The past few days, as the Capitals prepared for their three biggest games of the season — and their fans searched their closets for something red to wear to Verizon Center last night — one thought presided over all: Had they left themselves enough time? Could they, in the very last week, make up the ground they needed to make up to secure their first playoff berth since 2003?
The various scenarios all seemed daunting. As hot as the Caps were — going 5-1 on their just-concluded road trip and winning eight of nine overall — the numbers still worked against them. Division-leading Carolina had two more victories (42 to Washington’s 40), giving the Hurricanes the edge in the event of a tie. Meanwhile, the other teams the Caps were trying to catch (Boston, Philadelphia) simply weren’t cooperating.
Not much else you can do in such a situation except go out and win, so the Capitals did — as they’ve been doing for the better part of a month now. They swarmed the Hurricanes’ end from the get-go last night, finally broke through late in the first period for a pair of goals by Matt Cooke and Brooks Laich and rode the broad shoulders of Cristobal Huet to a 4-1 victory, their most significant in, what, five years? Feels like longer.
Now they just have to do it twice more. (Not to spoil the fun or anything.)
If they put forth the same kind of determined effort, though, they can take down Tampa Bay and Florida just as they took them down on last week’s southern swing. Then it will be up to the other Bubble Teams to match the Caps’ torrid pace … or risk missing the postseason themselves.
But again, nothing was decided in this game, despite the fact that Washington pulled even with Carolina in the point column with 90. As Sergei Fedorov, who set up two of the goals, put it, “We were very happy in the locker room. Some guys were dancing. But Bruce [Boudreau] came in and calmed us down a lot. Time to get back to business.”
Still, it was hard not to be impressed — or rather, to continue to be impressed — by the progress the Capitals have made since Boudreau took over behind the bench Nov. 23. It’s not just that they’re 35-17-7 since that wretched 6-14-1 start, it’s that they’re only 10 points behind the first-place team in the conference, the Penguins. Not the first-place team in their division, mind you, the first-place team in the entire East.
Rarely has so little separated one club from another in the NHL. Heck, during the Caps’ 14-year playoff run from 1983 to 1996, it wasn’t unusual for them to be 18, 23, 24, even 26 points behind the top team in the conference. The ceiling was so much higher those pre-lockout, pre-salary cap days.
But since the league’s last shaking out in 2004-05, the Eastern Conference, in particular, has contracted considerably. There just isn’t that much difference between the potential first seed and a club like the Capitals. An overtime goal here, a shootout win there — really, how much are we talking about?
One reason to like the Caps’ chances in these last two games is the way Huet is playing. With all due respect to Olie Kolzig, he’s starting to look like, well, Olie did late in 1998, when the club made its only trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. Olie was as impenetrable as the Berlin Wall in those playoffs, and Cris has been similarly obstructive since coming over from Montreal at the trading deadline.
Make no mistake, last night’s game could have ended up differently. If there was a tipping point, it came midway through the second period, when Carolina was rallying and the Capitals’ 2-1 lead appeared somewhat tenuous. The Hurricanes’ Scott Walker came in on a 2-on-1 breakaway, and as the arena gasped, Huet stoned him.
Soon enough, Walker, perhaps perturbed by the missed opportunity, got sent off for interfering with Huet, and then Trevor Letowski drew a double minor for a high stick. It was during Letowski’s four-minute absence that Washington restored its two-goal cushion, The Other Alexander — Semin — putting the puck past Cam Ward.
All night long the arena rocked. The sellout crowd fed off the Caps’ energy, and the Caps fed off the crowd’s. “The best crowd I’ve ever seen,” Alex Ovechkin said. “It was just unbelievable.” It’s been so long since Verizon has had such an atmosphere — undiluted by carloads of out-of-town Penguins or Flyers fans (or in-town Rangers or Bruins sympathizers).
It was a home-ice advantage that felt like a home-ice advantage. And it was a win that felt like a prelude to better things, much better things. Especially when, with 3:36 left, Ovechkin sent everybody home with a dessert — goal No. 63 on one of his patented turnaround slap shots.
“It just goes to show you can’t let up on that man for one second,” said Boudreau, “or you’re going to get that kind of result.”
Two games to go. And not that they need to be reminded, but the Capitals can’t afford to let up for one second either.
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