Capitals Season Comes to an End

That’s A Wrap – The Washington Capitals and New York Rangers traded wins in their 2012 Eastern Conference semifinal series. New York won the odd-numbered games and the Caps the even-numbered contests. The Rangers finished the Caps on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, winning a 2-1 decision in Game 7.

The Rangers move on to face the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference final series while Washington now faces its off-season and starts looking ahead to the 2012 NHL Draft and the 2012-13 campaign.

“The effort was there,” says Caps captain Alex Ovechkin. “It’s hard right now to say something. All of the guys worked hard. I don’t know what to say right now. We just lost the series. It’s a great group of guys. Everybody fights and everybody works hard. We had pretty good momentum in the second period but we didn’t use it. And we lose.”

“I thought we should have won,” says Caps defenseman Karl Alzner. “We didn’t play like we should have won, I don’t think. We definitely didn’t play our best game. We didn’t have enough fight, enough grit. Didn’t battle for pucks enough. We had a power play that was awful. It’s really too bad that in a game of this magnitude, we stunk the bed pretty much. It was not good enough for us.”

New York scored on its first shot of the game, a Brad Richards one-timer from the left circle at 1:32 of the first period, and the Rangers never trailed the rest of the way.

The Caps had difficulty getting their shot attempts through to New York netminder Henrik Lundqvist all night, but especially early and late in the game. Already facing an early deficit, the Caps managed to get just two of their first 11 shot attempts of the game on goal.

Washington had chances in the second, but Lundqvist poke-checked Alexnder Semin on a breakaway and flashed his right pad to deny Mike Knuble on the doorstep. The Caps had a sustained stretch of offensive zone pressure in the second, but were never quite able to generate a strong enough chance – or second chance – to beat Lundqvist.

For the first time in their 14 games played in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Caps went into the third period trailing. But they were only down by a single goal, and they were playing against a New York team that was an unfathomable 0-3 in games in which it had led after 40 minutes.

As close as the game was, and with their season on the line, the Caps simply couldn’t muster enough offense in the game’s final 20 minutes to get the job done.

Caps captain Alex Ovechkin had two strong chances in the third, but missed the net both times. He missed by inches low to the far side after Nicklas Backstrom won an offensive zone draw with 13:47 left. Minutes later, Matt Hendricks forced a turnover at the New York line and passed to Semin on the far wing. Semin hit Ovechkin with a feed in the high slot, but the captain’s slapper from 36 feet was nowhere near the mark.

Less than half a minute after that second Ovechkin miss, Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto scored to make it 2-0. That tally came just past the midway mark of the third.

Del Zotto’s goal looked damning for the Capitals, but only for 38 seconds. Caps defenseman Roman Hamrlik got it back, flipping a wrist shot past Lundqvist after a nice passing sequence from Troy Brouwer, Jason Chimera andBrooks Laich.

With 9:17 left, the Caps were once again only down by a goal.

Seconds later, the Caps got the opportunity they needed. New York’s Ruslan Fedotenko was whistled for a delay of game (puck over the glass) infraction, and Washington’s power play – fifth best in the NHL in the 2012 playoffs coming into the game – had its first chance of the evening.

Although Washington had the fewest power play chances per game of any of the 16 playoff entrants this spring, the Caps’ power play had chimed in with several key goals late in contests. On this night, the Washington extra-man unit had nothing. They were out of synch and completely lacking luster.

With 22 seconds remaining in the lone Washington power play of the night, Caps center Nicklas Backstrom took an offensive zone slashing call that abbreviated the team’s best chance for an equalizer. Washington’s power play produced three giveaways and not a single shot attempt, let alone a shot on goal.

“We had a bit of momentum at that point but we weren’t able to get anything on that power play,” laments Laich. “But still, when that was done we went shorthanded but after that there was still time on the clock where we could get our goalie out and get a sixth attacker. We just weren’t able to get a goal.”

With the game and their season on the line in the third, and needing just a goal for all but 38 seconds of that time, the Caps managed just four shots on goal while New York had 11. Worse, the Rangers had 19 shot attempts to a mere 11 for the Capitals in the final frame. The Caps had managed to tee up at least 20 shots in each of the game’s first two periods.

From the time Hamrlik scored to make it a 2-1 game – a span of 9:17 – the Caps took a total of just four shots, getting two on net. Hendricks got a 42-foot slapper on Lundqvist with 6:34 remaining – a shot that came while Washington was shorthanded – and Semin had a 64-foot wrist-shot on the New York net with 32 seconds remaining. Two other shot tries – from Alzner and John Carlson – were blocked.

“[Lundqvist] was pretty solid tonight,” says Brouwer. “He made big saves for his club, timely saves. We had some good pressure; we had a lot of good shots and a lot of good looks and weren’t able to get by him.

“We had another good push in the third. I know we didn’t have a lot of shots in the third, but we still had a lot of good opportunities. It is what it is.”

The Caps went out with a whimper, and finished the playoffs 0-6 in games in which they gave up the first goal.

Caps goalie Braden Holtby deserved a better fate. He was strong again, stopping 29 of the 31 shots he faced and giving his team a chance to win as he did in all 14 postseason games.

“I’m obviously disappointed,” says Holtby, who allowed two or fewer goals in nine of those 14 games, including five of seven against New York. “We really did believe in here that we had the team to do it all. You look at it, we gave ourselves a great chance. It’s a tough loss. What we can take out of it is that New York is a very good team and we didn’t leave anything on the table.”

Washington won three 2-1 hockey games in its first-round series with the Boston Bruins, including the deciding Game 7 at TD Garden. The Caps were just 1-2 in the three 2-1 games in the series against New York. Washington was unable to close out what should have been a 2-1 win in Game 5. The Rangers scored a power play goal with 7.6 seconds left in regulation and tallied again with the extra man early in overtime of that crucial contest to steal a 3-2 win and a 3-2 lead in the series.

“You think you could have won,” says Knuble. “You think you were right there. You really go home and look in the mirror. Certain times, you get beat in a playoff series and you look in the mirror and you can’t fool yourself. You didn’t have a chance to win that series, ultimately.

“I think our players should be very proud of our effort. We were able to get over the hump against Boston, just couldn’t do it tonight. It was a great run for us and I think all our players should be very proud.”

There were times this season when it seemed unlikely the Caps would even get to the playoffs, and yet they managed to get within a couple of goals of their first trip to the conference final in 14 years. But more was expected of this team when the voyage started last September, and that’s what sticks with Alzner.

“I’m going to view it as an underachieve season in my opinion,” he says. “I know a lot of people don’t feel the same way. The group was extremely good. We were a very good team. A lot of skill, but a good team.

“We didn’t show it during the regular season, but it only mattered come this time, the playoffs. We started playing really well and probably had our worst game in our Game 7, which is very, very unfortunate. We’re probably going to view it as a failure, just because we didn’t do what we thought we could do.”

A Month In The Sun – The Caps’ 2012 playoff run began exactly a month ago in Boston, with a 1-0 overtime loss to the Bruins. The Caps played a total of 14 games in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, going 7-7. Thirteen of those 14 games were decided by the thinnest of possible margins, one goal.

Washington scored 29 goals, and allowed 30.

Somewhat remarkably, the Caps are exiting despite never having lost consecutive games at any point during the playoffs. Washington won consecutive games just once, when it triumphed in Games 4 and 5 of its first-round series with the Bruins.

“It’s tough,” says Laich. “It’s tough to score. You ask [the Rangers] and they would say the same thing. It’s tough to score. It was a defensive series, the same way the first series was and the same way this series was.

“I think you have to play that way to win. I really do. We’ve shot the lights out for three or four years in the past and we haven’t gotten anywhere. This year I think our identity is a lot more conducive to winning what we want to win. That’s why it’s maybe a little more disappointing.”

Start Me Up – For the second straight game, the home team scored on its first shot on goal of the game. Ovechkin scored a power play goal to give the Caps a 1-0 lead they did not relinquish at 1:28 of the first period in Wednesday’s Game 6 at Verizon Center. Richards’ goal came at the 1:32 mark tonight.

Five-on-Five – New York came into Saturday’s Game 7 with just four goals in five-on-five play over the last 367 minutes and 47 seconds of hockey, dating back to the start of Game 2. Both of New York’s Game 7 strikes came in five-on-five play.

The King – Prior to tonight, Lundqvist had lost two previous playoff series to the Capitals, and he was 0-4 in four separate chances to eliminate the Caps from the postseason, including Game 6 of this series.

Lundqvist has now delivered the Rangers to the third round of the playoffs for the first time in his career. New York had not advanced to the conference final since 1997.

By The Numbers – Carlson led the Caps with 24:14 in ice time … Semin led the way with four shots on net … Ovechkin and Hendricks had four hits to lead Washington … Hamrlik had three blocked shots to top the Capitals … Laich won 11 of the 19 draws (58%) he took … Half of the Caps’ total of six giveaways on the night came during the 1:38 in which they enjoyed the man advantage … Marian Gaborik led the Rangers with six shots on net … Del Zotto led the Blueshirts with eight hits … Marc Staal paced the Rangers with five blocked shots … Ryan McDonagh led New York with 29:37 in ice time.

Three star selections
1st:	HENRIK LUNDQVIST
2nd:	BRAD RICHARDS
3rd:	MICHAEL DEL ZOTTO

Winning Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist

Losing Goaltender Braden Holtby

Capitals 2, Bruins 1, OT

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Home Away From Home – From March 10 onward, the Boston Bruins won a total of five games at their Beantown home, TD Garden.

That’s the same number of games the Washington Capitals won in the same building over the same time span.

Joel Ward’s goal at 2:57 of overtime gave the Caps a 2-1 win in the deciding Game 7 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series between the Capitals and the Bruins on Wednesday night in Boston.

The win was Washington’s fifth in six tries in a span of 47 days in Boston.

Mike Knuble collected an errant dump-in attempt from Bruins forward Benoit Pouliot as the home team went for a change. Knuble then tore through the neutral zone with Ward on a 2-on-1 break, and backhanded a shot on Boston netminder Tim Thomas. Thomas made the initial stop, but Ward tucked the rebound into a small, short-side opening to end the series, dethroning the defending Stanley Cup champions and sending the Capitals on to the second round against an as-yet-to-be-identified foe.

“It hit me right in the shins,” says Knuble of Pouliot’s dump-in attempt. “I knew they were all going for a change. Ward wasn’t going to get the pass. I was going right to the crease with that one. I’m glad he added the finish there at the end.”

“I went for a change,” says Ward, “and Knubs made a big block there and I assumed we had a little bit of a break up ice so try to take a chance and I knew he was going to take it to the rack and I just tried to follow it up as best as I could. You know, I just saw the puck laying there and I just took a whack at it and it went in.”

“We went to dump it in, Pouliot went to dump it in,” says Bruins coach Claude Julien of the game-winning goal, “and he hit one of their players with the puck, and it just bounced out. That puck gets in deep, we’re making a line change, and we’re making a good line change but when it hit their player and bounced out, that’s when things kind of turned sour on us, and we weren’t able to recover.”

Talk about unlikely heroes. Knuble (9:33 in ice time on the night) and Ward (10:44) had the lowest ice time totals of any Capitals on the night. Both were healthy scratches for several games down the stretch in late March and early April, and the two finished the season with identical stat lines of six goals and 18 points, Knuble in 72 games and Ward in 73.

“It’s what hockey’s all about,” says Caps coach Dale Hunter. “Winning in overtime in the seventh game. That’s something special, and well-deserved by our guys.”

For Ward, the goal was his first since Feb. 24. That Feb. 24 goal was an empty-netter, so Wednesday’s overtime series winner was his first goal with a goaltender in the net since Jan. 7.

Knuble was a healthy scratch for the first three games of the series. He was inserted into the Washington lineup in Game 4, and only because Caps center Nicklas Backstrom was suspended for that game because of a cross-check to the visor of Boston forward Rich Peverley at the final buzzer of regulation in Game 3.

Had Backstrom not been suspended, Knuble might not have been in the lineup and might not have been playing alongside Ward and Keith Aucoin.

And the series might have had a different outcome altogether.

Game Seven Overtime – Ward joins Hunter as one of only two players ever to score a game-winning goal in overtime of Game Seven in a Washington sweater. Hunter’s moment came on April 16, 1988 when he went five-hole on Philadelphia’s Ron Hextall to send the Caps to a Game Seven victory.

Thursday night’s win raises Washington’s all-time franchise record in Game Sevens to 3-7.

One More From The Road – Washington had the worst 2011-12 road record (16-21-4) of any of the 16 Stanley Cup playoff entrants. But the Capitals won three of the four road games they played to move on to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Tonight’s series win in an enemy building was Washington’s first since June 4, 1998 when Joé Juneau’s overtime goal pushed the Caps past the Buffalo Sabres in six games in the Eastern Conference final series and delivered Washington to the lone Stanley Cup final appearance in its 37-year franchise history.

Like Ward’s goal, Juneau’s was a rebound follow-up that beat a pretty good goaltender (Dominik Hasek) who happened to have won the Vezina Trophy the year before.

The Kid’s All Right – Caps goaltender Braden Holtby stopped 31 of 32 shots in Game 7 to win his first playoff series, besting the defending Vezina Trophy winner and Conn Smythe winner in the process.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, Holtby is just the fourth rookie goaltender in NHL history to win a Game 7 on the road, and the first to do so since Toronto’s Felix Potvin in 1993. Holtby is also just the third rookie goaltender in league history to eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champions in a seven-game series, joining Calgary’s Mike Vernon (1986) and Montreal’s Ken Dryden (1971) on that short list.

Pressed into service when both Tomas Vokoun and Michal Neuvirth were sidelined with injuries at the start of the series, Holtby limited the Bruins to just 15 goals in the seven games. He finished the series with a 2.00 GAA and a .940 save pct.

Appearing in his first ever Stanley Cup playoff series, the 22-year-old Holtby played with the poise and composure of a seasoned veteran.

“If I got rattled I wouldn’t be here right now,” says Holtby. “It’s one of those things that I’ve learned in order to get to this level. I’ve had to work on it and get better at it and obviously it has paid off.”

Forty-one years ago this month, a veritable unknown 23-year-old netminder with a total of six games worth of regular season NHL experience came out of nowhere and stunned the Big Bad Bruins – who had set an NHL record with 399 regular season goals – in a seven-game first-round series. That stunned Bruins team was also a defending Stanley Cup champion club.

That goaltender was Montreal’s Ken Dryden, and now Holtby is hearing his named mentioned in that lofty company.

“Holtsy is a unique kid,” says Hunter, “[in] that nothing fazes him. He’s a battler, you know whatever he does he’s going to try his best, and he gets rewarded for it, because he is. And he’s got great character, and the guys love him. When you call your goalie in net like a warrior, he’s one of the guys like that.”

Asked if he thought he’d someday look back on this series and be thankful he was a part of it, Holtby had the perfect response.

“If we win the next three [series] it will be.”

Kid Stuff – Holtby becomes – along with Semyon Varlamov (2009) and Michal Neuvirth (2011) – the third rookie Caps goalie in four seasons to lead the team to a Stanley Cup series win. Each of Washington’s last 18 Stanley Cup playoff wins has been delivered by a rookie goaltender.

Heroes – The heroes were many for the Capitals tonight. As is almost always the case in important wins, it was truly a team effort. But a few should be singled out.

Holtby was again strong and solid in net, keeping things close and never allowing the Bruins to get a two-goal lead at any point in the seven games. The Bruins were 38-0-0 in games in which they led by two goals at any point in the contest during the regular season. The fact that Holtby and the Caps were able to go through seven games without falling as many as two goals behind the defending champions is truly remarkable.

Foot soldiers Ward, Knuble and Matt Hendricks deserve kudos for supplying the offense in a game – and series – in which offense was particularly difficult to come by.

Ward and Knuble are a couple of the most genuine and well-liked guys in the Washington room, and they both battled through more than their share of adversity during the season. It was great to see them get rewarded at the end of the series.

Hendricks’ first-period goal was his first since March 10 when he scored against Thomas in Boston. It was also the first Stanley Cup playoff goal and point of his NHL career.

And finally, don’t sleep on the standout defensive play of Karl Alzner that came just prior to Ward’s game-winner. Alzner splayed out to prevent Patrice Bergeron from ending the game and Washington’s season just prior to Ward’s game-winner.

Much was said and written about Boston’s shutdown duo of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg during this series, and deservedly so. They comprise one of the best such tandems in all of the NHL. But Alzner and partnerJohn Carlson each had a tremendous series of shutdown duty against a Bruins bunch that is a handful in any one game, let alone seven hard-fought, tightly played tilts.

Special Delivery – Washington’s penalty killing unit deserves mad props for pushing the Capitals into the second round, but it was really at the top of its game tonight in Game 7.

And it needed to be.

Boston had only three power play chances on the night (to one for Washington), but the Bruins got two of those extra-man opportunities in the third period with the game even at 1-1. The second of those opportunities came with just 2:26 in regulation when Caps left wing Jason Chimera was whistled for a holding call on Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk.

“When you talk about tonight,” says Julien, “that’s probably the most frustrating part of our game, was that power play that could have ended the series and the game.

“But, I guess, when you look at the whole picture, I think it was more than that. At the end of the series, you look at their team, and you look at ours, and they were the better team. They had more guys going than we did, and they played us tough. It was unfortunate that we’ve got to look at this one incident because it did play a big role in tonight, but a lot of the damage had been done before that as well.”

Washington killed off 21 of 23 Boston power plays in the series for a kill rate of 91.3%, second only to Phoenix (94.7%) in the playoffs to date.

The Capitals won six of eight face-offs (75%) while shorthanded in Game 7. Boston was limited to just four shots on net during the six minutes in which it enjoyed the manpower advantage.

The King Is Dead – For the first time in five tries in its 37-year history, the Capitals have dethroned a defending Stanley Cup champion in the following year’s playoffs.

Tonight marks the seventh time in the last nine seasons that the defending Stanley Cup champions have exited in the first round of the playoffs.

Razor Thin – Your faithful Caps365 correspondent believes he – and likely most of you – won’t live long enough to see another Stanley Cup playoff series played this tightly again.

(Unless of course, it’s St. Louis and Los Angeles in the upcoming Western Conference semifinals.)

For the first time in Stanley Cup playoff history, all seven games of a series were decided by a single goal. Four games – the first two and the last two – went into overtime.

A total of 450 minutes and 28 seconds of hockey were played in this series. And for 308 minutes and 47 seconds of that time, the score was tied. That represents more than two-thirds of the entire series.

The Caps had the only two-goal lead of the entire seven-game set. It came in Game 5, and it lasted all of 2:54.

“Well, no doubt, it’s made it an interesting series,” says Julien of the closeness of the seven games. “I think when people watch these kind of games, and our games went into overtime and stuff like that, but again, I don’t know why people would even think that it would have been one-sided.

“When you look at their team, and I mentioned numerous times, I don’t believe they’re a seventh place team. There’s too much talent on that team to be that, and they righted the ship at the right time, and they’re playing some great hockey right now, and that’s what it seems to be all about in the playoffs nowadays.

“When you look at the teams that have been knocked out, it’s whoever’s playing their best hockey at the right time, and the parity shows, and then the team that’s on top of their games seems to be winning the series right now.”

The Longest Lead – From the time Hendricks scored at 11:23 of the first period until Tyler Seguin’s tying tally for the Bruins at 14:27 of the second period, the Caps held a lead for 23:04. That represents the longest either team held onto any lead at any point in the entire series.

Alternating Tallies – The Capitals and Bruins combined for a total of just 31 goals in the seven games, 16 by Washington and 15 by Boston. The last 13 of those 31 goals were scored in alternating fashion, one by Boston and one by Washington, right up to the end of the series. The Bruins scored twice in a span of 28 seconds late in the second period of Game 5. The second of those two goals – from forward Brad Marchand – started the sequence of 13 alternating goals from the two teams.

Been There Before – Half of Washington’s franchise total of 10 Game Sevens has been played in the last five springs. The Caps’ current core is now 2-3 in the five Game Sevens in which they’ve played together, starting with the loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2008 Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Streak Stopped – Hendricks’ goal ended Thomas’ Game 7 shutout streak at 139:03. Thomas had pitched consecutive Game 7 shutouts – against Vancouver and Tampa Bay last spring – prior to Wednesday’s series finale.

Star In The Making – Sophomore Bruins forward Tyler Seguin was quiet early in the series but he came on late and was quite a handful for the Capitals to contend with in the final two games.

Seguin scored the overtime game-winner in Game 6 that forced the series back to Boston and he also supplied the Bruins’ lone tally of Game 7. Seguin led the Bruins with seven shots on goal in Wednesday’s series finale.

Over the final 74:17 of the series, Seguin was the only Bruins to solve Holtby.

Down On The Farm – The AHL Hershey Bears were in action on Wednesday night at Giant Center, attempting to stave off elimination in their best-of-five, first-round Calder Cup series with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Hershey got it done, needing overtime to take a 4-3 decision over the Baby Pens and force a Game 4 on Friday night at Giant Center. Ryan Potulny scored at 2:57 of the extra session – the exact same time at which Ward’s overtime game-winner was scored – to keep the Bears’ season alive.

D.J. King scored his first goal as a member of the Capitals’ organization, and Cameron Schilling netted the first goal of his pro career for the Bears. Kyle Greentree also scored for Hershey. Dany Sabourin made 26 saves in goal to earn the victory.

With Wednesday’s win, Hershey avoided being swept in the first round in a best-of-five set for the first time since 1966.

By The Numbers – Mike Green led the Caps with 24:55 in ice time … Alzner skated 3:57 of the six minutes in which Washington was shorthanded on the night to lead the team … Chimera, Hendricks, Ward and Roman Hamrlik led the Caps with three shots on goal each … Hendricks paced the Caps with six hits … Carlson led the way with five blocked shots … Jay Beagle won seven of 10 (70%) face-offs to lead the Capitals.

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