Currently the National Hockey League are within the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There is nothing like playoff hockey. The battling, the sacrificing, the heartache and the jubilation that comes with cheering on your team in the playoffs is like no other. This emotional rollercoaster as a fan is especially exaggerated when you are watching these games in the middle of the night, which I am doing since I live in the UK.
The team I follow are the Washington Capitals who during the first round battled against the Boston Bruins. That series set a NHL record of the first series in league history where each game (the series went 7 games) was decided by by only 1 goal. It was a fantastic series. A massive emotional rollercoaster for the fans, the players, the coaches, owners, general managers, etc. The Capitals won the series. It was fantastic.
However it wasn't the end. Next came the New York Rangers. They, like the Capitals are a tight defensive team, but have limited. Last night the Capitals lost game 5. It was probably one of the most heartbreaking losses I've had to deal with as a Capitals fan. With only 22 seconds left, and the Capitals leading 2-1, Joel Ward takes a double minor high sticking penalty. Now you can't exactly blame Ward on the play, he was trying to gain position on the Ranger player and his stick rode up high. It happens. But the Capitals penalty kill has been strong throughout the playoffs.
When the Rangers scored with 6.8 seconds left in the, my heart sank. I just knew that the Capitals would lose this game in overtime. Which they did 1:35 into the OT period which also happened be the 2nd two minutes of Ward's penalty. What really got me is that in the Game Summary people will see the two PPs next to the Rangers last two goals. But both plays were due to bad luck on the Capitals. On the game tying goal, Holtby made a fantastic save and was reaching to cover the puck when Brad Richards got there first and was able to poke the puck into net. The game winning goal was deflected off of one, if not maybe two Capital players who went down to block the shot. That's hockey. That's professional sports. Things like that happen.
The Capitals have to win the next two games in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. They play again tomorrow (yet another 0030 start for me. :) ) in Washington. The Capitals need to make a statement at home. The "not so young" Young Guns (Mike Green, Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom) need to be much better. They need to find their scoring touch again and solve Lundqvist. Otherwise, it will be a disappointing night when the Capitals season ends.
Personally, I don't think we will see a hand shake on Wednesday, I think we will see it after game 7 on Saturday.
Regardless of what happens, I definitely am happy with the Capitals this season. Yes, the regular season was mediocre, but they've shown some heart that they hadn't had in prior post seasons. They took the defending Stanley Cup champions after a close exciting series and they are giving the Eastern Conference number 1 seed a run for their money.
Capitals will win this series in 7 games.
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