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NHL Playoffs: Holtby Leads Capitals To Game 7

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The Washington Capitals keep surviving and the New York Rangers keep pushing themselves to the brink. The Caps beat the Rangers 2-1 last night in the lone NHL playoff game on the docket, and in doing so forced a Game 7 on Saturday afternoon in Madison Square Garden.

For the second straight game, the Rangers played a pretty good overall offensive game. They got shots—31 of them to be precise—and while I’d have liked to have seen more involvement from Marian Gaborik, he did get the team’s lone goal with less than a minute left in the game, while Ryan Callahan got four shots. But the danger for New York—and the hope for Washington—is that Braden Holtby is getting locked in again. New York’s hit him with 69 shots in the last two games and the kid has turned back 66.

 

I’m sure regular readers of TheSportsNotebook’s NHL playoff coverage must be sick of hearing me harp on this kid, but this is an extraordinary sports story. The 22-year-old started five games all season, only got the playoff gig because the two mediocre veterans in front him were hurt and all he’s done is first win a seven-game series against Boston’s Tim Thomas—in a series where the Double T was also locked in—and now he’s headed for a Game 7 against New York’s Henrik Lundqvist, who has only been the league’s most renowned goalie all season. And as the shot volume, both in this series and the Boston one attest, it’s Holtby, not good team defense, that’s doing this. It’s the equivalent of an unknown rookie quarterback—let’s just say Kirk Cousins, since we’re on a Washington D.C. team—jumping into the playoffs and calmly winning shootouts against Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees.

Washington got on the board first, with Alex Ovechkin scoring on a power play goal, assisted by fellow veterans Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green.  Backstrom then delivered an assist to forward Jason Chimera, who stayed aggressive offensively in getting five shots.

There’s two days off in the NHL playoffs now. Tomorrow we’ll post a preview of the Phoenix-Los Angeles Western Conference finals—no schedule has been announced, but I’m still thinking it makes the most sense to begin on Sunday.

NHL Playoffs: New Jersey Closes Out Philly

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The New Jersey Devils became the third team to punch their ticket to the conference finals in the NHL playoffs and the first one to move forward in the East. In Tuesday’s lone playoff game, the Devils beat Philadelphia on the road 3-1 to clinch the series in five games.

Philadelphia played without center Claude Giroux, suspended for a hit in Game 4 and whose passing ability keys their offense. If it were just about this one game the Flyers would have a valid excuse, because without Giroux that had no one to create flow and the Devils turned in a terrific team defensive effort, holding a normally potent attack to less than 30 shots and Martin Brodeur played an excellent game in goal, stopping 27 of 28 shots. The veteran Brodeur may not be the elite stopper of his prime, but we have to note that in the two games in these playoffs were New Jersey had played to advance (Game 7 against Florida in the first round and then last night), Brodeur has delivered 71 saves and allowed only two goals. New Jersey also played a clean defensive game, as the Flyers got just one power play—something their undermanned offense could surely have used more of.

And while we can give Philly an excuse for last night, we can’t explain away the entire dismantling New Jersey put over the past week. Forwards Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk were solid all series long, and last night was no different. Parise wasn’t able to get on the board, but he was active with five shots and keeping offensive flow moving. Kovalchuk delivered an early assist and then with a 2-1 lead in the third period, it was his slapshot with 15 minutes left that all but sealed the Devils’ advancement.

New Jersey now awaits the winner of the NY Rangers-Washington series and that goes to Game 6 tonight in D.C. The Capitals have pushed themselves to the brink all year and somehow pulled back safely and its do-or-die in the Verizon Center tonight. The media focus has been on how they gave away Game 5 with a foolish penalty at the end and the resulting power play enabled the Rangers to tie the game with seven seconds left and then win in overtime while the power play was still in effect. This is indeed a big story, but as noted in this space after the game, a bigger problem is that New York decisively outplayed Washington for the entire game, and only a great effort by 22-year-old Braden Holtby in goal made it a game. I want to see the Caps get Alex Ovechkin involved—he astonishingly made it through a pivotal Game 5 without taking a single shot. A big gun is worthless if it’s never fired. And I want to see the team defense win the battle with New York’s Ryan Callahan and Marian Gaborik and keep the two scorers off the puck. Because we don’t see those things, we will see a Rangers-Devils conference final, a rematch an epic battle the teams had at that level in 1994.

There’s still no date for the Phoenix-Los Angeles opener in the Western Conference Finals. I’m guessing Sunday, but nothing’s official. If Washington and New York need a seventh game that will be Saturday, otherwise my best guess is that the East Finals would open that same day. Whenever the schedule is announced, TheSportsNotebook will have previews of both series in anticipation of the first puck drop.

NHL Playoffs: Phoenix Joins Los Angeles In Western Finals

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The NHL’s Western Conference finals are set, as the Phoenix Coyotes finished off the Nashville Predators in five games to move forward to face the Los Angeles Kings. And while the Coyotes were reaching new heights for what’s been an embattled franchise, the Washington Capitals were reaching new heights in finding ways to torture their loyal fan base, as they dropped a heartbreaker in New York. TheSportsNotebook looks back on both games and ahead to Tuesday night’s lone game…

Phoenix 2 Nashville 1: The Predators did what they had to and hammered Phoenix goalie Mike Smith with 33 shots, while shutting down the Coyote attack and limiting them to 17 shots. But for the third time this series, the Preds got an unsatisfactory outing from goalie Pekka Rinne, who allowed two goals, while Smith turned back 32 of 33. It’s generally accepted in the NHL playoffs that not only does a goalie have to sustain his regular season level of play, he has to lift it. Rinne, one of the league’s best, went in the opposite direction this series, with subpar games all three times in Phoenix. Nashville is not a great offensive team—even with the 33 shots, the problems of depending too heavily on the defenseman showed, as Shea Weber’s seven shots were easily the most on the team last night. Phoenix is built around one singularly great goaltender who continued to carry his team. Nashville is built on a deeper team defensive concept, but that doesn’t work when it only takes 17 shots to score twice. Congratulations to the Phoenix Smiths—we may as well name the team after the guy—as they get set to host the first two games against Los Angeles.

NY Rangers 3 Washington 2 (OT):  Washington was seven seconds away from stealing a road win at Madison Square Garden and taking control of the series, when the Rangers tied the game and then won it a minute and a half into overtime. The Caps now trail this series 3-2 in games, and they’re a triple-overtime game plus seven seconds away from having closed it out in five. For a franchise desperate to win its first Stanley Cup and exorcise years of frustration, this one’s reaching new heights.  But we also have to acknowledge that as close as Washington came to winning this game, they were not the better team on the ice last night. The New York defense played its best game of the postseason, limiting Washington to 18 shots and astonishingly holding Alex Ovechkin without a shot. While Ovechkin did get an assist, it’s probably a bigger miracle they were seven seconds from winning than it is that New York finally tied it. Ovechkin’s non-activity contrasts sharply with Ranger stars Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan who combined for 12 shots and helped keep the pressure on Capital goalie Braden Holtby, whom they peppered with 38 shots. Cut the kid a break—to hold off that kind of sustained attack, most of it coming from the team’s best players all game long is almost impossible.

New Jersey can reach the conference finals tonight when they visit Philadelphia. The Flyers got word that center Claude Giroux is suspended one game for a hit in Game 4. Giroux is one of the NHL’s best passing centers and the key to a prolific offense. To take him away is like the NBA suspending Chris Paul from the LA Clippers. I don’t write this to say the NHL was wrong in handing out its sentence, but to illustrate how big an impact this will have on Philly. I would say that they’ll have to do it with defense and goaltending, but I don’t have a laugh track to insert here. Between a weakened Flyer team tonight and a home game in Game 6, if New Jersey can’t avoid a Game 7, they deserve to lose. As for Philly, you have to take all the problems and turn them into an opportunity—if they can win without Giroux, all the pressure goes on the Devils the rest of the way.

NHL Playoffs: Ovechkin Answers The Critics

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Alex Ovechkin answered the critics who say his lessened ice time in these playoffs is the reason the Washington Capitals are still hanging around. In a Game 4 that was awfully close to must-win at home, Ovechkin scored in the first period to set the tone, laid a big hit in the second—and stayed involved in the offense throughout, as the Caps grabbed a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers and tied the series two games apiece in the lone NHL game of Saturday.

After falling behind 1-0, New York rallied behind Artem Anisov, who first scored and then fed Marian Gaborik for another goal, both sandwiched around a Caps score and the game was tied going into the third period. With five minutes to play and Washington on the power play, defenseman Mike Green scored what held up as the game-winner.

Washington won the battle of shots 26-20 and the fact four came from Ovechkin and four more from Alexander Semin tells you they were high-quality shots. Conversely, while Gaborik continues to start scoring, he was limited to two shots and fellow scoring forward Ryan Callahan was a complete non-factor. The Rangers failed to seriously test Braden Holtby, the kid goalie who looks more like one who had a magic two weeks against Boston and Tim Thomas, then a real Stanley Cup-quality goaltender. New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist continues to oscillate between championship-caliber and frustrating, a circumstance that makes me wonder how many heart attacks and nervous breakdowns the Rangers will be responsible for in the fan base if they keep this run going all the way through the playoffs. The human psyche is just not made to go and up and down that many times.

 

There’s two games today and the NBC game this afternoon at 3 PM ET is Los Angeles’ effort to close out a stunning sweep against St. Louis. Remember, Vancouver was able to win a Game 4 in the Staples Center with all the money on the table. Now St. Louis has to at least give their fans another home game with a win here. Then in prime-time it’s Philadelphia-New Jersey. As this series unfolds, the inconsistency of Flyer center Claude Giroux is becoming a storyline. He doesn’t need to score, but the offense has to run through him to be effective, so let’s see how active one of the league’s best passers will be against one of the league’s best team defenses.