Photo credit: @matt71royer

We learned a week ago that Washington Capitals General Manager George McPhee can get quite animated during games. During the third period of Game Seven, McPhee’s emotions boiled over late while the Caps power play sputtered.

The Capitals trailed from the onset, but they suffered what seemed to be a death blow when Michael Del Zotto rifled a shot past Braden Holtby to put the Rangers up 2-0 with 9:55 to go in the final frame. A goal from Roman Hamrilk gave the team life just 38 seconds later, and then the Capitals got a gift: Ruslan Fedotenko‘s delay-of-game penalty.

But instead of converting the man advantage, the Caps squandered it in an embarrassing fashion, setting up shorthanded chances for the Rangers and spending most of their time stuck in their own zone. The low point was when one of the Caps attempted a dangerous no-look pass that nearly ended up in their own net.

CBC caught McPhee in the rafters watching the mess. He was — uh — unhappy.

Huge thanks to @canada_gill for hooking us up with the video.

Frankly, I love the passion here. McPhee rarely lets his guard down, but this video shows he’s just like us: a slave to the excruciating anxiety of watching your team lose. Whatever GMGM is saying here, I was probably yelling the same things at my TV at home.

It was hard for us to watch this loss. Seems like it’s exactly the same for the players, coaches, and staff.

Way to go, guys. Great season. We’ll get ‘em next year.

Samuel Miller’s pump-up video for Game Seven. Goosebumps!

Tonight, the Washington Capitals will try to do what they so awesomely did to Boston 17 days ago: knock off a higher-seed in their own barn. If the Caps manage to beat the Rangers in Game Seven, they’ll advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 14 years. And just like a few weeks ago, Caps fans are doing whatever they can to send up their good karma to the Big Apple.

Photos

@annetteashley and @girlonfire5285 graduated from Liberty University today wearing their Caps jerseys under their gowns.

Hurricanes right-wing Anthony Stewart (@EhStew13) shows off who he’s rooting for tonight.

After D.R. won a 5k race today, he made sure to Rock the Red during the awards ceremony.

Todd Richard’s (@troutpol1) puppy is wearing his favorite jersey for tonight.

Phil Powers’ (@PCpowers2011) kid is wearing his oversized Ovechkin jersey at Virginia Beach.

Jessica Schmitz is studying abroad in Italy, but that didn’t stop her and her classmates from posing in the hills of Tuscany!

Tom K. (@pikappkaz) and his friends are wearing something special at Darlington for tonight’s Nascar race.

Tally Hohmann (@Tallyfromcali8) appears to have glued an Ovechkin head on her long-sleeve t-shirt.

Kristen (@KHETHERINGTON) wrote “Let’s Go Caps” in the sand at Bethany Beach.

The Ward family wears their Joel Ward jerseys. (Via @martina09)

The Steakley family is down in Texas for a wedding, but that doesn’t stop their son from wearing a Caps shirt.

Roxy (@capsxorxgtfo) has to work — and wear all black — but that’s not stopping her from wearing her caps gear under her work shirt.

Here’s the Harley family Rocking the Red at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia. (Via @Elle_Harley)

Perri’s (@not_a_platypus) Ovechkin and Eagle dolls appear to be cuddling before the big game tonight.

Here’s a nice video sent in by Sergei F.

Here’s what Mike U.’s (@mrmikeu21) wearing tonight.

Even with a sinus and ear infection, Melissa’s (@unibrouw) pumped for tonight.

Camilla A. (@Camcoco10) is wearing Caps red and her stuffed animal, Spot the Panda, is rocking a “Let’s Go Caps” cape.

Dear god, so adorable. This is from Front Page Arlington (where you should be watching the game tonight).

Rick Skelton’s (@ArtisticRick) shuttle bus to the Manassas Air Show had a weagle on the side of it.

Look at these angels! Here’s Walter’s (@wseaberg) kids rocking the red for tonight.

Sean Otterson (‏@CapsfanOtt) has to work tonight, but he’s still wearing some Caps gear.

Clare’s (@blondecai) apparently holding in the vomit because she thought about the Rangers winning.

Yesenia (@YeseniaRose) is supporting the Caps all the way out in Los Angeles!

Here’s one of the Knuble’s Knights rocking a RMNB t-shirt on top of the Empire State Building.

Here’s my ferret — Ovechtrick Odysseus Oland (“Tricky” for short) — rocking his homemade Caps jersey.

Finally, we saved the best for last. Here’s RMNB’s Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) rocking “Bailamos.” YES!

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: Elsa

Here’s how the Caps celebrated Joel Ward’s series-ending overtime goal. Follow us past the jump for a massive GIF.

Created by Dimagus.

Watch for: the coaching staff hugging on the bench, Hamrlik skating the wrong direction.

And here’s one more for good measure.

Created by hello-lonely.tumblr.com

Finally here’s Ovi freaking out.

Photo credit: John McDonnell

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

You have our permission to share or steal this image. By which we mean, please do it.

The Washington Capitals are 2-7 all-time in Game Sevens. They’re 0-1 all-time in Game Sevens on the road, 1-2 all-time in Game Seven OT, and none of that matters at all, because all we need them to be is 1-0 in Game Sevens on April 25, 2012, versus the Boston Bruins.

This is the big time, ladies and gentlemen, this is the part of the movie that they save the most dramatic music for. We would have loved to see a handshake line on Sunday, but let’s be honest, that wouldn’t really have seemed like the right ending, would it? We were always destined to take it back to Boston and beat them on their own home ice, because it’s just better like that — and because if the Washington Capitals ever once did things the simple way, you wouldn’t even recognize them.

If you’ve missed any of the series so far, your heart is probably in a much better state than ours right now, and you can catch up below with a neat “Series in 3 Minutes” video that CSNNE put together. Spoiler: at the end you’ll be really amped.

S/T to Andrew Whitman for the stats.

Your inspirational video of the day via YouTube user shilo0712.

Never forget. (via @daveizzle)

350 days ago the Capitals were disgracefully Halak’d from the playoffs, suffering their second consecutive heart-breaking game 7 defeat in front of their home fans. Do you remember how bad that was? After a regular season in which the Caps set franchise records for standings points (121), wins (54), and consecutive victories (14), we all sat dumbfounded in our chairs as players like Mike Cammalleri celebrated on our home ice like he had slayed Goliath. But did the Habs really do something special? Or did the Capitals play arrogantly, refusing both to elevate their game and do the little things to achieve playoff victory?

This season the mantra coming into training camp was Stay Angry. And while the message was perfect, most of the year as fans, we looked at the team and hoped the team would merely Stay Interested. We witnessed a regression to the mean offensively, an 8-game losing streak and at times, a club that seemed pained to actually play a regular season.

It was not until after a Winter Classic victory in Pittsburgh, a shift in systems to a more defensively responsible style of a play, and a 9-game winning streak, that everything started to finally come together.

Tonight, is the night where lessons show they have been learned. Tonight, is the time where “saving it” is over. Tonight, the Capitals show that they understand that there is a difference between being the best and playing like the best.

One of my mentors used to tell me: “There’s no way but the hard way to achieve your goals in life. You can be talented, but you have to work hard, be dedicated and pay the price to actually do anything with it.”

My advice to the Capitals: Crash the net hard. Fight for second or third shots. Win every board battle. It doesn’t matter who you play or who’s in goal. If you want it, you will win.

Now go out there and frickin’ get it.

Tonight if you were like us, you sat in front of your TV, ate smoked salmon with a fork and laughed at Pittsburgh’s unlikely demise to the Habs. Sure, it totally sucked when the Capitals lost in the first round to this rag-tag group of “team players” from North of the Border. But after seeing Sid the Kid fail the ultimate test tonight (boarding penalty 10 seconds in which led to Habs first goal of the game, 0 points, -2), maybe – just maybe – this talk that Sidney Crosby is by far and away the best player in the game can die down a bit.

Really, SI?

Moving forward, please consider Alex Ovechkin’s Game 7 performance against the Canadiens in comparison: 10 shots, 1 assist and a clutch GTG that was uhhh questionably disallowed.

Sometimes another man’s pain is another man’s pleasure. And tonight that pain felt by Pens fans was the perfect tonic for this man’s broken heart.

The Habs have the Capitals on the ropes after 40 minutes of play. Will the best third period team in the NHL comeback one more time?

10PM Update: No.