April 21, 2009, Washington Capitals-New York Rangers Eastern Conference Quarterfinals game three game story for Metro
Never in it
Caps smoke Rangers in Game 3
It didn't take long for energy to get sucked out of the Garden. The national anthem was pretty much the height of intensity in last night's Game 3.
By the end, joy was replaced by consternation. Midway through the second period, 18,200 denizens began to amuse themselves by vehemetly assessing the job performance of referees Dave Jackson and Kelly Sutherland in a negative manner. At the game’s end, the public address announcer pleaded with the same citizenry—a group that would have been at home in ancient Rome—to not toss objects onto the ice.
By any measure last night’s nationally televised 4-0 loss was a debacle. The Rangers were outshot 40-33, committed more penalties (nine for 26 minutes compared to seven for 14), couldn’t get the puck out of the defensive zone; the Rangers tried to make fancy plays instead of simple ones, were unable to get their forecheck game going and didn’t much get to the front of the Caps net. Add the variables together and you have the formula for an unhappy coach.
“I thought we stunk defensively,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said in his post game press conference. “We were chasing our tail all night long; spinning and watching the puck. Against a team like that, the way they can move the puck, you can’t be watching the puck. We had too many guys doing the same job and that was a big problem for us.
“I thought we were terrible defensively. As I said, I think a very important part of trying to compete in this series is having the puck. You’re not going to have the puck if you play defense like we played tonight. To create offense, you need to be sound defensively and we weren’t. We weren’t even close. It was a good old fashioned spanking tonight.”
The only Ranger to show up last night was Henrik Lundqvist. A condemned man facing a firing squad, Lundqvist turned away 36 shots.
“I felt like they were the better team the whole game. It just felt like they had more power out there. They got a great start and played smart,” Lundqvist said.
Following two games where they were unwilling to pay the price, Washington came out hitting and crashing Lundqvist’s crease at every opportunity. It paid off when the Caps’ other Alex, left wing Alex Semin, scored the first—and as it turned out, game-winning—goal 6:57 into the first with wrist shot that Lundqvist was unable to glove.
If the Rangers had hopes of winning the game, they died in an eight second span of the period. With 8:36 left in the first, Markus Naslund and Ryan Callahan broke in on a 2-on-1. Caps rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov was leaning towards the veteran Swede, leaving plenty of room on the stickside. Naslund threw a beautiful cross-ice pass to Callahan, who had an empty net. The game was going to be tied. It was a certainty, except for a minor detail.
Callahan hit the post.
The Caps counterattacked, finishing with Semin’s second goal at 8:24. Washington was up, leading 2-0. The Rangers were deflated. For all intents and purposes, the game was over.
“That definitely wasn’t in. It clearly hit the post. He swung his stick around and got a piece of it, and it hit the post,” said Callahan. “The whole game is momentum changing plays and on that one, we could have had a 1-1 tie and two seconds later, they are up 2-0. At the same time, the game is not over in the first period. We have to be better than that.”
Varlamov stopped 33 shots and has a 112:16 shutout streak dating back to game two.
“Even though he’s only 20 years old, he’s played in the finals of the Russian Elite League, which is probably, to him, it’s our Stanley Cup. The pressure is probably just as much there and he’s played in the World Championships,” noted Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “And the fact that he doesn’t understand a word we’re saying probably really helps him.”
What may have also helped Varlamov was that the Rangers completely lost their composure in the second period. Called for five penalties—three on Sean Avery, who had six minutes of penalties in the period, 18 minutes overall and earned a game misconduct at 17:12 of the third—the Rangers spent most of the period on the penalty kill. The Rangers were the best penalty killing team in the regular season, eliminating opponents’ man advantage at an 87.8 percent clip. But give a team enough chances with the man advantage, they will score.
And Washington did.
Semin earned his third point with an assist on Brooks Laich’s side-of-the-net power play tally at 11:29 of the second while Callahan was in the box for high-sticking. After Avery was tossed , former Ranger defenseman Tom Poti scored the game’s final goal with 1:25 left.
The Rangers lead the series 2-1 and game four is Wednesday night at the Garden. If the Rangers show up, well that’s anyone’s guess.
Three things we saw last night:
1 Capped. Let’s let you in on a little secret. When they want to play defense, Washington is a pretty good shutdown team. Last night, the Rangers had trouble getting out of their own end. When they did, the Blueshirts were met by three Caps at the blue line. Of course, giving the league’s No. 2 power-play offense six advantages doesn’t help you either. The Caps went 2-for-6 on the power play, while the Rangers went 0-for-6.
2 Other Alex Did you hear about this Russian guy named Alexander on the Capitals? He’s big, skilled and a guy that you can build a franchise around. No, not Ovechkin—although he possesses all of those traits. In this case, the Alex in question is Semin. All he did was score two goals and assist on another in Washington’s thumping of the Rangers. Ovechkin was just active, though, coming up with two assists.
3 Riding a Varly. During the 2007 Eastern Conference quarterfinal series between the Rangers and Atlanta, then Thrashers coach Bob Hartley alternated between goaltenders and the Blueshirts swept them. Following Game 1 of this series, Bruce Boudreau decided to replace veteran Jose Theodore with highly regarded rookie Simeon Varlamov. In the two games since, Varlamov has only given up one goal on 57 shots.
• You know the talk about the Rangers winning easily? Yeah, that was not going to happen. The Capitals didn’t finish the regular season with 108 points because they were easy to play against.
And no, Alex Ovechkin doesn’t have a goal this series, but he’s got four assists. He was everywhere last night, even running down a Rangers’ breakaway.
• Next game: Tomorrow, 7 p.m. (MSG). The Rangers take a 2-1 advantage into Game 4 at the Garden. They have to limit the penalties (Sean Avery had 18 minutes worth last night).
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 11:29 AM
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