Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

Woohoo! Final game of the season. A month and a half ago, I thought this would be the last one I’d cover before the summer, but then Ovechkin happened. Now, the Boston Bruins at Washington Capitals game was just a meaningless little preamble to the real dance, which starts next week.

Let’s do a loose recap. Looch got a lucky one off Alzner’s skates, then he screened Holtby on Ference’s goal. Then, Mike Green 2009 warged into Mike Green 2013 and scored back-to-back power play goals. The Caps killed some late-game penalties and forced overtime, where Eric Fehr finished off the regular season with a little goal so greasy you could lubricate your engine with it if that’s a thing you knew how to do.

Caps beat Bruins 3-2 (Overtime).

Mike Green leads defensemen in goals. The current date is April 27, 2013. If that’s not proof that Adam Oates’ power play is magic, I don’t know what is. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen a healthy Mike Green in the playoffs. Heads up.

Out of town: Montreal looks like they’ll beat the Leafs tonight. So if Ottawa wins tonight (Philly) and tomorrow (Boston), the Caps will play the Leafs. That’d be a) awesome given all the media attention, and b) ideal for maximum scoar moar goals. Saturday’s Sens-Flyers game might be the last of Mike Knuble’s career– 1077 games long. It has been a privilege to watch his big ass play hockey.

Joe B suit of the night

If Ottawa loses tonight (they’re currently trailing), it’ll be Caps-Rangers for the millionth time in a million years. That’s okay as the Rangers are way weaker than some of the other teams the Caps coulda pulled (namely the Sens or the Isles), but still. Jeez. Sick of those guys. Remember: it was Caps at NYR when Mike whatshisface went on that tirade on Ovi. Get ready for 4-7 more games of that mess.

UPDATE: Yup. It’s the Rangers.

Alex Ovechkin got two apples, but no guavas. No matter– as Stamkos didn’t score before press time, soooo… congrats to Alex Ovechkin for winning the Rocket Richard. Just three months after everyone called him washed up. I went through all my old game recaps and changed them to make it seem like I knew this would happen all along. All joking aside, I have been deflecting criticism off Ovechkin all season while also mourning what looked like a mostly predictable decline in performance– until Jack Adams-deserving Adam Oates fed Ovi some acorn paste with red streaks in it and turned him into an all-seeing, goal-scoring, skinchanging ubermensch. Kneel before Ovi.

The Caps are apparently trying to get all the late-game penalties out of their system now. Cool.

OKAY. THAT’S IT. RAZOR’S DOWN. Here’s the part of the year where we all go insane. I can’t wait.

Playoffs, baby! Who’s excited?

Illustration by Rachel Cohen, y’all.

Har har. Bruins fan taunts Ribs. (Photo credit: Emily C.)

The Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins have developed an intense rivalry since their back-and-forth seven-game series in the first round of the playoffs last year. From the Olympic-quality dives from Brad Marchand to Nicky Backstrom’s cross-check to the face, it’s apparent these teams hate each other.

That’s why on Saturday, as they played each other for the second time in 16 days, all hell broke loose. First, Mike Ribeiro fought Brad Marchand, and Matt Hendricks laid down the law with Nathan Horton. Then, in the third period, as Shawn Thornton tried to get Hendricks to drop the gloves, Hendy bloodied his fists in a fight with Adam McQuaid.

Let’s recap all the crazy.

Mike Ribeiro Fights Brad Marchand

As Mike Ribeiro skates out of the defensive zone, Marchand drops his gloves and starts throwing haymakers. What’s the point of the instigator penalty if it’s never called? The two exchange punches. This was Ribeiro’s first NHL fight. Way to go, Ribs.

Matt Hendricks Fights Nathan Horton

The Capitals, incensed that the Bruins would fight one of their skill players, immediately look for retribution. Before the period ends, Hendricks finds Nathan Horton at the blue line, drops gloves, and bloodies his face. As Hendricks skates off to the locker room, Shawn Thornton tells him he’s going to eff him up.

Mike Ribeiro vs. Taunting Bruins Fan

While Ribs serves his major in the box, a Bruins fan does the crybaby face to him. Uhh, that’s Karl Alzner’s move, dummy.

Matt Hendricks Fights Adam McQuaid

As Thornton coaxes Hendy into a fight, the Blaine, Minnesota native instead chooses the man taking shots at him all day, Adam McQuaid. Hendricks bloodies his knuckle during the bout.

Matt Hendricks Puts Boston Fan In His Place

Finally, as Hendricks skates off the ice for repairs, a Boston fan grabs at him and yells something probably impolite. Hendy points at the fan, warning him that if he doesn’t stop, justice will have to be served again.

Photo via @ChrisLicodo

All in all, there were 42 penalty minutes, three fights, and one Capital player yelling SUCK MY F!^#&^ D!^& on live TV. Oh, hockey. You’re the best.

Photo credit: Brian Babineau

The Boston Bruins are the best team in the East. I think they’re the East’s best chance at winning the Cup this year, but that doesn’t mean I’m rooting for them or that I didn’t want the Washington Capitals to crush them on Saturday afternoon. That didn’t happen though. The Caps struggled on defense, and their offense needed help to get the puck behind Anton Khudobin. The game got a little wild in the second and third periods, which is just how the Bruins like it.

Bruins beat Caps 4-1.

• I’m not sure who should catch the blame on the Nathan Horton goal. Matt Hendricks goofed on a dump-in, but Troy Brouwer‘s deflection gave Lucic the opportunity to pass it up the slot. And of course no one marked Horton at all. Horton had a clean one-timer from high in the slot, and he absolutely nailed it. David Krecji followed it up by sinking a loose puck. It was a bad way to cap off a pretty tight first period.
• So maybe next year the Capitals should put together an NHL-quality blueline. Jack Hillen and his unenthusiastic D was responsible for Krecji’s goal — perhaps expected after he sat so long on the shelf. Steve Oleksy was on-ice for both first period goals and Ference’s tally in the second.
• Marcus Johansson opened up the second period with a casual pass from behind Boston’s net. The puck was deflected through the slot by a Boston player and then deflected into the net by David Krecji‘s skate. lulz. That was Marcus Johansson’s second goal on the season (13 games played) and also the closing arguments of any essay about why puck possession is more important that goals when predicting future success.
• That wasn’t totally fair. Johansson really was the Caps’ best forward. He had 4 shots and possession score in the black (plus-7 Corsi, unlike most of his teammates). I’ve still got my eye on him, but even if his goal was unearned he absolutely deserves credit for a great game.
• Basically counts as a shutout for Anton Khudobin as far as I’m concerned. Tell me I’m wrong.
• Andrew Ference scored as four-on-four play expired with a wristshot that was not adequately covered by the Washington D (stop me if you’re detecting a theme).
• The Capitals– or really just Matt Hendricks– kinda got suckered into playing Bruins-style puck. Lots of scrums after the whistle, troll-y provocation, and ding-a-ling measuring going on. That doesn’t really seem to be a good fit for the Caps roster.
• But the Caps roster doesn’t seem to fit anything. Case in point: Aaron Volpatti, a waiver-signing who one week later finds himself skating with Ovechkin and Backstrom for portions of Saturday’s game. Volpatti got a sweater instead of Perreault and Wolski for reasons mysterious and got a spot on the top line because he has the correct dominant hand. Oates seems to summarily eliminate wingers from top-line eligibility for such a reason, regardless of how much they (and really we’re just talking about Eric Fehr) can drive play.
• Ian was so bored by this game that he read the CBA. It was that bad.
• Alright, let’s try to unpack the end of the second period. Alex Ovechkin gave Brad “Cupcake” Marchand some grief, but somehow Mike Ribeiro got pulled into a fight. A noble enterprise by Ribs, but maybe unwise considering he weights 110 pounds and had never been in an NHL fight before. Matt Hendricks was so moved by the bout (or pissed that it happened) that he attacked Nathan Horton. Hendy got the best of him there, though Horton did earn a Gordie Howe for his blood.
• Hendricks had to choose between Thornton and McQuaid for another fight in the third period. Hendy chose McQuaid, tearing his jersey and bloodying his hand. Thornton drew an unsportsmanlike for his role in the run-up. The Caps did nothing with the resulting power play.
• Jason Chimera? Hahaha no.
• The Bs needed all of 8 seconds to convert a third period power play (Hillen for slashing). The Caps PK is rotten, but no one seems willing to take out the trash.
• Usually the team behind in the score starts shooting more to try to come back. That didn’t happen. The Caps, who rank in the bottom 10 in possession while trailing, actually saw their offense decline. Mind-bottling.

Joe B suit of the night

The Bruins are a better team than the Caps right now. It hurts to say it, but it’s true by every measure. The only virtue in games like this is what lessons the team takes away. Hopefully, that means acuity in the dangers of signing and playing sub-NHL defenders, the continued and desperate need for linemates for Ovechkin who actually drive play, and the futility of playing the goon game against a goon team.

At least the Caps get to feed at the trough of Buffalo tomorrow. That team is scorched earth.

I think tonight is when everyone celebrates St. Patrick’s Day. Please be safe. The Capitals’ Mike Vogel called this holiday “Amateur Night,” and he ‘s totally right. Try to avoid the dummies and be careful on the roads. Make sure you’re here for tomorrow night’s game at home.

Doug Johnson is back to amuse and torment. You know him as one-half of the PuckBuddys. The first one to get them to 3K Twitter follows probably wins a car or something.

The Morning Skate: Gentle readers, before we [CENSORED] all over our Bruins friends,  let us pause a moment, as you scramble in blind panic preparing for snow that will never, ever come again, to consider the hazards of making predictions. Especially about the Caps.

For example, if I predict no snow Wednesday, it’s gonna get all crazy 20″ up in here. Conversely, I stone cold guarantee that if I dash to the store today to buy a terror shovel, we will be mopping our brows and sipping Mint Juleps on our verandas by Friday. The point is: predictions can go so wrong. Britain’s Lord Kelvin (he of Downton Abbey, we guess?) said heavier-than-air machines could never fly. Harry Warner said no-one would pay for talkies. The Skipper predicted a three-hour tour. Boom.

Brad Marchand…stay classy, you devil-may-care lug!

Now before you get all Nate Silver-y on my behind with a lecture about the differences between prediction and guessing, let me remind all you smarty-pants that even that guy can be as wrong as a clam-juice birthday cake (who did he pick for the Superbowl? Hmmm?). Which brings us to Tuesday’s meeting of the Capitals and Bruins.

Heading into the vortex of despair we call Winnipeg last weekend, following as it did our emasculation by the Flyers, which itself followed our manhandling of Sasha and the Canes, and a bunch of other smart reasons articulated here, we did not have big expectations. Truly, given our flukey history with the Jets, we almost napped through the game. That would have been a shame, as it became a great display of what this team can do when they pull it together.

The real question here, the one I’ve been dithering around, wasting precious precious minutes of your life that you will never get back, is which Capitals team will show Tuesday? The bumblers that allow three points in the 1st period and just sorta of sleep-skate thereafter, or the gladiators that snap together like a Spartan phalanx and crush the will of their opponents? Flinging fate to the winds, I predict the latter, because that’s our roll.

OK, back to [NOPE, STILL CENSORED] on Boston.

The Puck Drop: Research suggests that the B’s are, in fact, chemically, the single worst concentration of terrible humankindism going back to, oh what, the cast of The Love Boat we reckon’. The bean team has been tearing it up against just about everyone in the Southeast recently, turning away teams that have done so to us, while holding their own in the Northeast. Even Sunday’s just-loss to the Habs demonstrated a squad willing, and mostly able, to take it to their foes on the ice.

And so for this, our first meeting this shortened season with the big bad Back Bay baboons, let’s conjure the spirits of our last meet-ups – specifically such sweet, juicy memories as:

• Mama June-clone Tim Thomas stumbling around apparently on horse tranqs and totally getting faked out of his cup by Matt “The Paralyzer” Hendricks, Braden Holtby, also known in our house as Braveman Holtbeast, staring down twerp Rich Peverley, and our favorite, Joel Ward‘s hero clutch shot and OT playoff game winner from game 7 last April. There now, isn’t that like better?

Who’s Hot And What’s Not:

• Lines of Death: Say what you may about the Bruins…for example, “I’d rather stick forks in my eyes than cheer them,” that’s a good one. Still, barf, they have several lines that act like a coherent…well, line. Lucic and Krejci up top, followed by a killer of Marchand, Seguin and Bergeron (“Patrice”? Rly?) And they’re working, while we can’t even get our first line settled. #sadface
• Who’s On First: In 19 out of 19 games this season, when the Bruins draw first blood, they win. In our 20 games, we can say that only 50% of the time; exactly 1/2 as good. Similarly, they trail at the end of the 1st, they win 50% of the time; for us, it’s 25%. This is NOT a team you want to chase down in the 3rd, as we have made a habit of doing. First shot, and especially a lead at the end of the first should suggest what the next 40 minutes will look like. So there.
• Man The Barricades: Overall, with last week’s Hurricane’s alpha-male performance, our Philly floppy fish imitation, and a don’t-give-up tightening in Satan’s playground Winnipeg, we had a good week. Capping a crapital month. Animal-man Troy Brouwer may have wondered which Sasha would show up last year, but we’re questioning which team shows up game to game. As I read wizard and competitor (so don’t click on the clicky) Peerless Prognosticator, perhaps our weakest two areas – continually this season – are defense and turnovers. Oh, and stoopid freaking penalties. Both of which speak to one basic idea: D-FND your Holtby, and keep your puck. Dépêchez-vous sur les barricades! Allez!
• Road Warriors: This is taking on a decided Hollywood-tinged theme. Still, we haven’t exactly been the model road team this year, eh? Ho ho, I’ll say! It’s like we’re flying non-stop to Kinshasa, playing on empty stomachs and typhoid water, and swimming back home – exhausting. We don’t really have a lot of time to figure this out. Easy for me to say: fat old man sitting in his jammies tapping out ill-informed hockey analysis. So we’ve got a home stand now until making the runs to Long Island… but it gets much worse after that. Two solid victories at home are what’s on the menu, boys.
  

  Red Rally Balloon > Kernkraft

• Red Rally Balloon: I’m totally ready for this plucky little latex friend to reappear. Although I’d do it with a Macklemore remix. Yuh-huh.
• O Captain! O Hai My Captain! OK, given one more poor performance, of which we’ve admittedly seen too much of this year (ahem), the media wombats will be all over Alex Ovechkin, bleating about this or that or the other. (Didja see wha I did there?) For three years your PuckBuddys have been hearing wha-wha-wha from who cares about our Captain’s inability to share and play nice. Pish. How many different Caps have gotten a piece of a winning puck in the last two weeks? And how many of them (other than, you know, that one game) have been Ovi? Yes, less curl-and-drag. They’re already doing that on RuPaul’s hot mess of a TV show, so please stop.
• Speaking of… I know he’s been prepping in a bunker in Idaho or doing shortwave radio shows from East Egg, Long Island or somewhere, but when was the last time I had a Chick-fil-A, and thought tender, juicy crispy thoughts about Mr. Thomas? Oh that’s right, in Hell.

Post Game: Spring is in the air, and we’re feeling a bit frisky. But so well-behaved! C’mon, an entire Bruins post and not one shirtless pic of Tyler. Or Dougie Hamilton? (You seen that guy?) So we’re casting our bread upon the water in this Easter season and putting together a PuckBuddys party in several weeks, likely hosted at Nellie’s, duh. We haven’t even run this past our RMNB overlords yet, but we tote want a huge turnout, so we’ll see what we see. [Ed. note: we're there. - Peter]

Prediction: I’m writing it down and sealing it in a dated envelope that I leave with my neighbor (serious.) I’ll let you know the results Wednesday. #predictionwin.

Welp, the Washington Capitals got knocked out of the playoffs again, and we’re totally exasperated. Here’s the part of the year where we wonder what went wrong.

Here’s also the part where the scoundrels will try to wrest away the discussion from right-thinking individuals. Before the loudmouths start throwing around sweeping generalizations and platitudes, I’m going to try to get some actual, objective information out there.

What follows is a breakdown of how the Capitals postseason went down– strictly by the numbers.

Goals

The Capitals scored 16 goals on the Bruins and 13 on the Rangers. Against the Caps, the Bruins scored 15 and the Rangers scored 15. That’s a razor-sharp goal differential of minus-1.

The Capitals’ 2.07 goals per game average ties them for 10th (NYR has the same) among playoff teams. Their 2.14 goals against per game ranks them 6th among playoff teams.

Compared to their regular season record, the Capitals scored .61 fewer goals per game but also allowed .62 fewer goals against.

Possession

The Fenwick stat is a proxy for puck possession (how much your team has control of the puck). It’s the sum of all even-strength shots on net, goals, and misses subtracted by the same total for the opponent. There’s a similar stat called Corsi that includes blocked shots, but I’m using this one instead so I can do blocks separately.

The Capitals had a cumulative Fenwick score of minus-107 across both series. That means they allowed 107 more pucks towards their net than they fired towards the opponent’s. That breaks down to minus-68 against the Boston and minus-39 against New York.

The Caps were 12th out of the 16 playoff teams in Fenwick while the score is close. Two of the teams below the Caps got knocked out in the first round. The only team that outlasted the Caps with worse possession numbers is Phoenix.

The Caps’ two worst possession games were Game Four vs Boston, a minus-35 score in a 2-1 win, and Game Five at New York, a minus-29 score that the Caps lost in a last-minute implosion. Both of those games saw the Caps own the puck less than they did at any point during the regular season.

Goaltending

[EDIT: I had a miscalculation here. I shortchanged Holtby by .01 in an earlier draft. Apologies.]

Braden Holtby earned saved 94% of shots at even strength. That is two-hundredths better than the league average (93%, natch). By the numbers, Holtby saved at even strength exactly two more shots out of a hundred than another NHL goalie would have done.

I can’t tell you how many of those shots were dangerous (i.e. from the scoring chance zone), but your boy Neil Greenberg might have that data.

Braden’s goals-against average is the same as the team’s: 2.14 GA/G. But we should keep in mind that GAA is a team statistic, since the goalie has no control over how many shots he faces in a game– only the portion of those shots that he saves.

Holtby faced more shots than any other goalie in the postseason (459). The only other goalie with 14 games played is Henrik Lundqvist, who faced just 396.

Since you asked, Tim Thomas’s even-strength save percentage was a slightly above average .924, and Lundqvist’s was a stellar .936.

Power Play

The Capitals went on the man advantage 39 times during the playoffs, scoring 7 times for a 18% conversion rate. That rate was pretty evenly distributed across both Boston and New York. That’s good for 5th best among the 16 playoff teams, but it’s only a fraction of the story.

The Capitals were dead last when it came to power play opportunities per game (2.78). For comparison, the Los Angeles Kings are getting 5.2 per game. Boston got 3.2 per game, and NYR got 4.07.

That fits with the pattern from the regular season, where the Caps saw the 4th fewest power play opportunities (it was actually a virtual three-way tie with Dallas and NYI for 29th place).

Some have concluded that drawn penalties correlates with puck possession. In short, the other team will commit more penalties to remove you from the puck if you control it more often. That is a pretty compelling argument given the Capitals’ meekness on the puck this season.

Penalty Kill

The Capitals went shorthanded 48 times and allowed 6 goals for an 87.5% penalty kill rate. That ranks them 6th among playoff teams (just two of whom– LAK and PHX– are still playing). That 87.5% is significant improvement on the Caps’ 81.6% kill rate during the regular season.

No playoff team played shorthanded more than the Capitals.

I should point out that the Capitals PK had only 4 goals against on 38 tries until the closing seconds of round two’s Game Five, when the Rangers scored twice on Joel Ward’s high-sticking double minor penalty. Those goals were… costly.

Faceoffs

It’s an unsexy stat, but the Capitals won just about 51% of faceoffs through 14 games.

The Capitals won just a single game (Game Five at Boston) in which they lost most faceoffs (45%).

Luck

Shooting luck is measured in PDO, which adds up a shooting percentage while a player is on the ice compared to his own goalie’s save percentage, so that the average is 1000. This stat helps reveal hot and cold streaks as artifacts of raw luck rather than some kind of dubious narrative.

For example, Alex Semin had the worst PDO among Capitals forwards with 965. Personally, Semin scored 3 times on 35 shots for a 8.5% (disappointing for Sasha, whose career average is north of 14%). But even worse– Capitals players scored on just 3.33% while he was on ice. That’s bad luck.

Looking at this same metric on the other end of the ice, escape goat Dennis Wideman was on ice for Holtby’s worst goaltending of the series (91%) to “earn” a PDO of 981. That may suggest the reputation (that I helped give him) was undeserved.

Blocking

The Capitals blocked 326 shots in the postseason– that’s more than the total number of shots that the Caps fired at the enemy net at even strength. That’s an average of about 23 blocked shots per game.

If you care about such things, the Caps outblocked their opponents by a margin of 66– 9 more than Boston, 57 more than New York.

There were a few five-block individual performances from Karl Alzner, Roman Hamrlik, Jay Beagle, and John Carlson, but only one player who recorded 9 blocks in a single game: Jeff Schultz.

Line-Matching

Alex Ovechkin was matched by the opponent’s top defenseman 77% of the time. For Boston, that meant Zdeno Chara, who skated with Ovechkin for 4/5ths of the series. New York’s Dan Girardi matched him slightly less at 75%.

When away from Verizon Center during the quarterfinals, Ovechkin spent even more time matched against Chara– a whopping 85%. When Dale Hunter had the final line change at home, Ovechkin saw him less. There was no similar home-away difference during the semifinal round.

* * *

That’s all I’ve got for now. Let me know if you have any questions that the numbers might illuminate. I’ll try my best. Long-term analysis comes next.

Stats came from Behind the Net, Time On Ice, and NHL.com.

Photo credit: Chris Gordon

When Dale Hunter was first hired as Caps head coach, old-time fans of the team assumed #32 would bring his fiery nature behind the bench. Instead, Hunter has been cool, calm, and collected, rarely losing his composure or seeming visibly upset.

“I hear you guys asking about a different mental toughness,” Brooks Laich said, explaining the connection between their coach and the Caps’ new grinding identity. “It’s a different makeup of the team, a little bit. It comes from our head coach. He’s a very calm, composed guy behind the bench. I said it from day one when he got here: He runs a tight ship and we draw a lot from him.”

There have been a few times, however, that Hunter has has raised his voice. One of those times was before overtime of Game Seven. On April 26th, the day after the Capitals first round series win, George McPhee touched on an intriguing story on NHL Live.

“He’s a quiet guy,” McPhee said. “He’s always been that way. He doesn’t get too excited, but has a nice rapport with the players. If he does raise his voice — which I think he’s done twice in five months — the players certainly pay attention. And he did so before overtime [of Game Seven], but in a fun way.”

Quote comes at the 6:08 mark.

I had always been wondering what Dale said, so I decided to ask Matt Hendricks about the speech at yesterday’s practice. Here is Hendy’s take on it:

It was pretty neat actually. He came in and he just told us to embrace this, overtime, Game Seven. Just kind of an “it doesn’t get much better than this” type of thing. It felt like he was one of the players. He came in and didn’t talk like he was a coach. He didn’t come in and do X’s and O’s, tell us where we had to be better in areas. He just came in and talked like he was one of the guys again, like he was playing. Just enjoy it. Go out and work as hard as you can and get the win. It was an inspiring little speech. I don’t know if he meant it to be that way but it was, and we won, and that’ll be looked at as a great turning point in our season.

Of all people, Dale would know.

Photo credit: Brian Babineau

While Braden Holtby and Joel Ward will be receiving all the attention after last night’s Game Seven victory, it was Karl Alzner who may have made the most clutch play of the game.

Thirty-five seconds into overtime, an energetic Bruins team camped out in the Capitals offensive zone and looked to end the game early on their first shift. As Dennis Seidenberg blasted a shot from the point, Braden Holtby stopped the puck with his right pad. However, a rebound squirted loose and landed right onto Patrice Bergeron‘s stick.

That’s when Alzner — a two-time WJC gold medal winner with Team Canada (and its captain) — cooly and calmly dove to the ice and got a piece of Bergeron’s shot with his stick. Video is below.

Just two minutes later, Joel Ward ended the series by knocking in Mike Knuble’s rebound.

Despite tallying only an assist and a plus/minus rating of 0, Alzner was easily the Capitals best defensemen in the series. Combining with John Carlson, the two young defensemen were the Capitals’ most effective shutdown pairing and frustrated the Bruins first-line all series long. Alzner had 12 hits and 17 blocks in the seven games against the defending champions.

While we may be seeing Braden Holtby develop into the Capitals goalie of the future, we’re also witnessing the maturation of Karl Alzner into that shutdown defensemen this team has needed for years.

Update: There is some debate about if the puck actually hit Alzner (I maintain it did). See the comments for more.

Photo credit: Brian Babineau

Joel Ward was a playoff hero for Nashville last year, leading the league in postseason goals at one point in the first round and ending with better than a point per game.

That grit and clutch goal-scoring was why General Manager George McPhee outbid a number of other teams to sign Ward in the summer to an expensive 4-year, $12 million contract.

In the regular season, however, things didn’t go as planned. Ward was benched one game for missing a meeting, scratched several games for poor play, and managed to tally just six goals. It was the worst offensive season of his career– though he spent most of it assigned as a fourth liner.

But Joel Ward’s play in the regular season isn’t what got him glory in Nashville. And it’s not what just put him in Capitals’ record books forever.

In the second minute of overtime, 39-year-old right wing Mike Knuble took the puck strong to the net, but Tim Thomas kicked out the rebound. Ward found the puck unguarded. Composed, he backhanded the puck past Thomas. Sudden victory! It was his first goal of the playoffs.

The 31-year-old Ontario-native talked about the goal with reporters after the game. “They were looking to dump, and I thought we might go off on a change, and then I saw we had a little bit of a break up ice. It happened so fast. I knew [Knuble] was going to take the puck to the net, and I was just trying to follow it up … I saw it lying there, and gave it one of the hardest whacks I’ve ever given a puck.”

He continued: “It’s huge. [The goal] felt rewarding for sure. I wanted to contribute as much as I could in this series and take a load off the big guys.”

Ward now joins Dale Hunter and Sergei Federov as the only Capitals to score a Game Seven game-winning goal.

Sergei Fedorov’s Game 7 Winner Against New York

Dale Hunter’s Game 7 OT Goal against the Flyers

Photo credit: Elsa

Game Seven. You know the deal.

Jason Chimera dropped the puck to John Carlson, who fired a shot that Matt Hendricks tipped in. Tyler Seguin dove to knock in a loose puck behind Braden Holtby to tie the game heading into the third period. The game went into overtime.

And then it happened. You knew it would. Mike Knuble crashed the net and Joel Ward swept in the rebound. Caps beat Bruins 2-1 (OT).

• This was the first series in NHL history in which every game was decided by a single goal. Yeah. You just watched the tightest series ever. Really. That’s not hyperbole. I know since it came from us it feels like an exaggeration, but it’s a real true fact.
• Tim Thomas was sporting a two-game shutout streak in game sevens before tonight. He was a great foe and a world-class hockey player. Salute the glorious dead.
• Here’s the thing about Matt Hendricks: he’s the orphaned puppy of the NHL. Released by the Avalanche two years ago, Matt Hendricks wandered the streets of DC until George McPhee found him, rain-soaked and mangy, and brought him to training camp. McPhee fed him, gave him a bath, called him a good dog, and the rest is history. Hendy recorded his first playoff goal tonight.
• We all know that today’s hockey sticks have an auto-destruct button. Slashing penalties are as plentiful as drunk dudebros nowadays, so kudos to the refs for discerning Jay Beagle‘s behavior from true naughtiness. You don’t see on-ice calls reversed often, so this was a special moment in a special game.
• The second period belonged to the Bruins, who asserted a plus-14 Fenwick score after forty minutes. The Caps played back, and it burned them. No one is surprised by this, and the Caps have found a way to win without the puck.
• Through two periods Alex Ovechkin played under 10 minutes. At the end of regulation he played just 15:23. That’s less than… pretty much everyone except Knuble. What gives?
• With 2:26 left in this elimination game, the refs whistle Jason Chimera for holding. It was certainly a penalty, but when whistles are subjective (“let the boys play”) this stuff deserves scrutiny. If every game were called by the book, this would be a no-brainer. But hockey penalties are fluid– with refs forgiving some penalties so long as the other team gets similar clemency soon after. When the refs turn off Interpretation Mode and turn By The Book Mode, they’re forcing their own narrative on a game that is supposed to be decided by the players.
• But whatever. Caps killed that penalty just like they had more than dozen others in this series. The PK is owed a lot of credit for this win.
• But don’t forget Braden Holtby, whose numbers are… well unbelievable. Hero Holtby will quarterback this team into the conference semifinals, and we’re gonna love watching.

Series record: Capitals 4, Bruins 3 

The final Joe B suit of the night

That’s it. That’s how the series ends. In the glorious mess that is a crashed net. Tears and frustration for the defeated, and tears of another sort for the victors.

This could have been Mike Knuble‘s final game as a Cap. This could have been his final game as a pro hockey player.

But he’s not gonna go out like that.

In crashing into  Tim Thomas’s net, Knuble was doing what he’s always done: create the plays that would otherwise be denied.

Joel Ward got famous from being an excellent postseason performer. He’d been mostly quiet before tonight, but no one cares about that now.

Joel Ward is your OT hero. He plays a simple game, fearless and strong on the puck, two qualities that just earned him a spot in Caps hockey lore forever.

The Capitals have slayed the defending Cup champions. They proved the pundits wrong.

Who exactly? These guys:

• Scott Cullen
• Luke Fox
• Alex Kay
• John Buccigross
• Scott Burnside
• Linda Cohn
• Craig Custance
• Paul Grant
• Pierre LeBrun
• Steve Levy
• Joe McDonald
• Barry Melrose
• James Murphy
• Jesse Rogers
• Katie Strang
• Dylan Nardone
• Brendan Ross
• Chris Stevenson
• Kevin Amerman
• Matt Damante
• Nicholas Cotsonika
• Adam Rickert
• Wes Sims
• Rob Vanstone
• James Mirtle
• Brad Fay
• Dave Mishkin
• Ryan Dadoun
• James O’Brien
• Joe Yerdon
• Jason Brough
• Mike Halford
• Adam Eckersley
• Steve Palumbo
• Alan Bass
• Sean Hartnett
• Neil Keefe
• Patrick Caisse
• Dan Rosen
• Steve Silverman
• Nathan Stacken
• Mark Bruso
• Ken Schott
• Jeff Klein
• Gary Blockus
• Cait Platt
• Adam Jahns
• Aaron Muprhy
• Josh Canu
• Austin Waldron
• Andrew Monrreal
• Bruce Ciskie
• Eric Tulsky
• Dirk Hoag
• Kevin McCauley
• Jon Bois
• Colin Horgan
• Sean Leahy
• Harrison Mooney
• Greg Wyshynski
• Dmitry Chesnokov

All those guys said Boston would beat our Caps. They didn’t believe. They didn’t know about how thick and proud this team runs.

Goals from role players.

Superstar moments.

The best Washington defense we’ve seen in nearly a decade.

And a rookie goalie who has become the biggest story in the National Hockey League.

Now it’s time to do it again. We don’t know the Caps’ foe for the next round yet. But we do know that this team can beat anyone.

If they crash the net.

Photo from @recordsANDradio

Holtby’s not impressed.

Before the series started, the Bruins talked a tough game about getting in Braden Holtby‘s face and making life difficult for him. Like many players before them, they soon learned that was easier said than done. With the score tied at 1-1 at the end of a tense second period, Rich Peverley got a little too close to Holtby and Holtby let him know by shoving him off his skates. Peverely retaliated — or at least, pretended to, taking a two-handed slash at Holtby that he stopped just short, clearly trying to spook or scare him.

Video is below the jump.

Holtby didn’t even flinch. As we have the whole series, we got the definite impression that he’s not all impressed with the Bruins’ antics.

Our goalie has actual ice in his veins.

GIF

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