Only 12.7 percent of teams have come back from going down 2-0 in a Stanley Cup playoff series. Even with history against them, the Washington Capitals shouldn't count themselves out.
One can only describe Saturday's 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers as a heartbreaker. The Capitals played well for the full 60 minutes, but in the end they didn't get the lucky break they needed. As a result the Capitals, favored by many to win the Eastern Conference, find themselves down two games to none against the Rangers in the best of seven series.
Many have already put the team in its grave. It is no lie that it is extremely hard to come back from a two game deficit, but not unheard of. Don Cherry, Pierre Lebrun and the rest of the National Hockey League pundits seem to forget the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes.
Carolina is the last franchise to recover from going down by two games in the first round. Not only did they come back to storm through the rest of their playoffs to their first Stanley Cup but they also dropped their first two games at home. Capitals Head Coach Bruce Boudreau continues to remind his team of this despite his strong disapproval of comparing his team to history.
The real question now is not how this happened. Instead, it's why has everyone counted these guys out?
Washington has perhaps the youngest playoff team this year and ironically one of the strongest locker rooms. Upon entering their dressing room you can just feel the bonds they have forged in the air. It is teams that win hockey games and playoff series and it takes a strong team to come back from such a hole.
The team's sense of brotherhood was evident on Saturday as they stood behind their rookie net minder, Simeon Varlamov, who had replaced consensus No. 1 Jose Theodore. Even though he has been on the team for over a month now, the team treated him as if it was his first game ever.
It seemed like after almost every whistle and every stoppage someone was giving him encouragement. Whether it was veteran defenseman Tom Poti or No. 8 himself, Alex Ovechkin, it seemed to help calm the "Iron Curtain" down. Little things like this are what make teams great. Just look at the New York Yankees, a team built of superstars with no chemistry and no championship.
Unfortunately for the Capitals there wasn't anything major to credit the loss to. Except for one terrible turnover that led to a two-on-one and the goal, Washington played a solid game. It doesn't help that the one shot where Ovechkin actually beat the New York goaltender went off of the crossbar.
Henrick Lundqvist was not the only person they had to beat on the ice, as it seemed like the Caps were playing against the officiating as well. The Rangers had four power plays in the first half of the game, while it took nearly 40 minutes for the Caps to get theirs. In actuality, the fact that the score was only 1-0 is someone of a miracle. It speaks to just how well the Caps played as they held New York 0-5 on the power play.
There are no big changes or surprise roster moves Boudreau can make now. He has already benched his top goalie and put Brian Pothier in the lineup. The only other major change we could see is the return of captain Chris Clark. The captain has been sidelined by a wrist injury for most of the year. His return could generate traffic in front of the net, which could be the missing piece to the puzzle.
Teams like Detroit and Boston thrive on placing a winger right in front of the goalie. It was Johnan Franzen, better known as "the mule," who stole the show in last year's playoffs. Lundqvist isn't going to be beat short side or by a shot from the point; it is going to take a dirty goal to beat him. It is going to take dirty goals to win the series.
Alex Ovechkin summed it up well after Saturday's game when he said, "If you don't score goals, you can't win the game."
You can reach this columnist at atomlinson@theeagleonline.com.
