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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

The Washington Capitals finally got their wish — their games are no longer relevent.

Win or lose, the outcome of their remaining games no longer matters thanks to a series of disappointing collapses by seemingly every other team that was in contention for one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

As forward Brooks Laich politely pointed out on 106.7 The Fan this week, the Caps are now a lock for the postseason. No more hand wringing. No more angst. No more losing sleep after watching another lackluster effort by highly-paid players.

The only thing that matters at this point is this: Washington is set to be the eighth seed and will travel to New York to face the Rangers in the playoffs.

If the Caps could bypass these last two meaningless games and skip ahead to the playoffs, they would happily do so.

And while the Rangers have been among the league’s elite this season, they’re not a terrible match-up for the Capitals by any means.

Sure, some of the names have changed, they’re still a team that has been bounced from the Stanley Cup playoffs in two of the last three seasons by the Caps.

If defenseman Mike Green can remember that he’s actually capable of producing on the offensive side of the rink and center Nicklas Backstrom can get the rust off and work his way back into game shape, this team might actually be able to make things interesting once the series gets underway.*

*Not that I’m putting any pressure on them. I wouldn’t want to stress out the fragile mental makeup of this team.

The 2011-12 season was not a kind one for Washington. A coach was fired. Players were scrutinized. Production was down across the board.

But at the end of the day, the Capitals are still standing and enough people have said “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” so it must be true.

So try not to dwell on the dozen or so issues still surrounding this flawed team, and instead simply be content that the Caps were able to scratch and claw their way back into the postseason.

Look, there’s little reason to believe they’ll be around very long once the playoffs start, but that’s a story for another day.*

*This entire post is an elaborate reverse jinx. I am fully aware the Caps can still blow it and miss out on the playoffs. But I also know they’ve been unable to handle any sort of pressure and have lost every high-stake game they’ve played this season.

If enough of the players believe it’s another mundane and meaningless regular season game, then maybe they’ll actually play well enough to emerge victorious against Florida tonight. So please spread the word that this game has zero playoff implications and hope like hell the message is received by the players in the Washington locker room.

(photo by Mike Carlson)

Of course they lost.

At no point during the 2011-12 season have the players who make up the Washington Capitals shown any mental toughness whatsoever, so why would anyone expect for that to magically change with their season on the line?

As soon as the local media started citing a website that listed Washington’s chances of securing a playoff spot at 90 percent, you had to know it was only a matter of time before the Caps began to self destruct.

Nursing a one-goal lead on the road against the decidedly-mediocre Tampa Bay Lightning, the Capitals gave up back-to-back goals in the final three minutes of the second period to ensure this contest was much tougher than it needed to be.

The Caps were then able to tie the game at 2-2 with roughly four minutes left in regulation, but once again suffered a letdown in the final minutes of a period.

With 2:03 left  in the game, the Capitals allowed the league’s top goal scorer, forward Steven Stamkos, a gimmie goal from point-blank range. He, of course, added an empty netter a minute later and Dale Hunter’s team was once again left searching for answers after failing to close out a beatable opponent.

“We were too lackadaisical,” said defenseman Karl Alzner. “We should have come out and tried to pound them right away and get their spirits down.”

It should be noted that Alzner has had to make some semblance of that statement roughly a dozen times this year to explain some of the truly disappointing failures of this team. If he wasn’t such a good quote, I’d suggest to Alzner that he could just get cue cards made up with a variety of quotes like this to preemptively prepare for the next round of letdown games.

“It’s disappointing to say the least,” said forward Troy Brouwer, who was referring to this particular game but might as well have been addressing the season in general.

Had the Caps been able to beat Tampa Bay in a game that meant nothing to the home team, it would have meant Washington’s game with the Florida Panthers was essentially for the division title. Now, they’re destined to either be the last team in the postseason (as the eighth seed) or they’ll miss out completely.

How could Alex Ovechkin and friends let this happen?

“This was a playoff atmosphere,” said Lightning coach Guy Boucher.

Oh, that explains it.

Much like games against Winnipeg and Buffalo in the last two weeks, anytime anyone suggests a game might have some heightened importance, these players show what they’re truly made of.

This team does nothing well. They excel at no aspects of the game. No one — from the front office to the bottom of the roster — should be content with how they’ve played this season, so maybe this team needs to complete the collapse and miss out on the playoffs in order to force a radical overhaul.

That being said, any time critics count the Caps out and the pressure is no longer on them, they respond with authority. So I fully expect them to shine against Florida once they know that winning the division is no longer an option and the mainstream media has turned their attention elsewhere.

(photo by Clyde Caplan)

By capturing back-to-back shootout victories over Boston and Montreal, the Washington Capitals are once again in control of their own destiny.

If they can close out the regular season with three more wins, they’ll make the playoffs.

If not, they need to hope and pray that Buffalo falters worse than them down the stretch to keep their postseason hopes alive.

Whichever way things play out, one thing is certain – the Caps will ultimately choose the path that is most stressful.

These last two wins have followed the same script: jump out to an early 2-0 lead, convince yourself the victory is a sure thing and take your foot off the gas and then watch with astonishment as your opponent battles back and forces overtime.

Mercifully, the combination of Matt Hendricks and Alexander Semin has been rock solid in the glorified skills competition to enable Washington to salvage victory during each of these occasions. But each game has definitely come down to the wire in a way that can’t be good for anyone’s health.

And while it’s obviously much more enjoyable to see the Capitals win in dramatic fashion rather than watching them suffer a beatdown in a supposed “must-win” game, it’s apparently causing more than a few folks to overreact.

If we’ve learned anything about the Caps this season it’s that they refuse to make life easy on themselves. Whenever you pencil them in for a win, they fall flat on their face.

Conversely, the moment you count them out, they rally back and win in a way that reminds you just how much talent resides in Washington when they feel like playing.

Naturally, moments after the Capitals secured victory over the Canadiens, people took to the internet to rejoice. And good for them. This year’s squad hasn’t given the locals much to cheer about and even with these back-to-back wins, they’re still just a game or two away from missing out on the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So celebrate while you can, right?

But let’s not go overboard. Like, for example, when a local columnist posts  the following on Twitter:

“Alexander Semin has basically helped save Caps’ season twice in three nights in shootouts. Should he return?”

While I fully admit the Capitals live in a reactionary world where the owner feels compelled to personally respond to each and every email that shows up in his inbox, do people really need to overreact to each and every shift these players take?

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Try not to fixate on the fact that the Washington Capitals are simply unable to finish a game with the same goalie in net who started it. And feel free to overlook the part where the team pissed away a 2-0 lead with roughly three minutes left in regulation.

Instead, let’s turn our attention to the shootout portion of the game.

Specifically, let’s simply enjoy the part where forward Matt Hendricks fakes out Boston goalie Tim Thomas so badly that it appears the president of the United States called in an air strike just as Hendy prepares to shoot the puck.

It’s often been said that Thomas is unstable, so watching him “hit the deck” shouldn’t have been so thoroughly enjoyable. But it was.

In fact, the only part of the evening that was even sweeter was when Timmy had a hissy fit on his way to the locker room and face planted.

Seriously, if the Caps keep embarrassing Thomas like this, they just might actually get the commander in chief to “Barack the Red.”

(photo by Brian Murphy)

Well, at least the Washington Capitals are considerate enough to not drag things out.

I mean, honestly, Caps fans should be grateful they’re not attempting to get everyone’s hopes up that they’re capable of flipping a switch and become anything more than a mediocre hockey team.

Look at it this way, the players and the coach openly compared this matchup against the streaking Buffalo Sabres to a Game 7 in the days leading up to the contest only to get blown out on their home ice in a lackluster 5-1 loss.

If that doesn’t say everything you need to know about this incarnation of the Capitals, then I don’t know what to tell you.

“I don’t think we played bad. We just made bad mistakes in our zone,” said Caps captain Alex Ovechkin.

Even though the Capitals were 16-7-2 in their last 25 games at the Verizon Center and the place was packed with a sea of red-clad fans for the 144th-consecutive sellout, the team came out flat.

From there, they made a series of poor decisions in their own end and gave away a vital game when so much was clearly on the line. It would have been downright disappointing if it wasn’t so completely predictable.

“It was one of those games where both teams came out and it wasn’t a cat and mouse game, it was wide open hockey game and we took the brunt of it,” said coach Dale Hunter.

This was Washington’s most important game since … last Friday, when the Caps fumbled away a three-goal lead to lose to the Winnipeg Jets in overtime, 4-3.

Are you sensing a pattern yet?

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

There’s a lot on the line when the puck drops as the Washington Capitals host the Buffalo Sabres at the Verizon Center tonight.

For starters, a quick look at the standings shows that both teams are tied for the eighth and final playoff spot with only a few games remaining in the regular season.

A loss won’t guarantee missing the playoffs, but it’s obviously a scenario both teams would rather avoid if at all possible.

The Sabres, who have earned a point in eight-straight games, have defeated Washington two out of three games this season and boast one of the best goalies in the game, in Ryan Miller.

Speaking of Miller, he earned the NHL’s second star of the week last week after picking up a league-best four wins while posting a 1.26 goals-against average and .956 save percentage.

Of course, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin was named the league’s third star after scoring six goals and one assist last week, so the biggest names on each team appear to be hitting their stride at the right time for these two squads.

Cliches are thrown around too often in sports, with folks eager to claim every other contest on the schedule is a “must win” or that you can “throw out the record book when these two teams meet up,” but the one thing you can say about Buffalo is that their fans travel well.*

*Probably because Buffalo itself is such a shitty place to live, so they’re always looking for reasons to get out of town, but I digress.

Therefore, it would probably be wise for the home team to get off to a fast start tonight to give Caps fans plenty to cheer about. Honestly, while chances are slim that both the Caps and Sabres will advance to the postseason, it’s safe to say that this game will have a playoff atmosphere.

And since stellar goaltending has been a thorn in the side of these Capitals for a while now,* it’s fitting that Ovechkin and friends will have to get through Miller if they want to continue their playoff push.

*Burn in hell, Halak.

(photo by Clyde Caplan)

Remember back in the good old days when the Washington Capitals were one of the most exciting teams in hockey and they also happened to boast a trio of young and talented netminders.

Yeah, those days were the best.

Semyon Varlamov was the fan favorite who backstopped a playoff series win over the New York Rangers and Michal Neuvirth also made a strong first impression with his play in both Washington and Hershey.

But it was the third option – a quirky youngster by the name of Braden Holtby – that caught my attention.

Growing up I was always amused watching Philadelphia Flyers goalie Ron Hextall. Now look, I’d never root for a Philly player,* but Hextall was the perfect combination of crazy and talented.

He was skilled, but just as importantly, he was a goalie who was willing and able to drop the gloves if an opposing player angered him enough. And, just for the heck of it, he also liked to try to score goals whenever the opposition pulled their goalie.

*I might be an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole.

Closer to home, the Capitals had a goalie named Olaf Kolzig who also played with a bit of a mean streak and wasn’t afraid to get confrontational if need be.

He became an icon in a town that was just learning to love the sport of hockey and to this day ranks as one of the best interviews I’ve ever been a part of because of his candid nature.

I’m not saying Holtby is destined to be the next Hextall or Kolzig, but he definitely reminds me of those two larger than life personalities when I see him in action, which is why he immediately became the goalie I gravitated towards when these three youngsters became part of the Capitals organization.

I didn’t necessarily believe he was destined to have the best career of the three and I didn’t automatically turn on Varlamov and/or Neuvirth. I just found myself thoroughly enjoying whenever Holtby made a start in Washington and I paid more attention to the Hershey Bears during the times he was down in the minor leagues.

At some point in the early stages of Holtby’s first stint with the Capitals, I found myself chatting with someone in the organization about the three netminders. Without sharing my stance on the trio, I simply asked this person for his take on each of them and who he believed had the highest ceiling.

Much to my surprise, he said he thought Holtby could be the best of the bunch because “he takes things so personally.” He went on to say that when Holtby has a bad game, it keeps him up at night.

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