All posts in hockey

(courtesy photo)

Holy shit.

Seriously, what else can you say after witnessing the Washington Capitals miraculously emerge victorious in the most tightly-contested playoff series in the history of hockey?

Not only did they somehow defeat the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins (with a rookie goalie in net!), but they did so thanks to the efforts of two veteran players who both found themselves in the coach’s doghouse at various points during the regular season.

Too often during the Alex Ovechkin era, the Capitals have entered the postseason as heavy favorites, only to be bounced in painstaking fashion. And yet, somehow the Caps found a way to scrap and claw their way to a series victory during the year they barely even qualified for the playoffs.

Try not to over-analyze it. Instead, just sit back and relish the fact that the Capitals are heading into the second round of the playoffs thanks to a beautifully ugly goal by forward Joel “Commander in Chief” Ward in overtime.*

*And if you haven’t heard it yet, please do yourself a favor and listen to John Walton of the Capitals Radio Broadcast call the game winner. It’s simply amazing.

Honestly though, two players — forwards Mike Knuble and Ward — who couldn’t consistently crack coach Dale Hunter’s lineup on a team that barely squeaked into the playoffs somehow combined for one of the most satisfying victories I’ve ever experienced thanks to a play I will forever refer to as an “old-man rush.”

Seriously, Knuble and Ward finished the regular season tied for 12th on the team with just 18 points. Each player was inactive at some point during the season thanks to a “coach’s decision.” So naturally, they’re the two players who pull off the dramatic finish in overtime of Game 7 against the defending champs.

Conversely, the Capitals were still able to close out the series against the second-best offense in hockey on a night when the team’s top two scorers — Ovechkin and Alexander Semin — were nothing more than passengers.

The Capitals aren’t supposed to win on a night when the Young Guns — Ovechkin, Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green — go pointless. They’re not supposed to outlast the reigning champs with Braden Holtby, their third-string goalie.

And yet, thanks to great individual efforts by a couple of blue-collar veteran — Knuble, Ward and Matt Hendricks — Washington lives to see another day.

This is why I’m a “glass half empty” kind of guy. Because when you’re conditioned to expect the worst year after year, you can no longer be heartbroken if/when that’s what happens.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

There is a small faction of Washington Capitals fans who, after taking a page from the student section at College Park, decided to liven up their gameday experience with a few chants and look-at-me gimmicks.

One of their favorites involves heckling the opposing netminder after he allows a goal with the chant of “It’s all your fault.”

If I’m being honest, it’s stupid and it angers me every time I hear it, but I’ve accepted that it’s here to stay. While this new-found tradition seems pretty straight forward to most, it apparently confused one local sports columnist enough that upon hearing it, he’s now convinced that the Capitals can’t win in the playoffs because of the fanbase.

At least, that’s my best guess as to why on earth this individual would write something so spectacularly stupid. In case you missed it, here’s an excerpt from one of the most absurd columns I have ever read:

Vic and other psychologically battered Washington sports fans don’t know it, but that kind of negativity actually hurts their team’s chances of upsetting the defending Stanley Cup champions on the Bruins’ home ice.

“Oh, definitely,” said Ronald Kamm, the sports psychiatrist and director of Sport Psychiatry Associates in Oakhurst, N.J., and a lifelong fan of Philadelphia teams. “The mind-set of the city is very important to players. They read the press. They hear the media. They know their history. It’s all part of a culture.

To recap, Caps players will never win in the postseason unless their fans learn to love them more.

Now, if this sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because it’s essentially the plot to Ghostbusters II. You might remember that New York was in trouble because something called “psychomagnotheric slime” built up in the sewers and fed off of the negativity and hostility from the locals.

Just when it seemed like all of New York was on the verge of being sucked down into the 10th level of hell, the Ghostbusters saved the day (with an assist from the Statue of Liberty).

So basically Caps fans, the only way your favorite hockey team is ever going to win Game 7 against the Boston Bruins is to either coat the team’s locker room with “mood slime” or have Brooks Laich hook up a walkman to the speaker system at TD Garden and blast “Higher and Higher” by Howard Huntsberry at full volume during warm-ups.*

*In the interest of full disclosure, I’d be completely on board with either scenario.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

If the Washington Capitals are going to finish off the Boston Bruins and keep their postseason hopes alive, they would do well to take a page from one of their biggest rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers.

Prior to the team’s pivotal Game 6 match-up against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Flyers star forward Claude Giroux sought out his coach, Peter Laviolette. According to CSN Philadelphia, here’s what transpired:

What the player said to the coach was closer to a directive than a request. That was more than fine with Laviolette – it was welcomed. According to Laviolette, Giroux went up to him and said, “I don’t know who you’re planning on starting tonight, but I want that first shift.”

“He was so adamant about wanting that first shift,” Laviolette continued. “Line matchups didn’t matter at that point. He wanted to get out on the ice. He wanted to make a statement.

What happened next is the stuff that legends are made of — Giroux started the game for Philly and had a shift to remember.

He began by delivering a punishing hit that floored Penguins forward Sidney Crosby. Once the opposition’s best player was out of the way, Giroux found himself with a little bit of breathing room and used it to his advance as he netted a goal just 32 seconds into the contest.

Because their best player demanded the game be put on his shoulders and the coach had enough faith in him to do just that, the Flyers came out swinging and never looked back. From there, they cruised to an easy victory against a team that was supposedly a Stanley Cup favorite and are now enjoying a few days of rest up before moving on to the second round.

Look, I’m never going to be confused for being a Flyers fan. But if I was, that’s the kind of story that would make me feel really good about my team’s chance this postseason.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the coach and the star player in Washington.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

It’s never easy being a fan of the Washington Capitals.

While a relatively small group of us long-time diehards have commiserated through the years (and years and years) of heartache and disappointment that come with loving the local hockey team, I do realize that a large portion of the current fanbase is probably not aware of the strings attached to this franchise.

I, for one, am thrilled that the Capitals caught the attention of so many newer fans over the last five years because — let’s face it — it’s much more enjoyable to take in a game with a packed house rather than having an entire section of an empty arena to yourself.

That being said, I feel obligated to inform some of the “Rock the Red” era fans what typically comes next when the Caps reach this point of the postseason.

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well for the home team.

Sure, the Capitals had a three-games-to-two lead over the Boston Bruins with a chance to eliminate the Stanley Cup champions at home in front of a sellout crowd at the Verizon Center. But I’ve been a fan of this team for far too long to believe for a second that they would make things easy on themselves.

That’s why I wrote the following just last week:

“Is there any doubt this series is going the distance? Seriously, is there a person out there who doesn’t see the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins needing every second of a seven-game series to determine a winner?”

Not only are these two teams evenly matched, but this star-crossed franchise has been following the same sad script for as long as I’ve been alive.

Let me put it this way — when the happiest moment your 37-year-old franchise has to offer is getting swept in the Stanley Cup Finals, you become conditioned to expect the worst whenever the postseason rolls around.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

Is there any doubt this series is going the distance? Seriously, is there a person out there who doesn’t see the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins needing every second of a seven-game series to determine a winner?

Through four games, these two teams have been as evenly matched as humanly possible.

Each squad has two wins. Each has scored seven goals. Both teams are banking on physical play and solid goaltending to get them through this.

And that’s the most amazing development of the Stanley Cup playoffs thus far — an previously untested and unproven rookie like Braden Holtby has looked every bit as good in net as the highly-decorated Tim Thomas.

Thomas is a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, which is awarded to the NHL’s top goalie, who also captured the Conn Smythe Trophy last season as the league’s most valuable player in the postseason.

Conversely, Holtby is a baby-faced 22-year-old with no real resume to speak of who looks like he’s going to need a couple more seasons before he’s able to grow a respectable playoff beard.

Consider this: in two seasons of playoff hockey with Washington’s minor league affiliate, the Hershey Bears, Holtby has less than stellar statistics — going just 4-5 with a 3.22 goals against average and a .881 save percentage.

So naturally, Holtby gets thrown into the mix in a baptism by fire kind of way thanks to injuries to Tomas Vokoun and Michal Neuvirth and manages to steal the show.

Through four games against the defending Stanley Cup champs, Holtby has been far better than anyone (aside from maybe his mother) could ever dream of — with a sparkling 1.60 goals against average and a .953 save percentage.

Look at every other goalie who has started four games in the postseason. No one has better numbers than Holtby.

In fact, he’s been clutch this series that his Wikipedia page has been recently updated to say the following:

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There’s not much left to say as the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins prepare for battle in Game 4 of their opening-round playoff series.

These two teams have played tough and physical. The longer this series goes on, the less these players enjoy seeing each other. Both teams feel the other squad is getting away with repeated cheapshots. The Bruins finally found a way to get pucks past goalie Braden Holtby.

The Caps must now find a way to emerge victorious even after losing center Nicklas Backstrom due to a one-game suspension. But with Backstrom out, some of his less heralded teammates have a chance to rise to the challenge and even the series up before heading back up to Boston.

Yup, all of the storylines have been beaten into the ground. Rather than regurgitating more of the same, I decided to share a blast from the past. Here’s a video from back in the day of Dale Hunter and friends getting into a full-scale brawl with the Bruins from back in 1998.

If I remember correctly, that was a pretty good year for the Caps and they even bounced Boston from the playoffs while on their way to the franchise’s first-ever Stanley Cup finals appearance.

The highlight of the video is watching the goalies join in on the fun after everyone else on the ice decides to drop the gloves. And let’s be honest, if there are two goalies in today’s NHL who are ready, willing and able to repeat history, it’s Tim Thomas and Holtby. In a few hours, they’ll get their chance.

(photo by Clyde Caplan)

As you’ve heard by now, Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom was suspended for one game after receiving a match penalty in the final seconds of Game 3 against the Boston Bruins.

Unfortunately for Backstrom, that particular penalty carries an automatic suspension and Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s vice president of player safety, decided not to rescind the one-game ban because, in his words, the talented Swede “attempted to injure Boston forward Rich Peverley with a cross check to the head.”

Even though Peverly was not injured on the play and Backstrom has never been in trouble with the league a day in his life, Shanahan let the suspension stand because felt the play was “excessive and reckless.”

And just like that, the Capitals now head into a game they can’t afford to lose without one of their top offensive players.

Look, I’m not in the business of crying about officiating because it’s an exercise in futility and every fan of every team in every sport swears the refs are “out to get them.”

And yet, the more I think about this suspension, the more it pisses me off.

Anyone who has watched the Caps-Bruins series knows it’s been tough and physical. Both teams have tried to send a message by dishing out punishing blows whenever possible and you’d be hard pressed to find a 60-second span in one of these games that didn’t involve a player from one of the two teams trying to deliver a kill shot to the opposition.

While a majority of the physical play should simply be filed under “playoff hockey,” there’s not a lot of love between the Caps and Bruins and players routinely need to be separated at each and every stoppage in play. Again, this is standard procedure in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But my issue throughout this opening-round series has been just how often Boston players appear to openly target Backstrom’s head.

Considering he’s one of the NHL’s elite players and, oh by the way, was forced out of action for 40 games earlier this season because of a concussion, it’s not too much to ask that the league spend a little extra time and energy ensuring he’s not knocked out of action yet another cheapshot.

Which is why my blood boils every time I see a classless player like Milan Lucic or Brad Marchand or another Bruin repeatedly grabbing, jabbing or throwing haymakers at Backstrom’s head.

Bruins players have thrown him to the ice during a stoppage in play (Lucic), they’ve grabbed him by the visor (Patrice Bergeron) and, hell, goalie Tim Thomas even sucker-punched Backstrom in the head earlier this series.*

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