Photo credit: Greg Fiume

Saturday night revealed the Capitals’ playoff foe, and that foe is really, really familiar.

The New York Rangers locked up the 6-seed and will be headed to Washington early this week to begin the quarterfinal round. This will be the seventh time the teams have met and the third time RMNB will have written about a WSH-NYR series. The John Tortorella Rangers are a shot-blocking, workaday-type crew– but this year they’ve added convincing possession to the mix (they’re ranked sixth in unblocked shot attempts at even strength when the score is close). The Rangers may be a better match-up for the Caps than the Senators (whose Craig Anderson posted the best goalie stats this year) and the Isles (whose John Tavares is a convincing young star), but the Rags are no slouch either.

If you’re already anxious, you’re not alone. But this is the playoffs, where the gentle hum of anxiety is your stalwart dance partner.

Like I said above, NYR directs 53.81% of shots at the enemy’s net, whereas the Capitals tilt the ice against them with just 47.85% possession. That could be trouble in facing a goalie like Henrik Lundqvist, who can be trusted to stop 92% of shots with some regularity.

Montreal blog Habs Eyes on the Prize illustrated how that puck possession correlates with postseason success. The top-right quadrant are very low-possession teams, who never make the postseason. The top-left, where the Caps fit in, contains slightly stronger teams, but ones who rarely go far in the playoffs and have won just one Cup out of 70 attempts (and I’d put an asterisk on that winner if I could). The bottom-left quadrant is strong possession teams, who make the postseason with regularity and often make it far. And the bottom-right is full of the rare ice-tilting crazies, who are your perennial favorites to win. You might wanna zoom in on this one.

The Caps would be at top-left, and the Rangers at bottom-left.

This week will see Rick Nash return to postseason play for the first time since 2009. In his 10-year career, Nash has played just 4 playoff games. The Jackets got swept by the Wings that year. He’ll be eager to produce in a Game That Matters– though the raw shock of playing hockey in the month of May might be enough to confuse him into irrelevance, which will at least be fun to watch.

Unlike the Caps-Rangers series this year. As J.P. pointed out last night, the Caps couldn’t beat the Rangers this year except by the shootout. (Point of order: there are no shootouts in the postseason.) Those games were punishing to watch.

On February 1, the Caps got some excellent ‘tending from Braden Holtby (20 shots against in the first period alone), but the offense was MIA. The March 10th loss was one of the worst games of the season, possibly due to Mike Milbury’s inane jeremiad during intermission. The March 21st shootout win was the first time I was willing to consider the Caps making the postseason– although they did surrender a two-goal lead in that one.

That triad of games isn’t by itself encouraging for the Caps’ chances next week, but there are some reasons to feel bullish.

The Capitals’ magic bean, an extraordinarily effective power play, will be crucial to a win– but getting those penalties might be a problem. The Rangers were one of the least penalized teams in the league this year– going shorthanded just 148 times compared to the Caps’ 163. Once a man-down, the Rangers killed 81.1%– right around league average. The opposite (inverse? contrapositive?) is also important: Washington’s PK is in the league’s bottom-5 at 78%, although New York isn’t quite deadly on their own power play, converting just 15.7% of the time– the 8th worst conversion rate in the league.

Of course, the secret to the power play is getting them in the first place. Drawing penalties usually requires that your team has possession of the puck and is doing something scary with it. This will sound trite, but it’s true: the Capitals’ clearest path to victory is based on shot volume– putting as many shots a possible on Lundqvist with traffic up front fighting for rebounds and drawing penalties. Once penalties are drawn, the Caps need only feed on Adam Oates‘ magic trough of power play oats. Adam’s oats.

Speaking of Adam, though the Caps and Rags will be meeting for the third time in recent memory, this will be the third head coach we’ll see behind Washington’s bench. Bruce Boudreau’s trap-Caps made quick work of New York in 2011 when Jason Chimera delivered the fatal blow. And just one year ago, Dale Hunter’s coin-toss Caps lost their final toss in a taut, seven-game series. The 2013 Capitals may share some personnel with those earlier iterations, but this is not the same team.

The Oates Caps are still inchoate, still defining their identity. They’re dynamic on the breakout, deliberate in zone entry, and devastating on the power play– but those are conclusions drawn from the scant evidence of a 48-game season. If the Caps are overly reliant on their top line and the man-advantage to score, then this may be an un-fun series. If the Caps expect to score one goal for every ten shots on net, they may be disappointed.

You’ve probably heard this part before, but I’m certain the Caps can win this if they crash the net. It’ll take secondary scoring, a deluge of shots from Alex Ovechkin, Braden Holtby playing like we know he can, Mike Green at 100% health, and a whole lotta dirty goals from guys like the Wagon– unafraid to plant themselves in New York’s paint and scrap for the puck. It can be done.

Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

Four hours and 34 minutes, 222 attempted shots, and a 2-1 lead in the series for the New York Rangers. Those are some numbers from Wednesday/Thursday’s triathlon triple overtime Game 3, which ended with a Marian Gaborik wrist shot after over 102 minutes of play.

For those who left "early" because you had "work" in the morning: shame on you.

“Probably half the players on the ice have blood on their jerseys by the end of it,” Brooks Laich said after the game.

It was a battle all the way to the end. Both teams had numerous chances to put it away in the overtime periods, hitting posts and missing pointblank.

“When you get into that many hours of playing it becomes a mental game,” said Rangers coach John Tortorella. “Just not giving in. That’s the key, just don’t give in.”

“The impact is that we’re up a game,” he added. “They have to win three, we have to win two.”

The game was the third longest the Caps have played all-time (and the longest at Verizon Center) and the lengthiest one New York has played since 1939. The Rangers played much of the game with five defensemen after Stu Bickel was benched in the second period, causing Ryan McDonagh to skate a mind blowing and leg numbing 53:17. And Caps fans shouldn’t be worried about Alex Ovechkin’s ice time in this one, as the captain registered 35:14.

“It’s really tough,” Karl Alzner said. “Your mind starts to go a little bit. You take a stride off, a step off and the guys get a chance.”

“The team that wins is not always the one that has the most energy but [the one] that’s still the most mentally sharp — most cases that’s true,” he continued, echoing Tortorella.

Karl Alzner's dogs were not as equally upbeat. (Via @KarlAlzner)

For the Caps, it’s a deflating loss. To play so long and come up with nothing is obviously tough. But in the Washington’s locker room after the game, the players projected a largely positive, forward-looking aura. It ended in defeat, but the Caps went toe-to-toe with the number one seed in the East for the length of almost two games after splitting the matches in New York. And for a team (perhaps refreshingly) with a shadow of the postseason expectations of pervious years, they did also just finishing knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champions.

“We weren’t able to get the goal, but it’s no reason to hang your head or pout,” Laich said. “We were right there. We got to rebound. We get a couple days of rest, a practice and come back for Game 4.”

Karl Alzner seemed equally upbeat as he spoke outside his stall in the early hours of Thursday morning.

“We’ve lost in overtime in the playoffs already and we’ve found a way to bounce back, he said. “I think we’re a lot mentally tougher team then we have been in the past.”

The Caps and Rangers are back at it noontime Saturday. Let’s try to keep this one under four hours. We have the Derby to watch afterwards.

Via Craig Brownstein of Puck Buddys, this is your final pregame of the season. Follow PuckBuddys on Twitter.

Long, Strange Trip: The past few months have been a roller coaster for the team and fans alike. As the regular season was winding down and points were becoming ever more precious, the playoff picture was coming into focus for a lot of teams that were not named the Washington Capitals. That sucked. The last month or so was a teeth-grinding, butt-clenching, freaky-outy nightmare. Night after night, we saw our playoff chances dissipate in loss after loss, points squandered, a team in name only, flailing about the ice with no apparent sense of mission or urgency.

Hanging by the skin of our teeth, marginally in control of our destiny, we played do-or-die on Thursday night. Up 3-0, Neuvy went down and Braden came in, two quick Panther goals and stop – we’ve seen this movie before, we know the ending all too well. But this time the ending was different; it was a storybook ending. Who can explain the win – skill, determination, lucky bounces or teamwork? We’ll say Sasha, but it really doesn’t matter. The clock ticked down and Verizon, as well as many homes across Caps Nation, erupted. We’re in. We made it. Somehow we freakin’ made it.

Game 82 seems like a minor distraction when compared to what lies ahead, but we’ll try and make sense of Saturday night and the out weeks – both of which are wrapped around a classless band of vulgarians known as the New York Rangers.

Torts’ Tantrum or Whine Pairings: Say what you will about the on-ice success of Hunter Hockey or the win – loss record of that other guy, Coach Mustard Stains (not to mention all those other Caps coaches we never heard of from the seasons before we jumped on the bandwagon), but thank God, we don’t have to suffer under the daily embarrassments of a certified creep and head case like John Tortorella.

Make up your own mind about the Orpik – Stephan hit (or let Shanahan do it for you), but the infantile postgame display exhibited by Torts on Thursday night, was one for the books. Make up your own mind too, about the comical $20,000 fine that Torts was slapped with. The through-the-looking-glass world of NHL punishment has never made sense to us; it’s all an elaborate sideshow, a limp effort to control the mostly uncontrollable – unbridled rage.

And in all honesty, who among us hasn’t wanted to see some of Dale’s rage surface now and again. Not the eyes-popping, veins-bulging, unhinged lunatic rage of a basket-case freak like Torts, but just a little something to remind us that he has a pulse. Torts is certainly good TV, always a good punch line, and a reasonably successful coach, but we can’t imagine this guy in DC. We’d become Wizards fans if that were the case.

We have our own proprietary scale, based on very complicated algorithms (and some #fancystats), to measure a bench boss’ dickishness, and we call it the Bylsma Scale. For reference, skirt or no skirt, on his best day, Coach Dan “Mr. Personality” Bylsma, registers a measure of exactly 1 Bylsma. When Dan dons his douche hat, he’s at 2 Bylsmas. When he opens his gaping maw (no matter what he says), he tips the scale at 3 Bylsmas. You get the idea. Toolbox Torts buried the needle Thursday night. And for that reason alone, on Saturday, and if we face his thugs in the first round, we want to see Torts go absolutely ape, making his latest outburst seem like a kindly priest’s Easter Sunday homily. Beating the Rangers is always nice, but watching Coach Clown self-destruct on camera again, and bigger the next time, would be icing on the cake. And we like cake.

Will we face the Rags in the first round? We hope so. The 1^st and 8^th seeds may be reversed from last season, but the hell with that – we have their number. Screw dem bums and their Loony Toons bench boss. Grind those hooligans into the ice tomorrow, boys, and hopefully, when the savaging is complete, there will be nothing left on that filthy MSG sheet except some gold fillings and their pride. Let Saturday night’s throttling be the haunting memory they carry with them into the playoffs.

#ThatAwkwardMomentWhen: So Sasha’s swan dive was not the result of him tripping on a snow snake, but the result of him trying to pound the glass and kick the boards at the same time. It doesn’t matter. Sasha scored the very first goal of the season and in the final minutes Thursday night, he backhanded maybe the single most important one all year. A $6.7 million goal? Nope, priceless.

Now that it’s been categorically proven that Sasha cares, Ovi also seems mostly in gear. That’s good. Beags is a beast, Wides is wicked, Carlzner reunited, Brooks and Chimdog are finding the twine, but there’s still a missing piece or two. We need Nicky and Greenie to start scoring. They’ve both had long trips back from mishap and injury, but this is where they need to prove their mettle. Now MOAR than ever, the young guns need to gun.

Practice Makes Perfect: The last time we went to Kettler for a practice was Saturday, March 24 – the morning after the Jets game. You know the one – that must win March 23 game in which we had a 3 goal lead and we blew it. That trip to KCI on the day after that Capstastrophe was to exorcize demons. Friday morning’s visit was to take a victory lap.

Even though it was a holiday, Kettler was sparsely attended on Good Friday morning. I grabbed some of my typical crappy pics and watched the action. Most noticeable from my end of the ice was Kanoobs. He spent the better part of a half hour taking one-timers, breaking sticks, and pounding the net with single-minded determination. After breaking one twig, he picked up the pieces, opened the rink gate and passed them to a fankid. About ten minutes later, just as he was wrapping up, he passed his intact Easton stick over the glass to a kid, maybe 5 years old, who was sporting a tiny #22 Caps sweater. Too cute for words and a testimonial to what a great guy Mike Knuble is. As it turns out, the kid is pretty well connected – his uncle manages the BrooksLaichYear site.

Braden: This is a joke-free zone. We don’t know the latest on Neuvy, but hope for the best. Not for the simple reason of Caps’ success in the playoffs, but for the long term health and well-being of a guy we absolutely adore. Braden and Dany have the weight of the world on their shoulders now

NBC or Nothing But Clowns: All the playoff games are relegated to air on Planet ComcastNBC, the Skynet of sports TV. We won’t waste any more bandwidth saying what’s already been said about their wretched squad of on-air “talent.” Poor Doc, he’s the diamond in the rough. He stands head and shoulders above recidivist, Mike Milbury, and Pierre McGuire, the Kent Brockman of NHL broadcast. We miss Joe, Craig, Alan and Al already. We’re trying to remember if we sent them invites to RMNB 4.0.

Is Party Now ))))): Last spring’s RMNB 3.0 at the Front Page is where we first got to meet Ian, Peter, Neil and Chris. In fact, not just them, but it was there we first met a larger crew who until then were just twitter nicks. We ate, we drank, we won a door prize – a cool woodcut of Ovi and Varly done by Kat. We won a pair of jerseys in the silent auction too (Brooks and Nicky), but in reality, we came away with much bigger prizes, friendships. Doug and I often say that we wish our civilian friends were as fun as our hockey friends (and it’s mostly true, they’re totes boring gay guys).

We almost didn’t make the overland journey out to Ballston that day, but we’re glad we did. It was that afternoon that two goofy gay gadflies with a rather unorthodox blog began to feel welcomed into the larger Caps community. So tomorrow evening (in addition to our valet parking duties), we’ll toast the team that brought us all together, and we will toast all of you for making us a part of the family. We’re thrilled to be your crazy, gay uncles.

We Never Met A Meme We Didn’t Laich: Who knows what next season will bring, but one certain retirement will be the Meme of the Day. And there’s no better way to put this tired gimmick out to pasture with an image on memegenerator dot net  that has previously eluded us. We see this one as divine intervention or some sort of cosmic alignment. Yeah, cosmic alignment – you know, like those cheap literary devices that tie up the loose ends in the story lines of Peter’s comic books graphic novels. This is one called “Typical Hockey Player,” but the hockey player featured is hardly typical. We call him Captain.

Photo credit: Michael Connor/The Washington Times

Editor’s note: To get you properly revved up for the season, each member of the RMNB crew will take a longing look back at some of our favorite goals from days gone by. You can call it nostalgia or cheap summer content, but it’s really a reminder: WINTER IS COMING.

The date was April 24th, 2009. The Washington Capitals had taken up their old tradition of digging a hole for themselves. The count was three-to-one, and the New York Rangers were looking to wrap this series up on the road.

So here’s the scene: John Tortorella is still dry, Sean Avery is wearing some D&G three-piece instead of his hockey sweater, and the Rags are on the power play. Your boy Boyd Gordon gets the puck behind Varly and sends it around the boards. It takes a weird bounce to get past the blue line– with Matt Bradley in close pursuit…

Brads gets a soft touch to escape Chris Drury and enters the Rangers zone like a man possessed. With just three deft touches and a burst of speed, Bradley confounds Henrik Lundqvist to score one gorgeous shorthanded goal.

Watch with me:

Pretty stuff. Turns out that was Matt Bradley’s first ever postseason goal. And it was a pretty tally too, the kind you’d expect from a “skill” guy, not a grinder like Matt.

But now that I think about it, expectations never seemed to matter much to Matt Bradley. He’s the guy who stepped in on the big fight, the guy who kept the rink maintenance guys well practiced in their bloodborne pathogen procedures, and he’s the guy who saved the team when they really needed it.

The Rangers didn’t really stand a chance after Brads knocked the wind out of them with that shorty, but elegance was never his thing so he followed it up with this crazy sharp angle to make it 2-0:

The game ended 4-0, and the Caps took the series in 7. I didn’t remember who scored the other two goals because I was in some kind of ecstatic blackout state, but J.P. reminds me that it was the Sashas. That was also the infamous water bottle game for John Tortorella, where he and one particularly militant member of the Caps red army lobbed liquid munitions back and forth. Here’s a Zapruder-like video of the incident (my apologies for the Gary Glitter song). Good times.

With Matt Bradley now a member of the Florida Formercaps and his recent comments about Alex Semin’s care index eating up all the pixels, this might seem a bittersweet memory to some people. Not to me. I see that pivotal goal and the criticism in the same way: this is a player doing what no one else could to make his (former) team better. It’s precious and rare and kind of awesome.

Personally, I look towards this season with excitement. Yeah, Brads is gone. But who’s gonna take his place? Who’s gonna fight and bleed and grind and hustle? Who’s got the grit to do what no one else will? Who’s gonna blow everyone’s mind with a well-timed miracle play? And who’s gonna do it with a mile-wide grin like the one Matt has up top?

Let’s find out on October 8th.

Is Arnott happy or angry he scored? (Photo credit: AP)

Thanks to tallies authored by the two Alexes Wednesday, the Capitals opened up their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series against the Rangers with a 2-1 overtime victory. Who would pot the goals in game two? Um, obviously the Jasons.

After a scoreless first period, Brooks Laich decided to hold a forechecking clinic at 2:11 of the second period, taking on towering Rangers’ defenseman Matt Gilroy. After being knocked to his keister not once — but twice — Laich pushed the biscuit with only one hand on his stick to Marcus Johansson. Mojo — acutely aware of all of his surroundings — immediately sent a tape-to-tape pass to Jason Chimera, who roofed the puck high and glove side past a stunned Henrik Lundqvist.

1:57 later while on the power play, Jason Arnott would win a face-off. Alex Semin then passed it back to Alex Ovechkin at the point. Ovechkin, when pressured by a Ranger penalty-killer, skated across the blue line with the puck and fed Mike Green who was rotating down to the slot. Green then wound up to the sky with all his fury and released a slap shot. Gilroy blocked the attempt both with his skate and stick. Unfortunately for him, the muffed puck then deflected across the ice directly onto the blade of Jason Arnott’s twig, who was skating towards the net already looking for a rebound. As Lundqvist panicked and made a quick move to block the right corner of the net, Arnott made a veteran move and waited as he fell down and then shot the puck past. ANGRY SCOAR FACE.

That would be all she wrote. Michal Neuvirth would get his first career playoff shutout. Caps beat Rangers, 2-0!

Chris, Brian and Bobby pose for Neil en route to the Capitals game. Nice Ovechtrick shirt, Brian.

• History is now heavily on the Capitals side. Despite being an original six team, the New York Rangers have never come back from a 2-0 deficit when they’ve started a series on the road. Though I feel dirty typing that considering last year.
• John “STOP BOXIN’ ME IN, BROOKSY” Tortorella must have been acutely aware of this fact before the game. Torts dressed class-of-the-league Sean Avery and if you watched closely, you could even pick up on his game plan: hit anything that moves.
• Speaking of Sean Avery, if you looked at the scoresheet, you would have thought he was invisible. In 10:22 of ice time, he had three shots and one hit. However, in the third period, he was the only person anyone was talking about either on twitter or on-air. Avery, who resembles a rabid woodland creature when angry, went into full-on pest-mode, hitting guys after the whistle and chirping at anyone who would listen to try and draw a penalty. He even got a little National Geographic with Alex Semin. For the most part, the Capitals showed restraint. Championship winning teams are shrewd and don’t take retaliatory penalties. This must continue.
• Bruce Boudreau is quietly giving the Capitals a huge advantage as the series wears on. Only three players were on the ice for over 20 minutes tonight. That is insane. When you get everyone involved like this, the entire team should be at the top of their game. Vancouver routinely throws out four lines, and they ran over everyone this year while capturing the league’s Presidents Trophy.
• The Caps out-chanced the Rangers 11-10. Sure Michal Neuvirth got the shutout, but he has seen more chances against in one period in nine other games this year. We should keep our optimism tempered with Neuvy, but you can tell that he is growing more confident by the day, especially when reviewing the mettle that he exhibits on saves like these.

• In my heart of hearts, Mike Green was the player of the game. His slapshot early in the second period stung Lundqvist badly, forcing the King to play passively and deep in his net. Goals immediately came thereafter. Now let’s all hope he’s okay after taking another elbow to the head, this time by Brandon Dubinsky. Grr.
• Tonight we witnessed an incredible game from Jason Chimera. Three of his five shots were scoring chances, plus the goal scored. Chimmer was also credited with five hits in 11:01 of ice time. If the Capitals are going to get production like this from their third and fourth lines, they will be scary.
• Alex Ovechkin only had two shots, and missed the net completely five times. However, three of those seven shots were scoring chances. That’s a good ratio.
• With 12:38 to go in the third period, there was a mad scramble in front of the Capitals net. Neuvy ended up out of the crease, an empty net yawing. John Erskine ended up blocking a shot with his legs to save the Capitals two goal lead. I cannot be understated. Without that block, the game could have been broken wide open by the Rangers. Well done picking up the slack for your teammate, Johnny.
• Mike Knuble has no business taking a shot from the parking lot or 178 feet away from the opponent’s goal. Almost two thirds of his career tallies have been scored within 15 feet of the net. Let’s hope that was an aberration.
• In the second period, the Rangers had no scoring chances. It was the first time all season they were held to zero in one period. Good stuff.

Joe B. suit of the night

Brooks Laich summed it up well after the game. “I thought we did a good job in our defensive zone,” he said. “I think that’s going to be the key for us in the series. We didn’t give them a lot of chances in the slot tonight.” It’s true. Despite controlling two of the three periods of play, the Rangers couldn’t penetrate a group that we can now say has truly learned how to play stifling, defensive hockey.

The Rangers will now be in full-out desperation mode headed into Sunday’s matinee at Madison Square Garden. It will be important for the Capitals to ride out the first ten minutes of the game – which will surely be loud and intense – and try to take control from there. But while we have a day, let’s all smile and enjoy this. Winning sure is fun.

Two down, 14 to go.

Because we’re all getting laid tonight, our gamer is gonna be up very late. So while we’re gone, let us know what you thought about the Caps 2-0 victory. And oh yeah, Jose Theodore’s third shutout of the year. WOOOOO!! Special Thanks to BoycottSnyder for the photo.