Jack Hillen’s broken leg and absence for the next five months revealed a lack of depth on defense that would mean a revolving door on the third pair that would be exploited often by opponents.
• Foreshadowing: It was the first chance for the Caps to display their trick shot skills in the Gimmick.  By no means would it be their last.  The Caps would set a league record with 21 decisions in the freestyle competition (10-11).

In this game there was an unevenness to the Capitals’ play, allowing themselves to fall into a deep hole because of iffy play in their own end and shaky goaltending, then storming back largely through the production of their top players.  It would be prelude to a season in which the Caps found themselves digging themselves a hole through the first half of the season and scrambling to try to reach a playoff spot over the latter half.  So much of what the Caps would experience in the 2013-2014 season would be on display in this game, good and bad.  And that is why this game mattered.

Photos: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Washington Capitals: 2013-2014 By the Tens -- The Revolving Door

“And life's a revolving door
'Cuz if miss your chance to go there's always more”

-- Mike Stud, School

There were 886 skaters dressing for NHL teams in the 2013-2014 season.  That makes for roughly 30 skaters per club.  Take that many skaters and only 18 spots available on any given night, combine it with injuries and occasional bouts of poor play among the regulars, and there will be opportunities for a lot of players to make contributions, even if those opportunities are low in number and infrequent. 

In fact, there were 214 skaters who dressed for fewer than 20 games this season.  Some of those players were those who missed time to injury, others because they came to the dance late.  For the Washington Capitals 12 skaters appeared in fewer than 20 NHL games.  Jack Hillen was one of those who fell into the “lost games to injury” category.  Evgeny Kuznetsov was one who came to the dance late, arriving only after his Traktor Chelyabinsk club was eliminated from the KHL playoffs.  Others – Michael Latta, Chris Brown, and Patrick Wey, for example – have been covered already.  That leaves a group of seven skaters, four forwards and three defensemen, as part of the revolving door.

The Forwards

Casey Wellman appeared in 13 games for the Caps this season, the first action he saw in the NHL since appearing in 14 games for the Minnesota Wild in 2011-2012.  In fact, Wellman’s appearances in the NHL have been very consistent – 12 games with the Wild in 2009-2010, 15 in 2010-2011, followed by those 12 in 2011-2012 and the 13 for the Caps this season.  He tied a career high in goals this season.  Okay, so it was two goals. But Wellman was something of a good luck charm.  The Caps were 8-4-1 in the 13 games in which he appeared. 

What he did in those appearances was appear sparingly, as one might expect.  His average ice time of 9:22 was a career low, and he logged more than ten minutes only four times.  What he did get with his ice time was fairly frequent opportunities to skate with the big boys.  He skated most often with Troy Brouwer at 5-on-5 (38.0 percent of his ice time) and skated more than 30 percent of his ice time with Marcus Johansson.  The flip side of that, however, is that if Wellman was getting large chunks of his limited ice time with top-six forwards, the Caps had depth issues at center.  But that is an issue with which we are already familiar.

Ryan Stoa was not a complete stranger to the NHL.  He appeared in 37 games for the Colorado Avalanche over the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 seasons.  He was pretty much a stranger to the Caps, though.  He was signed by the Hershey Bears in the summer preceding the 2012-2013 season but did not see any action with the Caps.  This season he appeared in three games, a short stint in early March in which he did not record a point in 27 minutes of total ice time.  He was, however, tied for third in points with Hershey this season.  Fun Stoa fact… he was a second round draft pick in 2005, selected 34^th overall, 10 places ahead of Paul Stastny, 26 spots ahead of Kris Letang, 36 spots ahead of Jonathan Quick and 71 spots ahead of Keith Yandle.    

Two players had their NHL debuts from this group – Nicolas Deschamps and Peter LeBlanc.  Deschamps came to the organization in one of those under the radar trades, acquired from Toronto for Kevin Marshal in March 2013 (it was so far under the radar, it was practically sonar).  Deschamps made his NHL debut in Florida in late February and stuck around for games in Boston and his home debut against the Flyers.  There were no scrapbook moments, though.  He did not record a point in 20 minutes of total ice time.  He was another second round draft choice not loudly heard from, drafted by Anaheim in 2008 ahead of Derek Stepan, Travis Hamonic, and Adam Henrique.  The Caps appear to have been collecting players like this.

LeBlanc appeared in one game with the Caps, the season finale against Tampa Bay at Verizon Center.  He, like every other Cap on that afternoon, did not record a point.  He, like eight other skaters, did not record a shot on goal.  He got almost ten minutes of ice time in a 1-0 Gimmick loss to the Lightning.

The Defense

Tyson Strachan was selected in the fifth round of the 2003 entry draft by the Carolina Hurricanes.  Since then, he has been around – a stint with Las Vegas in the ECHL, three different AHL teams, three different NHL teams, the last of them being the Capitals with whom he signed last July as a free agent.  Strachan filled in for three separate blocks of games this season, a nine-game stretch in November, three games just before the break for the Olympic Games, and a six-game stretch to end the season. 

If Strachan was not personally very successful (0-2-2, minus-2 in his 18 games), the Caps had modest success (9-6-3 in games in which Strachan appeared).  He did have an element of courage in his game, though.  In 18 games he had two fights, both against players with reputations for that sort of thing.  One came against the New York Islanders’ Matt Martin (47 NHL fights), the other against the Ottawa Senators’ Chris Neil (152 fights in regular season games).  Alas, the Caps lost both games.

Julien Brouillette is a guy who had a hard climb to the NHL.  Undrafted as a junior with Chicoutimi in the QMJHL, he signed as a free agent with the Columbia Inferno in the ECHL.  From there he bounced around between the ECHL (Charlotte and Greenville) and AHL (Providence, Hartford, and Lake Erie) before he found himself in Hershey for the 2011-2012 season.  He had a solid year there (7-14-21 in 74 games), but that looked like his ceiling level of play.  He regressed a bit with the Bears the following season (2-5-7 in 61 games), but he stayed on with the Bears to start the 2013-2014 season.

Brouillette finally got his first taste of NHL action in early February against the Winnipeg Jets.  He had an assist on the game tying goal for his first NHL point in a 4-2 Caps win.  He followed that up in his next game with his first NHL goal, the game-winner in a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils.  That would do it for his scoring in his ten games with the Caps, but the Caps were 6-2-2 with Brouillette in the lineup.  He also became the first player in club history to wear number “59.”

Then there is Cameron “One Game” Schilling.  Two seasons with the Caps, twice appearing in a single game.  Really Odd Schilling Fact… the Caps have yet to score in a game in which he appeared.  In 2012-2013 the Caps were shut out, 4-0, by the Carolina Hurricanes.  This season it was a 3-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Boston Bruins.  And, he was on ice for three of the five non-empty net goals in those two games.

In the end…

Four forwards with 20 man-games among them, two goals and one assist (all by Wellman), only 19 shots on goal (15 by Wellman).  One should not expect much from this end of the roster.  Even Chicago had their Brad Mills and Matt Carey; the Rangers had their Brandon Mashinter and Conor Allen.  

Only four teams employed more skaters than did the Caps this season (35).  Of that group only Pittsburgh (37) reached the playoffs.  The other three – Calgary (40), Buffalo (39), and Edmonton (37) finished in the bottom four in the league.  If a team is getting into the mid-30’s in terms of roster players over the course of a season, those last few players in games played are probably not going to be making noteworthy contributions and are likely to be skating for a team that is struggling.  The Caps had their own version of the revolving door this season with the expected results.