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The Capitals Are Feeling It

November 19, 2019, 8:57 AM ET [0 Comments]
Jay Greenberg
Blogger •NHL Hall of Fame writer • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Their tickets punched for life, the Caps are playing like they are at the bar, never having to pay for another round. Winning it all includes the best prize of all: A peace that comes from indisputable proof before the world that when the pressure was on, they came through.

Big career statistics, memorable wins in early playoff rounds, even just making it to the NHL for one game, all those things are special. So few get to do them. But not in anybody’s mind, or more importantly a hockey player’s own, are they complete until they win the prize for the very reason they play, And if they should prove so tough and fortunate, the ring, the parade, even the walking together forever part, which is huge, are dwarfed as rewards by a confidence that they can take all the way to their deathbeds.

There can be nothing in a player’s life that better tests him than what it takes to win a Cup. It coats his self-image with Teflon, a double application going to the Caps following all the heartbreak suffered before their 2018 breakthrough. Failures in post-playing careers, practically anything but serious health concerns, no longer stick.

Of course, it is not polite to say such things aloud in a highly competitive atmosphere. Once you win, you want to win again and satisfaction or self-absorption never are vibes you ever want to risk giving off. Still, one can see the cockiness in the play of the 16-3-4 Capitals.

They are not as tight as they know they will have to be in April, but have practiced that part. It will be there for them when needed, so they are rolling along by being about as loose as it gets. At the stage of the year where teams and players largely are pushing only at 75-80 per cent to save exhausting themselves by February, the Caps are even second in the league in blocked shots, getting in the way of the puck, but not themselves. It is all gravy now.
“We obviously have been scoring at a pretty high rate,” said coach Todd Reirden. “That’s given us a chance to stay in every game. We have converted on opportunities.

“The other thing is when we get down we never stop trying. We’ve been able to scratch and claw our way back into games. We’ve improved the special teams, are in the top ten in both when a year ago we were not. And our goaltending has gotten better as the year has gone along, especially in Braden Holtby’s case.”

The Capitals can play from beginning to end, a 5-2 victory over Vegas last week being perhaps the best such example of the season. Against Arizona in the following game and then five nights later at Boston, the Caps played from behind to come back and get a point, not so hard when last month they were down 5-1 in Vancouver and still won. In the middle of the week, at Philadelphia, they traded chances most of the game, gave up a tying third-period goal, and then won it in the shootout.

The Capitals don’t always set the pace, but they will match it, however you want to play. Playing with fire? That’s a yellow flag for March, not for November. The Caps have earned the benefit of the doubt, especially their own.
Matt Niskanen had his shoulder into that boulder that rolled back on Washington all those springs, and helped push it to the top of the hill finally. A cap casualty of success, he has taken the benefit of his experience to the young Flyers.
Niskanen says the going got easier for Washington in the spring of 2018 not just because of experience, timely goals at long last, the law of averages, or the hard won realization by Alex Ovechkin that he and his team had to proceed less selfishly. All those things factored in. But so did the alleviation of some of the searing pressure.
“I think personnel wise, we were a little bit better that year,” said Niskanen. “There was an influx of some youth and energy and the star players found another level.

“But whether there really was less pressure or it was just perceived that way inside the room, we played with a freer mind. We had lost some players (Karl Alzner, Justin Williams, Nate Schmidt) from the year before and we did not win the President’s Trophy as we had done in 2016 and 2017.
“There had been a lot of pressure on those two teams. I think outside pressure was lessened going to the following year and that benefitted some guys.”

Not only do 13 of those champions remain on the 20-man, the new guys mostly represent upgrades. There is more scoring punch on the fourth line—responsible for a healthy six goals on this point. The year-by-year maturation of Jakub Vrana, a 13th overall pick has made the Caps six deep in scoring forwards, and once Richard Panik gets up to speed, he’s a better two-way player than the one he replaced, Brett Connolly.

Statistically, the Caps are killing the league average in chances for and high danger ones, too, but they are in the lower half in chances surrendered. Radko Gudas, the cheaper option for Niskanen, is playing in the top four, too high for his ability, which makes good health by John Carlson, Michal Kempny and Dmitry Orlov plus a March pickup by GM Brian McLellan essential. But for now Washington is playing enough in the opposition end, and getting plenty of key stops by Holtby and Ilya Samsonov to care less.
What, the Caps worry?

“I think we are a pretty loose team,” said T.J. Oshie. “We like to have fun at the rink every day and mess around and sometimes when we get a little lackadaisical with the mental side of the game like I think we did [in the 5-2 loss at Montreal], we just find a way to refocus pretty quickly.”

Even one year removed from the championship the benefits from it are ongoing, never mind last spring’s double overtime Game Seven upset by the up-and-coming Hurricanes. Ahead in the series 2-0 and 3-2, Washington failed to put it away but unless another gets away like that this spring, the Caps get a free pass for that. Stuff happens, sometimes with a silver lining.

We couldn’t prove this theory from watching the Blues so far, but the shortest Washington spring in six years may be putting more pre-Christmas pep in the Caps’ step. If being done by April 16 has not helped Tampa Bay through its apparent hangover, the pressure has ratcheted higher there while Washington already has won its Cup. Living – or we should say living with themselves - is a lot easier these days in the Caps’ locker room.

“Our team believes in what we’re doing and if we do it long enough, we’re going to get rewarded,” Reirden said. “That’s what we said between periods [against Boston]: Just stay with it.”

Nothing rattles Washington, least of all the end of its 13 games without a regulation loss in Montreal, or being down a goal or four. There are, of course, more tangible reasons why the Capitals lead the race for the dreaded President’s Trophy. Sheer confidence heads them all.
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