Photo 2009 © Cheryl Nichols. All Rights Reserved.

The Washington Capitals travel to New York to face the Rangers in Game Three of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs down two game to none. Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 35 shots he faced in Game Two, leading the Rangers to a 1-0 victory, sweeping the Caps off their home ice.

CRISIS IN CONFIDENCE?

Washington had 35 shots on goal, with another 29 shots blocked and 24 misses in Game Two. One could imagine the Caps getting beaten by the Rangers many ways, but not being able to score goals probably wouldn't have been at the top of the list.

In fact, in Game Two Alex Ovechkin had more shots blocked than on goal, as did Mike Green.

Lundqvist, for his part, was solid, but did not need to be spectacular, as most of Washington's shots were from the perimeter. The Caps had one good flurry midway through the third period, but were unable to dent the Swede's armor, adding to the Rangers confidence factor, already high after taking Game One.

BATTLE OF TURNOVERS

No one is going to confuse the Rangers with the 1985-86 Edmonton Oilers. They have serious deficiencies in the offensive end. But They have been very good about taking care of the puck, and taking it away from the Caps.

In Game One, the Caps had 11 giveaways and seven takeaways.

However, in Game Two the Caps had 24 giveaway, and the Rangers had 10 takeaways. It's a huge advantage to the Rangers if they can stay in the Caps passing lanes. It's been obvious that when the Caps struggle, they tend to complicate things more than simplify, looking for the "perfect" pass instead of crashing the net.

"Everyone's doing a great job sacrificing and trying to get in the way of pucks and not letting them get to [Lundqvist] as much as we can," defenseman Wade Redden said. "It's contagious -- you see other guys doing that, and you really try to do those little things that end up being big at the end of the night."

THE GOALIE CONTROVERSY

The Caps moved to rookie Simeon Varlamov for Game Two, and he played a solid game between the pipes. The one goal he allowed was on a 2-on-1 breakaway and perfect pass by Markus Naslund, setting up Ryan Callahan with the redirect goal. Varlamov made 23 saves and was agile and confident, two things Jose Theodore was not in Game One.

The move took Theodore by surprise.

"I didn't see that coming, to be honest," he said. "As one thing through my career that no one could take away was I was always a fighter and able to bounce back through big challenges. And for me, that was a big challenge. But I didn't have a chance to bounce back because I didn't play."

Coach Bruce Boudreau has not named a starter for tonight's game, and one supposes the announcement won't be public until the players come out for pre-game skate, like it was for Game Two.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau went to his bench Saturday, calling upon rookie backup goalie Simeon Varlamov to start Game Two in place of Jose Theodore, who admittedly played poorly in Game One.

Photo 2009 © Cheryl Nichols. All Rights Reserved.

The change mattered not, as the Caps offense took a holiday, playing sloppy and loose in the neutral zone, and fell to the New York Rangers 1-0, who now hold a two games to none lead in their best-of-seven first round series.

Washington once again out-shot the Rangers, 35-24, but most of the shots Henrik Lundqvist faced were from the perimeter, unscreened, or right into his chest.

In addition to the 35 shots on goal, the Caps had another 29 shots blocked. Washington had 24 turnovers compared to New York's seven.

As with Game One Wednesday, Washington came out buzzing in the first, and Lundqvist actually looked a little shaky early on, giving up a couple of rebounds and bouncing pucks. But there were no Caps in the area to follow up the original shot.

Lundqvist settled down and made no mistakes, though, and finished with his third career playoff shutout. Washington was only shut out three times this season.

There was some unevenness in the officiating for the second straight game, with the Rangers getting five power plays and Washington just three. But the Caps were their own worst enemies today.

New York's only goal of the game came as a result of the Caps trying to do too much on offense. Mike Green, who looked lost at times today, joined the rush on a 4-on-2, but a bad cross-ice pass by Alex Ovechkin sent the Rangers back the other way. Ovechkin had five turnovers on the day; Green had seven.

Winger Viktor Kozlov was back, but instead of retreating on defense, he tried to pinch in and keep the puck in play. Brandon Dubinsky beat Kozlov to the puck and tapped it ahead to a streaking Markus Naslund. Naslund carried the puck into the Caps' zone and held it long enough to get Varlamov to commit, then made a nice pass to Ryan Callahan, who redirected it behind the rookie goalie for the only tally of the game.

The best chance the Caps had to tie the game up late came from their MVP, Ovechkin. He beat Lundqvist with a wrist shot from the high slot, but the shot deflected off the crossbar and into the protective net above the glass behind the Rangers goal.

It's strange to think the Caps would lose a game giving up only one goal. But that's exactly the scenario that unfolded in the Verizon Center this afternoon.

The Capitals now travel to New York for Game Three Monday evening, losing the first two games in their own building. It's not where they wanted to be, but at this point they have to trust that their scoring touch will return, hopefully with the newly found defensive effort, to even this series up and bring it back to Washington.
_________________________________________________
SCORESHEET

1ST PERIOD
07:44 Ryan Callahan (1), Wrist Shot. Assist: Naslund, Dubinsky

2ND PERIOD
None

3RD PERIOD
None
_________________________________________________
THREE STARS

1. H. Lundqvist - NYR (Saves: 35, Save Pct: 1.000)
2. R. Callahan - NYR (Goals: 1, Assists: 0)
3. M. Naslund - NYR (Goals: 0, Assists: 1)
_________________________________________________
NOTES

Defenseman Jeff Schultz was scratched due to an upper body injury. He is listed as day-to-day. Brian Pothier played in his place.

Chris Drury returned to the lineup for New York. Aaron Voros was a healthy scratch after playing less than four minutes in Game One.

Varlamov made 23 saves in his playoff debut.

The Washington Capitals, down 1-0 to the New York Rangers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, may be making some lineup changes for Game Two, Saturday at 1:00 p.m. If you don't have tickets, the game will be broadcast on NBC as the national game.

CHANGE IN GOALIES?

Caps coach Bruce Boudreau is playing it close to the vest whether he will stick with veteran Jose Theodore, who by his own admission played poorly in the 4-3 Game One loss, or go to talented but largely untested rookie Simeon Varlamov.

In response to the question, Boudreau was coy yesterday, saying he had already made up his mind, but, "You guys [reporters] won't find out," Boudreau said. "You guys are asking, and I'm not divulging anything."

Boudreau went on to say that he has confidence in the rookie backup, should he find the need to go in that direction. "He has played in the [KHL] and he's played in the world championships in front of big crowds. So it's not like he's going to be a star-struck young guy if we went with that decision."

Theodore offered an honest assessment of his game, "For playoff hockey, obviously, [I was] not good enough," Theodore said. "They only had a couple of shots in the first, and after that, I tried to find a rhythm. I'm not happy with my game. I wasn't good enough."

"I've been around long enough that there's really no excuse," he continued. "When you're out there, you have to be ready to make a couple of key saves and key moments, and [Wednesday], that just wasn't the case."


CHANGES IN SKATERS?

It was revealed Wednesday before Game one that captain Chris Clark, forward Boyd Gordon and enforcer Donald Brashear were cleared to play by the medical staff. Gordon played while Brashear skated during warmups but watched the game from the press box. Clark and defenseman Brian Pothier were scratched.

Clark was practiced in full gear Friday, so he is ready to play.

These veteran options give Boudreau something else to think about as he makes out his lineup for Saturday's pivotal game.

Boudreau said, "I'll sit down with the coaches and consider everybody and see what would be the best fit. Chris Clark is always in that [discussion]. Even though I thought our forwards were pretty good. It's hard to sit and look and say, 'Which forward would you take out to make our team better right now?' I don't know."

As for his defensive corps, he may not have an option. Jeff Schultz did not practice Thursday or Friday, and there are reports that he is hurt. If Schultz can't go, Pothier would be the likely choice to replace him. But would Karl Alzner be a possibility? Hershey just started their playoffs as well, and while that would be a big hit to their Calder Cup hopes, the needs of the big club come first.

CHANGE NEEDED ANYWAY?

If Schultz is injured, it puts to rest questions about him being benched for his play, especially on the game-winning goal from Game One. Brandon Dubinsky, who scored all of 13 goals in the regular season, turned the big defenseman inside out, with Schultz crashing to the ice, arms and legs flailing.

For his part, Dubinsky was gracious, maybe in a back-handed manner though, about the play.

"I got the puck, and I was gonna go wide there," Dubinsky said. "And I just kind of saw [Schultz] cutting over, so I tried to put it between his legs. It's one of those plays where it doesn't happen very often. And fortunately enough for me, I got pretty lucky and found a way to get through, and found a way to score."

Why lucky?

"Because defensemen in this league are too good," Dubinsky said. "They don't get beat one-on-one, I mean, ever. So in order for them to get beat one-on-one, you've got to generally get a little bit of luck with the move you decide to make."

NO CHANGE IN THE LOCKER ROOM


Despite falling in Game One, the Caps aren't running around with their tails between their legs. Alex Ovechkin was confident, but not cavalier, in his assessment of trailing 1-0 in the series, "What can I say? It's the playoffs. It's seven games. You can't concentrate on one game. It's seven games. It's one week. It's OK. It happens. We can't win all of our games right away."

Boudreau was equally as confident, "It's a loss in the loss column, but with seven minutes to go, it was a tied game," Boudreau said. "It's not like it was a 5-1 game and we were outclassed and we weren't ready. We were ready and we did a lot of good things. And we want to build on those things."

One of the good things the Caps did was to win 46 of the 66 faceoffs (70%) in the game, including Nicklas Backstrom going 13-for-18. Also, the Caps drew seven penalties, capitalizing on two of the resulting power plays. And they out-shot the Rangers 35-21, so overall the defense was fairly economical in the number of shots Theodore had to face.

SPARE CHANGE

The Rangers' Chris Drury was scratched, but he's been back at practice and could possibly give New York another lift in spirits, as if a Game One victory wasn't enough.

Also, the Sean Avery watch continues. The pesky winger insinuated himself into several plays, including New York's first goal where it appeared he interfered with defenseman Mike Green as Scott Gomez skated around the pair en route to the net. Avery also poked at Theodore toward the end of the game, a situation that drew the attention of rugged defender John Erskine.


The Rangers, owners of the league's next-to-last power play, were 2-of-4 with the man advantage in Game One. Washington's penalty kill got better as the season went along, but still finished only 17th in the league. For as much attention as the Caps power play (second in the league) and New York's penalty kill (ranked first) have received, maybe it's the other way around that should be meriting discussion.

Washington, DC--In the first period of last night's Stanley Cup Playoffs Round One matchup, the Washington Capitals completely dominated the seventh seeded New York Rangers in every category on the ice--except the scoreboard.

Then after an early second period goal by Tomas Fleischmann, the Eastern Conference's second seed appeared to lose focus, especially much-maligned goalie Jose Theodore, and the New York Rangers stole Game One, 4-3, right out from underneath the Capitals.

Washington out-shot, out-hit and out-hustled the Rangers in the first. The Caps held a 14-4 shot advantage, and several loud hits by Caps forwards in the New York end made it look like the rout would be on for the home team. But the Rangers, thanks to goalie Henrik Lundqvist, withstood the early barrage and the teams remained scoreless entering the second period.

That's where things turned sour for the Caps.

After Fleischmann's tally, a redirection originally credited to Alex Ovechkin with a blast from the high slot, Washington stopped skating, starting missing the big hits, and gave the Rangers two late power plays, of which they took full advantage.

And once New York started getting some quality chances, Theodore folded in every conceivable way.

The first New York goal rattled Theodore for the rest of the night. Scott Gomez collected a blocked shot in his own end and raced uncontested up the left wing. At the Caps blue line, Sean Avery took the legs out from under defenseman Mike Green from behind, allowing Gomez to move in on Theodore, and the veteran center slid the puck under a laid-out Shaone Morrisonn and beat Theodore low glove side.

Green looked dumbfounded with arms raised asking for a tripping penalty on the play. There was no call and the goals stood to tie the game at one goal apiece. Then came the avalanche.

With John Erskine off for high-sticking, Nik Antropov walked into the right wing circle and lifted a soft wrist shot over Theodore's left shoulder. There was no screen, no distraction and no excuse. Theodore barely flinched as the puck went past.

Less than two minutes later, Sergei Fedorov was sent off for a delay of the game as he threw the puck needlessly off the ice. The Rangers caught Washington making a line change on the resulting power play, and Gomez dropped a pass for Markus Naslund, who beat Theodore high stick side after the goalie had gone down early into a butterfly reacting to Gomez.

Viktor Kozlov cut the deficit with a tip-in of a Nicklas Backstrom feed with 49 seconds left in the second, and Alexander Semin tied it at 1:42 of the third, knocking in a bouncing puck on a Caps power play.

But the last goal of the night is all that any Caps fan was talking about after the game.

Naslund caught a breakout pass from Antropov and hit Brandon Dubinsky with a pass in the neutral zone. Dubinsky sped down the left wing boards and faked out Jeff Schultz completely with a cross-over move, and as Dubinsky raced past Schultz, the 6'6" defender fell awkwardly, arms and legs flying.

Dubinsky then walked in alone on Theodore and beat the goalie easily with a wrist shot to the near post, a bad angle for the shooter, were it not for the fact that the goalie was not in position.


Theodore allowed four goals on just 21 shots against one of the lowest scoring teams in the NHL.

The goalie, and his coach, talked about his poor performance after the game.

"For playoff hockey, obviously, [I was] not good enough," Theodore said. "They only had a couple of shots in the first, and after that, I tried to find a rhythm. I'm not happy with my game. I wasn't good enough. But in the playoffs, you bounce back and that's it -- you have to turn the page.

"I've been around long enough that there's really no excuse," he continued. "When you're out there, you have to be ready to make a couple of key saves and key moments, and tonight, that just wasn't the case."

Washington coach Bruce Boudreau echoed his goalie's sentiments.

"He's right," Boudreau said when he was told that Theodore accepted the blame for the loss. "You need the save and he didn't make the save. But I'm sure he's going to bounce back. He's a professional. He's played this game long enough, I'm sure he feels bad enough."

Boudreau was asked if a change in goal could come for Game Two.

"There's a chance anything can happen," Boudreau said. "When you lose, you make changes. I'm not saying in goal. But, I mean, there's a chance for changes in a couple of positions."

Alex Ovechkin, the league's leading goal scorer, had two assists and took a game-high 13 shots on goal, with another 10 shots blocked. Rangers goalie Lundqvist robbed Ovechkin early on several point-blank attempts, and finished with 32 saves on 35 shots.

Game Two in the seven-game series is Saturday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. It will be the national broadcast game on NBC.
__________________________________________________
SCORESHEET

1ST PERIOD
None

2ND PERIOD
06:40 Power Play - Tomas Fleischmann (1), Tip-In. Assist: Ovechkin, Green
07:49 Scott Gomez (1), Wrist Shot, Unassisted.
16:49 Power Play - Nik Antropov (1), Wrist Shot. Assist: Gomez, Mara
18:28 Power Play - Markus Naslund (1), Snap Shot. Assist: Gomez, Redden
19:11 Viktor Kozlov (1), Tip-In. Assist: Backstrom, Erskine

3RD PERIOD
01:42 Power Play - Alexander Semin (1), Tip-In. Assist: Ovechkin, Green
11:43 Brandon Dubinsky (1), Wrist Shot. Assist: Naslund, Antropov
__________________________________________________
THREE STARS

1. A. Ovechkin - WAS (Goals: 0, Assists: 2)
2. S. Gomez - NYR (Goals: 1, Assists: 2)
3. B. Dubinsky - NYR (Goals: 1, Assists: 0)
__________________________________________________
NOTES

Tom Poti and Boyd Gordon both returned from injuries, but Donald Brashear (knee) was scratched. Brian Pothier was scratched to make room for Poti, but may very well play in Game Two.

Fleischmann's goal was his first NHL playoff point. Kozlov scored his first playoff goal in 25 games.

The Caps won 46 of 56 faceoffs (70 percent) and out-hit the Rangers 35-27.

Photo of Dubinsky's goal coutresy of AP. Slidehow photos (c) C. Nichols 2009. All Rights Reserved.

The Washington Capitals, second seed in the Eastern Conference, host the seventh-seeded New York Rangers in Game One of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at 7:00 pm from what promises to be a raucous, sold out, red-clad Verizon Center.

Tonight's game will be the fifth this season between the two teams. The Capitals won the regular season series three games to one, but these Rangers bear little resemblance to the early-season Blueshirts.

Coach John Tortorella took over late in the season and guided the Rags to a 12-7-2 record down the stretch after losing 10 of their previous 12 games under previous head coach Tom Renney.

This first round matchup pits teams of opposite strengths: the Capitals electrifying offensive attack against the Rangers stifling defense.

Washington is led, of course, by Alex Ovechkin. The back-to-back Richard Trophy winner for most goals registered 56 this season, falling just short of repeating the overall scoring title he won last season. His partners in crime, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green and company helped propel the Caps to the number three spot in goals scored and finished second in power play efficiency.

The Caps had nine players with double-digit goals, and hope to get contributions up and down the roster.


The Rangers will depend on goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and a very strong defensive corps to keep DC from lighting the lamp. Lundqvist has been a Vezina finalist the last three years in a row and has been successful in every league or tournament he's played in, including leading Sweden to the Olympic gold medal in the 2006 games.

The Caps will depend on Jose Theodore (32-17-9, 2.87, .900) in net, with rookie Simeon Varlamov backing him up. Veteran backup Brent Johnson was not cleared by the medical team to resume full-speed play.

Washington did receive some good news today: Team captain Chris Clark has been cleared to play after missing 33 games with a wrist injury. He won't suit up tonight, but getting their captain back has to bolster the morale of the team, and in the playoffs, every little bit helps.

Defenseman Tom Poti, however, will be a game-time decision with his lingering groin injury. If Poti can go, according to Capitals Insider, Brian Pothier will probably be odd man out for game one.

The status of Donald Brashear (knee) and Boyd Gordon (finger) are still unclear, and may remain so until after pre-game warmups.


All photos (c) C. Nichols 2008-09. All rights reserved.

Caps Defenseman Mike Green got his playoff mohawk yesterday while talking with Elliot in the Morning on DC101. Steinberg reports that Ovechkin and Green dyed their hair red! It is not too late to "Rock the Hawk!" Click here for more information. ROCK THE RED!!!

ROCK THE RED AND ROCK THE HAWK!!

Caps defenseman Mike Green is getting a mohawk for the playoffs. If you let Elliot of DC101 shave your head, he will give you a ticket in the "Rock the Hawk" section at the Caps playoff game! Must be 18+. Here is more information. See updated info.

Rock the Hawk 2008 participant after 1st Caps playoff game, 4/11/08

Photo C. Nichols (c) 2008. All Rights Reserved