Lundqvist Puts Caps on the Brink

After a dominating 4-0 win over the New York Rangers in Game Three of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal playoff series, it seemed as if the Washington Capitals had finally found a winning blueprint after dropping the first two games: recommit to the basics of playoff hockey by blocking shots, winning loose pucks, battling along the boards and using their size advantage to create traffic in front of the net.

But while that blueprint worked to perfection on Monday night in New York, it was short-circuited on Wednesday night by Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Seemingly in response to Washington goalie Simeon Varlamov's shutout earlier in the week, the perennial Vezina candidate produced a 38-save gem of his own that's got the second seed in the Eastern Conference on the verge of playoff elimination.

New York got the better of the play in the first period, clearly raising their game above their lackluster performance on Monday night. Their hard work down low around the Washington net, one of the constants in this series, paid off in the second half of the period when a slap shot off of defenseman Paul Mara's stick that appeared to be going wide deflected twice before finding its way into the back of the Washington net for a 1-0 New York lead.

The Rangers extended the lead to 2-0 in the second thanks to a rookie mistake by Washington's rookie goalie. New York center Chris Drury, still obviously hurting from an undisclosed injury, put a weak shot on net from the left wing faceoff circle that Varlamov badly misplayed and failed to glove. Down on his knees, Varlamov left the short side of the net open, allowing Drury to pounce on the loose puck and wrist it in for a goal.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ice, Lundqvist was simply sensational, turning aside 19 Washington shots as his teammates killed off a pair of Washington power plays. Time and again Washington generated chances, but failed to cash in. The Caps finally scored just 2:33 into the final period, when Washington's Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal of the playoffs off a snap shot that seemed to baffle Lundqvist. But while it might have been the only shot that hit the back of the net, it wasn't the only shot that eluded Lundqvist, who was aided by the pipes and the crossbar on more than one ocassion.

If you want to point at the most important reason the Caps came up losers on Wednesday night, you's have to take a hard look at the power play, which went 0-for-6 on the night, including failing to convert on two opportunities in the 3rd period, where New York's Sean Avery inevitably went off the rails to give Washington the extra man. But while it looked like New York head coach John Tortorella was ready to tear Avery's head off after his second penalty of the period, it didn't matter, as Lundqvist kept coming up with big saves to stymie the Caps as Washington outshot New York 11-5.

One of the series' great continuing mysteries concerns the play of Caps defenseman Mike Green. The leading scorer among NHL defenseman in the regular season, Green has looked tenative all series long. As I've pointed out previously, one of Washington's signature plays is to find Green with a pass as he comes streaking toward the net from the point, but the Caps have failed to convert that play even once in four games. What's worse, Green has been horribly inconsistent on the defensive side of the puck, never more so than in the first period, when he took a lazy hooking penalty that wiped out a Washington power play. Is he hurt? If so, we won't find out until the playoffs are over, but what ought to be clear is that the Caps need to have a very different Mike Green on the ice if they have any hope of coming back and winning this series.

So, can the Caps come back and string together three straight wins? In theory, it isn't beyond the realm of possibility. But in practice, stringing together three wins against a goalie like Lundqvist is going to be a tall order. The last stand begins Friday night back in Washington.