The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals were each tempting fate on Saturday night on Madison Square Garden, with each team playing its second Game 7 in as many rounds. The game was a proto-typical seventh game, with defense and goaltending paramount, but the Rangers won enough little battles to produce a 2-1 win that sends them to the Eastern Conference finals starting Monday against New Jersey.
Ranger center Brad Richards got the scoring going in the first period. A scoreless second was followed by a third period New York goal where Marian Gaborik fed Michael Del Zotto. Washington came back 38 seconds later and pulled to within a goal with still half a period to play. But the Caps couldn’t complete the comeback and another postseason ended early in for the good fans in Washington D.C.
Its team defense—not just goaltending, but an overall team defensive concept that jumps out at me the most in this game. In the third period, their season on the line, Washington got only four shots. Alex Ovechkin, with a chance to get critics off his back, got just two shots all game long. The ability of the Rangers to effectively take Ovechkin out of any real offensive activity the last three games is the biggest reason they won this series. Conversely, New York got shots from its key offensive people. Washington’s defense couldn’t keep Gaborik and Ryan Callahan off the puck, with the two combining for ten shots. While Gaborik’s assist was the only point between the two, TheSportsNotebook’s playoff coverage has constantly stressed a correlation between offensive activity by the key players and success, even if it’s not the key players themselves ultimately scoring. Gaborik and Callahan were a part of the offense. Ovechkin was not. Goalie Braden Holtby tried again to rescue his team, saving 29 of 31 shots, but it wasn’t enough.
The conference finals are now set. Los Angeles-Phoenix starts in the West on Sunday night and that series preview is posted online. We’ll have a preview of the Rangers-Devils series either late Sunday or on Monday morning, in anticipation of Monday night’s Game 1.
The Phoenix Coyotes have moved to within one win of advancing, as they got a critical road win against Nashville in Game 4. On a quiet night in the NHL with just this one game, it was even quieter, as virtually all the action took place in the first period.
Coyote forward Shane Doan got the game’s only goal with about five minutes left in a period that saw each team take three penalties apiece, including a fight that created a 4-on-4 situation for five minutes. After that the play got clean, the defenses settled in and with two great goaltenders in Mike Smith and Pekka Rinne, it was lights out.
Smith, after a rough performance in Phoenix’s Game 3 loss, came back and turned away all 25 Nashville shots. Rinne saved 23 of 24. The fairly modest shot volume tells you the defenses were doing the job in front of the goalies and further delving into the box score shows the best offensive players weren’t getting the looks. Although I guess I big part of that comes from the fact Phoenix has no great offensive players—but even their good ones—Radim Vrbata and Ray Whitney, didn’t get many opportunities, and Nashville’s shot leader was defenseman Ryan Suter with four. The Preds are a team dependent on their defenseman for offense as well as D, and the lack of a great scorer on the frontline certainly shows in situations like this.
Saturday’s another one game day, but New York’s crucial Game 4 in Washington will be nationally televised by NBC at 12:30 PM ET. Bounce-back is going to be the big theme of this one as the teams come off their triple overtime battle on Wednesday night. So far in this series, the Rangers have gotten their key offensive people involved, and Marian Gaborik seems to coming to life. If the Capitals defense can’t develop an appropriate response it’s going to be very tough for them to win any more games, much less the series. The shot totals for Gaborik and Ryan Callahan are the hidden stat I’m watching in this one.
The New Jersey Devils did what they had to do in Philadelphia last night, and even though it took a couple periods for it to payoff, it was the complete team concept that delivered the Devils a 4-1 win and a 1-1 series tie against the Flyers in last night’s only NHL playoff game.
Philadelphia got an early goal, but the Devils got settled into lockdown defense and the Philly offense, one of the most prolific in the league all season and the best so far in the playoffs, couldn’t get a shot off, having just 11 shots through two periods and 20 for the game. Meanwhile, New Jersey was staying aggressive. They got 25 shots in periods 1 & 2, but still trailed 1-0 as Flyer goalie Ilya Bryzgalov looked like he was finally ready to earn even a fraction of the nine-year $51 million deal he got to be the man who can put this team over the hump in June. But the Devils kept pounding and they eventually broke through with four goals in the final period. They were evenly dispersed throughout the period and nine players got credit for a point so there was literally no time when Jersey didn’t have productive players on the ice in the third period.
It was an impressive display of hockey in a situation the team really needed to win. After the game the Flyers’ players and coaches blamed themselves for exposing Bryzgalov to too great a degree—and with 34 shots allowed, that’s fair enough. But at $51 million it’s also fair enough for Flyers fans to expect at least one “get me one goal tonight and we’ll win” kind of effort from the goaltender. He’s playing better than in the Pittsburgh series, but goalie is still an issue with Philadelphia and this series heads across the border into New Jersey.
All the series are two games in right now, with both Eastern Conference series’ tied, and in the West, Los Angeles and Phoenix having jumped out to 2-0 leads, over St. Louis and Nashville respectively. Tonight it’s NY Rangers-Washington and Phoenix-Nashville.
In the Caps-Rangers series, the lack of playing time for Alex Ovechkin is becoming a bigger media story. The star played only 13-plus minutes in Game 2. Look, I understand Washington needed to be more defensive-oriented to avoid previous playoff flameouts, but this is over the top. You’re talking about one of the best players in hockey playing less than a quarter of the game! It makes even less sense when there’s a correlation between Ovechkin getting his shots—even when he’s not scoring—and the Capitals offensive success. It’s one thing to become defense-oriented, it’s another to turn an elite scorer into a role player, as though he’s just a sixth man coming off the bench or a #3 wide receiver in football.
There’s less mystery in the Phoenix-Nashville game, in the shadow of Grand ‘Ol Opry, but more urgency. The Predators have played some bad hockey in the first two games and even though they are the lower seed, they’re favored in this series—the Coyotes only have the #3 seed by virtue of winning a weak Pacific Division. I wish I could say something more analytical or inspired than “they need to play like they’re the better team, but until they can get a win under their belt, that’s all this is about.
It can’t be shocking that the St. Louis Blues lost last night to the Los Angeles Kings in Game 2 of the NHL’s Western Conference semi-final—I’m surprised to be sure, that they’ve dumped the first two games of this series at home, but home ice matters less in the NHL than any other sport, and with a goalie like the Kings’ Jonathan Quick, they’re going to be in every game. What has to be considered shocking is the way St. Louis completely melted down right from the start. TheSportsNotebook recaps this, as well as the New York-Washington game from last night in the NHL playoffs, and looks ahead to tonight.
Los Angeles 5 St. Louis 2: Team defense and goaltending have been the St. Louis calling card this season and the reason they were the #2 seed in the West. Both qualities were nowhere apparent in the first twenty minutes of action last night. LA center Brad Richards took a pass from Dustin Penner and gave the Kings a quick goal before the crowd could get settled in. Then Dustin Brown, a big emergence in these playoffs, fed center Anze Kopitar, a player Los Angeles needs to get rolling. A 2-0 lead with Quick in goal has you thinking lights-out already, but the Kings had more to come. Penner delivered another assist, and then the Brown-to-Kopitar combo lit the lamp and it was 4-zip Kings by the end of the period. Did I miss anything? Oh, yes, the second of those goals came on the power play—the St. Louis power play.
Brown cashed in another assist before the game was over, but what has to alarm St. Louis—aside from the 0-2 series hole, the two impending road games and the horrible start—is Los Angeles didn’t play some extraordinary game. They got 21 shots in goal, which against the Blue defense and Brian Elliot usually can spell shutout. The Kings were whistled for penalties and St. Louis got nine power play chances—but that shorthanded goal Los Angeles scored was the only one on any of the nine. For those that don’t follow hockey regularly, to illustrate how many power plays that is, note that the Rangers-Capitals game we’re about to discuss had a combined six for both teams. I’ve agitated for St. Loo to play Elliot in goal over Jaroslav Halak and the latter’s injury—he’s now expected out the rest of this series with a bad ankle—made the decision for St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock. But Elliot didn’t make those of us in his camp look very smart last night in a pretty big game.
Washington 3 NY Rangers 2: Ranger goalie Henrik Lundqvist didn’t have a meltdown, nor is his status the subject of any real debate. But hockey observers do wonder whether Lundqvist can translate regular season excellence into postseason dominance. Last night in MSG gave the critics some material. Washington, after a completely impotent offensive showing in Game 1, came out with two early goals, including an assist by Joel Ward, the man who scored the Game 7 OT goal against Boston in the first round. Trailing 2-0, the Ranger offense got its key people involved. Marian Gaborik fed Dustin Richards to cut the lead in half. Nobody scored again until the third period, when Ryan Callahan tied the game on a power play feed from Richards. But nobody creates havoc through their activity on the offensive end like Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and with a 7 ½ minutes left he scored a power play goal of his own that stood and the Capitals had tied the series at a game apiece.
New York did a good job in getting Richards, Gaborik and Callahan to all be a part of the offense. Now the shots need to be distributed more to the latter two. Richards, an excellent passing center, took five shots, more than Gaborik and Callahan, scoring forwards, took combined. Now Richards shooting is better than mediocre talent or defenseman launching the puck, but the New York offense will be its highest level if its best scorers are taking the shots (ingenious theory, huh?). Contrast that with Ovechkin, who got seven shots at the net. Get your big guns enough shots, and they’ll find the back of the net eventually. And overall, a mediocre outing from Lundqvist, who got reasonable defensive protection and only faced 25 shots.
There’s only one game on the NHL schedule tonight and it’s New Jersey-Philadelphia for Game 2. Even though the Devils lost Game 1 in overtime, I thought they did a good job defensively against a potent Philly attack. If they can keep the shots under 30 and prevent Claude Giroux and Sean Courtierer, the centers on the top two lines from creating situations, New Jersey will win. And I think they’ll get it done tonight. By the conclusion of this evening, all four series will have two games under their belt.
The nation’s two biggest cities had reason to be happy in hockey yesterday, as the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings, coming from opposite ends of the playoff bracket, as well as the national topography, each posted 3-1 wins to open their respective conference semi-finals. TheSportsNotebook recaps both games and looks ahead to Sunday’s playoff doubleheader…
NY Rangers 3 Washington 1: The defenses were in lockdown mode on both sides here. Alex Ovechkin might as well have stayed in D.C. and gone to a Robert Griffin III draft party for all the impact he made on this game, and gone to an RG3 draft party. The Caps got only 18 shots on New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist and when you have that little offensive activity, you’re lucky to score once.
What’s frustrating for Washington is that their own defense answered the bell. They allowed only 14 shots, and four of them came from defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who is the type of player the Caps would prefer launching the puck. But Braden Holtby let three in the net, including two in a 90-second timespan in the third period that decided the game. The 22-year-old goalie was so dominant in the first round over Boston, that in a discussion yesterday with a friend who’s a Caps/Redskins fan, I asked where he thought Holtby ranked along with RG3 and Stephen Strasburg in the pantheon of Beltway athletic stars in the early twenties. We reached the conclusion that Holtby was on a temporary high where he could challenge Strasburgh for the two-spot in that pecking order (NFL quarterbacks by definition have to be #1 in today’s sports culture), but that the goalie could lose his status by Friday if he cools off. Game 1 met that cooling-off criteria.
Chris Kreider was the offensive hero for New York, scoring the third period go-ahead goal and then having the lead assist (in hockey, up to two players can be credited with an assist) on the clincher. The Rangers also have to be pleased about the work they got from their centers, with Derek Stepan being involved on the assist to Kreider, and then Brad Richards being the one who scored the third goal.
Los Angeles 3 St. Louis 1: Both goalies were tough yesterday, as St. Louis’ Brian Elliot and LA’s Jonathan Quick went at each other in a pitcher’s duel that would have made Chris Carpenter and Clayton Kershaw proud. The Blues scored early on a goal from David Backes, but it was tied by the end of the first period, and then the Kings got a shorthanded score in the second period. Dustin Brown, whose scoring outburst stunned Vancouver in the opening round, got an assist on this goal.
The game stayed scoreless until the final fifteen seconds when Los Angeles tacked one on in an empty net situation. The defenses for both teams were decent, allowing a manageable 29 shots on goal. Elliot was good, with his 26 saves adding up to a 92.9% save rate, which would be among the league’s best. T Quick did what NHL goalies have to do at this time of year and that’s lift his game to another level, and his 96% save rate did that.
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The New Jersey-Philadelphia series will be the last of the conference semifinals to open today, and you can read TheSportsNotebook’s series preview here. We also have Game 2 of Nashville-Phoenix from the desert, with the Coyotes looking to win their second straight. Throughout Phoenix’s series with Chicago in the first round I talked about how the Blackhawks needed to double up on the Coyotes in shots to make up for a goaltending mismatch. In Nashville’s case, they need to bring a defensive performance that makes scoring virtually impossible. Pekka Rinne in goal will play better than he did in Game 1 and Phoenix’s mediocre offensive talent can be locked down by defenseman Shea Weber and Ryan Suter. If the Rangers and Capitals could hold each other under 20 shots, than Nashville can do it to Phoenix. I want to see the Predators make that happen and then somehow sneak out a goal against Coyote goaltender Mike Smith to win it.
