For the second time in two years, the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers will be facing off in the first round of the NHL playoffs. The Rangers won the regular season series 3-1 by outscoring the Caps 17-7 and King Lundqvist was able to shutout the Caps twice. The Caps lead the all time playoff series against the Rangers 3-2. The Rangers will be without there second leading scoring Ryan Callahan while the Caps will be without defenseman Dennis Wideman with a leg hematoma, but the good news for the Caps is that Mike Green should be back on Wednesday night. Those are the facts now here's some keys to a Caps series win.
Capitals Offense vs Henrik Lundqvist: I'm pretty sure everyone remembers what happened two years ago, if it weren't for Sergei Fedorov the Caps would've lost another playoff series and why not because of multiple players, but because of one freaking goaltender. Henrik Lundqvist almost single handedly won the Rangers that series two years ago and can sure do it again this year as he lead the league in shutouts, with 11, and had a GAA of 2.28, this past season. If the Caps are going to win this series they can't let The King get hot, they need convert on almost all of there power plays and odd man rushes so Lundqvist doesn't get his confidence up. Another strategy to use could possibly be switching up the offense with every line shift and every game to try to confuse The King. Boudreau has done a good job of switching up the line combinations and that could also help confuse Lundqvist and the rest of the Ranger's defense.
Replacing the Wounded: It's going to be interesting to see how the Caps deal with Dennis Wideman being out and how the Rangers attack the Caps. Most likely either Tyler Solan or John Erskine will be taking Wideman's place. Since coming over from Florida Wideman has had a +7 plus minus rating compared to a -26 plus minus in the sunshine state. It seems that Mike Green will be back as he took part in all of practice today and it looks like Jason Arnott is back at 100% again who has made impact on the team both offensively and defensively. Arnott has worked well with Alex Semin on the second line and has complimented Ovie nicely on the power play since coming over from New Jeresey.
Where the F@$% Are You Semin? Seems like I"m beating a dead horse with this one, but it has to be mentioned. Alexander Semin has literally done NOTHING in the playoffs, last year he took 44 shots on goal and scored 0 times. With someone like Semin's talent that is inexcusable and his playoff performance the past 3 years is unacceptable. Here's his career playoff stat line; in 28 games he has scored 8 goals, 24 points and 28 PIM's, that means that Semin is off the ice for at least a minute every game when he should be on the ice, not good. And there is no way that one can argue I'm being hard on him. He has the talent to be a top 10 scorer in the league every year, but he doesn't want to play every game. Semin will have games like in Anaheim were he'll have a hat trick and the game winning goal and then he will have multiple games were he will turn the puck over multiple times and miss shots on goal high and wide that should be in the back of the net. Semin basically has a NBA player attitude were he just shows up whenever he feels like and that's not a player you want on your team. If Semin continues to be a non factor in the playoffs, it's going to be easy for teams defense's just to focus on the first line as they have in the past. If the Caps are to finally hoist the Stanley Cup, this year, Semin has to get his head out of his ass and give 100% every night this spring.Power Play Heating Up: The Caps have scored 5 times on the extra man in there past 4 games. This is obviously a good sign if the power play unit can continue to keep scoring in the playoffs. The power play was mostly dormant, by past years standards, this year as they finished 16th in the league. Last year the power play struggled in the playoffs as the unit only scored once with the extra man, but the fact that Jarslov Halak was on fire was a huge factor. Since Dennis Wideman and Jason Arnott were acquired, at the trade deadline, the power play has scored more so the power play should be alright this year.
New Territory for Nuvie: After posting a 27-12-4 record with a GAA of 2.45, in the regular season, Michal Neuvirth well be getting the start between the pipes for the playoffs. Nuvie has had great playoff success in the AHL as he lead the Hershey Bears to the Calder Cup last year. So the question will be can Nuvie transfer that AHL success to the NHL? Another issue with the goaltending will be how quick Boudreau decides to pull Nuvie if he struggles. The past two years Boudreau pulled Jose Theodore in favor of Semyon Varlamov. Theo could've been pulled due to his inconsistency and this year Nuvie has not shown inconsistency. Boudreau may have to wrestle with possibly ruining a young goaltender's confidence, if he pulls Nuive, or going with the hot hand in the past with Varly.
Prediction: This past season, the Caps had multiple highs and multiple lows. Though it wasn't easy, the Caps have seemed to learn how to play defensive hockey with a bunch of offensive players. Defense is the key to winning in the spring and the Caps have done that as they were ranked 4th in goals against and had the league's second best penalty kill unit. With all that being said the Caps will still have to face Henrik Lundqvist who once again had a great year. If The King gets hot again expect another long series, the Rangers will struggle to score goals especially without Ryan Callahan so if the Caps can keep the Rangers scoring to 1 to 2 goals a game it could be a quick series. If the Caps go up by 3 games quickly everyone is going to be asking can the Caps finally close out a series? Only time will tell for that answer. Overall I think this is going to be a tough series, I don't see Lundqvist cooling off in the playoffs he knows he's the biggest key for the Rangers success in the playoffs. I'll take the Caps in once again 7 games. LETS GO CAPS!!!!
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