Caps and Lightning Tangle in Game 5 in Tampa
For the third time in the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Caps head into Game 5 of an all even series, taking on the Lightning in Tampa on Saturday night
For the third time in as many playoff series this spring, the Capitals find themselves getting ready for a critical Game 5 in a 2-2 series. In the first round against Columbus, the Caps lost two straight at home and had to win the next two on the road to put themselves back even in the series. In the second round against Pittsburgh, a Game 4 loss kept the Caps from taking a 3-1 lead in the set. And in their third-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Caps reversed their first round course, winning the first two on the road before dropping two in Washington.
"Now it's a best of three [series]," says Caps center Lars Eller, "and we've been in this position before. We knew it wasn't going to be easy."
The Lightning evened the series on Thursday in the District, taking a 4-2 win on the strength of special teams play and a superb performance from goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
"If you look at it overall and before the series said, 'It's going to be 2-2 after four games,' both teams are going to be happy," said Caps center Evgeny Kuznetsov after Game 4. "We wanted to win one home game for sure, but we didn't. It's fine - we have to keep moving forward and stay positive."
The Caps have dominated the Lightning at five-on-five in this series, and the Bolts have had the better of the special teams play. Tampa scored on its first power play chance of the game in Thursday, doing so for the third straight game to take a 2-1 lead before the midpoint of the first period. Washington had three power play opportunities in the latter half of the first, but the Caps' extra-man unit was not able to get the game tied up.
Kuznetsov evened the score with a rush goal at 5:18 of the second, and the Caps peppered Vasilevskiy for the remainder of the period, but to no avail. The Lightning regained the lead with eight minutes left in the third period, going up 3-2 when Alex Killorn scored just seconds after the Caps successfully navigated their way through a Tampa power play, which has not been an easy achievement for them in this series.
"Honestly, I think the best we felt as a team is probably when Killer scored and gave us the lead there," says Tampa Bay blueliner Ryan McDonagh. "We were really focused and determined for the last bit of the third period. If there's anything we can use going forward here, it's that mindset we had, focus, that determination, that locked-in both ways. We still carried the play pretty well there. Had some offensive-zone time finally; we didn't have much in the second period. We'll look to kind of capitalize on that and keep using that for the next game."
Now the stage is set for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final series on Saturday in Tampa. Washington broke each of those 2-2 deadlocks in the first two rounds with Game 5 victories on home ice; it then finished each series with a Game 6 triumph on the road. The Capitals are looking for a repeat performance in Game 5, but this time they'll have to win it on the road, where they've forged a 7-1 mark during the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs.
"I'm one of the guys who doesn't really believe in momentum in the playoffs," says Washington defenseman Brooks Orpik, "especially with the one-day breaks in between the games, I think you turn the page pretty quickly. Besides the result from [Thursday] night, I think we were pretty happy with how we played. We've just got to find a way [Saturday] night to bring the same approach, but obviously find a way to win."
Neither team has won at home in this series, and the road team owns a 12-4 record in Washington's 16 playoff games this spring. Everyone is asking about the lack of home ice advantage in this series, but no one can satisfactorily explain it.
"Well, if I had the answers, you know," shrugs Lightning coach Jon Cooper. "I don't think you can ask [Caps coach] Barry [Trotz] for answers either. For me, now that we've gone through four games in this series, why are we treating the home game differently than the road game? Our preparation, what we're doing, that's how we're going to approach that. We're going to approach things like we're on the road.
"The one thing is, you go home, be with your families. But their needs and wants are different than ours. We all want the same thing to happen in the end. Our guys are the ones that are in the trenches. I think being with the family and everybody, that's important. They're our backbone. I can hardly wait to get home and see my kids. Then it's back to work. You get to enjoy that little bit of time. It's the part of life that gives you energy, then you have to take it out on the work, take it out on the Washington Capitals. I just know we're a different group coming into Game 5 mentally than we were in Game 1."
The Lightning was the first team in the series to squander home ice advantage, losing both games decisively to Washington, particularly at five-on-five. When the series shifted to D.C., the Lightning returned the favor, but it beat the Caps via the special teams route.
"You can see our power play has been pretty good in this series, so has theirs," says Cooper. "[The Caps] didn't get one [Thursday] night. Then you have just weapons all over the place, which both teams do. You can prescout, prescout, prescout, they're still going to get you somehow. Just look at some of the goals these guys have scored. Not a lot of guys in the league can do that. That's probably why these two teams are where they're at right now.
"But you are just playing with fire if you're going to keep taking penalties against these guys. We ran into it [Thursday] night. We can't continue to do that because they're too good."
The Caps lost the first two games that played in the playoffs this spring, and they've lost the last two. In between, they won 10 of 12. At this stage of the season, avoiding losing streaks is critical. Consecutive losses are far from ideal, but they can be overcome if it's early enough in the series. Three straight losses usually means trouble, and the Caps believe their season-long resilience will put them in good stead as they aim to avoid a third straight setback on Saturday in Game 5.
"I don't think anybody thought this series would go fourt straight or anything like that," says Trotz. "There are two really high-quality teams that are going to go nose to nose, and there are twists and turns in the road sometimes. For us, we've had a lot of twists and turns even in our first series, where we were down two [games] and we came back.
"It's just another layer of adversity, and this group has taken on any adversity that has been thrown its way all year, and hasn't shied away from it. I think we've played three of the four games [in this series] pretty well. So I'm not disappointed at all. I may be disappointed in the outcome [Thursday] night, but other than that, in our play and that, we're doing a lot of good things. We're excited to get on the ice [Saturday] and play and get it on."
Each of the Lightning's first two series were over in five games, so the Lightning's Game 5 experiences in 2018 have both been victorious as well. One of these two teams is going to lose a Game 5 for the first time in the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs on Saturday night.
"We're 2-2," says Orpik, "we just got here different ways, obviously being down 0-2 in the first one. But none of that really matters once you get to here. I think everybody views it as a best of three to get to the final. Like we were saying this morning, I think anybody from the start of the playoffs or the start of the regular season would take that in a heartbeat. So I think guys are pretty excited about the opportunity."
