Caps are indefensible in playoff loss

The Washington Capitals proved they can score goals against one of the league’s stingiest teams in their postseason opener.

They didn’t ease the concerns about their ability to prevent them, however, and lost home-ice advantage in the process.

Brandon Dubinsky scored midway through the final period, and the seventh-seeded New York Rangers upended the second-seeded Caps with a 4-3 victory Wednesday night at Verizon Center in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

It was not the opening performance Caps goaltender Jose Theodore was hoping for: he yielded four goals on 21 shots.

“For playoff hockey, that wasn’t good enough,” Theodore said. “I think I’m going to have to look at my game. This wasn’t good enough, but in the playoffs you forget about it, bounce back and turn the page.”

Washington fell behind by two goals, but a late tally in the second period and Alexander Semin’s goal early in the third knotted the score at 3-3. With the Caps on the power play, Mike Green’s blast from the top of the zone went wide, and Alex Ovechkin backhanded it from a bad angle at Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The goalie couldn’t handle it, and Semin was there to bang home the loose puck at 1:42.

Dubinsky put the Rangers back in front at 11:43. He skated down the left wing, cut past Caps defenseman Jeff Schultz, who fell to the ice on the play, went in alone on Theodore and beat him above his glove.

“There are times when you need the save, and he didn’t make the save we needed,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said of his goaltender.

Boudreau hinted there could be changes in the lineup for Game 2 on Saturday afternoon but said it wouldn’t necessarily be in net. The coach also didn’t absolve Schultz from blame on the final goal.

“This is the NHL: If you get beat one-on-one and give the guy a breakaway, you can’t hide from that,” he said.

The Caps dominated play in the opening 20 minutes but were unable to solve Lundqvist. Washington outshot New York 14-4 and Ovechkin had a six-pack of shots and hits, but the Caps failed to take advantage of a pair of power-play opportunities and went to the dressing room in a scoreless tie.

Lundqvist finished the game with 32 saves, including 13 on Ovechkin.

“I thought we played all right,” said Green, who pointed out that two of the Rangers’ four goals came on bad line changes by the Caps. “We played a tough game, and we were physical. As long as we keep that part up, the goals will come. I thought their goalie played really well tonight and won the game for them.

“I think we can still win the series. Nothing has changed.”

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