Time CAPSule - Caps Come Up Empty in Game 2 - (4/14/08)

Earlier this season, we posted a lengthy piece on Alex Ovechkin's early years in DC and another shorter piece on Nicklas Backstrom's five-year contract extension. In the process of crafting those stories and talking to the subjects themselves and many others, we were reminded of how exciting and thrilling the 2007-08 NHL season was in these parts.

It stands as Ovechkin's career year, it was Backstrom's rookie year, Bruce Boudreau took over behind the Washington bench on Thanksgiving Day, and the Caps made the playoffs for the first time in five years, winning 15 of 19, 11 of 12 and seven straight at season's end to come back from a dismal 6-14-1 start to win the Southeast Division title.

That season and that run into the playoffs augured in the "Rock The Red" era of hockey in DC, the beginning of 11 playoff appearances in a span of a dozen seasons. At this time a dozen years ago, the Caps were in the midst of that wild run. With the NHL's 2019-20 season "paused" for the foreseeable future, we're going to spend the next month looking back at the day-to-day of that remarkable late-season run, revisiting some of our coverage at the time with some fresh hindsight mixed in. On the off days between games, we will revisit some events from earlier in that landmark season. Enjoy!

Monday, April 14, 2008

They won seven straight to conclude the 2007-08 regular season, and they won Game 1 of their best-of-seven opening round playoff set against the Philadelphia Flyers. But the Caps came up blank in Sunday afternoon's Game 2 of the series, falling 2-0 to the Flyers and netminder Martin Biron, who made 24 stops in recording his third shutout in a span of four starts; he finished the regular season with consecutive shutouts.

Philly scored twice in the first - both times against Washington's top forward line - and that was the scoring for the game. R.J. Umberger and Jeff Carter supplied the lamplighters for the Flyers, who outshot the Caps 41-24 on the afternoon. Down two goals in the third, the Caps were outshot 18-8 in the game's final frame, and they were 0-for-6 on the power play.

For the Caps, it was the first time they tasted defeat in 25 days, since absorbing a 5-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Blackhawks in Chicago on March 19. With the series squared at 1-1, the Caps practiced on this Monday morning before boarding a bus to Union Station, where they would hop on a train to Philly for Tuesday's Game 3.

Here's our postgame notebook from the Game 2 loss, along with some leftover quotes from after the game:

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Roll Over - With Sunday's 2-0 setback to the Flyers, Washington tasted defeat for the first time since a 5-0 whitewashing at the hands of the Blackhawks in Chicago on Mar. 19. Including the final seven games of the regular season and Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal, the Caps had won eight straight games.

Sunday's loss also ended a run of seven straight Washington wins on Verizon Center ice.

The loss to Philly in Game 2 was easily the worst game the Caps have turned in since the loss in Chicago, and only the excellent play of Cristobal Huet in goal kept the final score respectable.

Sunday's loss marks the first time the Caps have allowed 40 or more shots on goal since they permitted 42 in the aforementioned Chicago game, and the worst shot differential (minus-17) since that same game against the Blackhawks.

"We can't expect to come back from a two-goal deficit every night," states Huet. "They worked very hard tonight and had a good night and we are going to have to match that at the next game if we want to be successful. They just were more desperate tonight, and we're going to have to realize that it's going to take a lot more from everyone to be successful."

Washington was outscored, outshot, outhustled and outworked. That's rare for the Capitals, and they'll have to turn those tables in Game 3 at Philadelphia on Tuesday.

"I can't put it any plainer," says Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. "Philadelphia outplayed us, outworked us and out-won the battles on us. We now know that we've got to pay a bigger price if we want to succeed."

Power Outage - Washington had plenty of chances to get back into this one early. The Flyers took five minor penalties in the first 22 minutes of the contest, but the Capitals did nothing with their extra-man opportunities. Washington was 0-for-6 on the power play in Game 2. Sunday's game ended a stretch of four straight games in which the Caps scored at least one power play goal.

Home Cooking - During the life of Washington's seven-game home ice winning streak, the Capitals outscored the opposition by a combined 25-11. They scored at least one first period goal in all seven games, and outscored the opposition by a combined 8-4 in the first stanza of those games.

The Caps scored at least one third period goal in six of the seven games during the streak, and outscored their foes by a combined 10-0 in the final frame of the home winning streak.

Similar Style - In Friday's Game 1, the Flyers scored twice off the rush and twice because they went to the net and/or created traffic in front of Caps goaltender Cristobal Huet.

Philly used the same tactics in Game 2, scoring once via each route. The Caps let R.J. Umberger slip in behind the Washington defense on a sloppy line change early in the first period. Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn sprung Umberger with a perfect stretch pass, he beat Huet and the Caps were down a goal.

Mike Green's neutral zone turnover led to an odd-man rush later in the period. Philly's Mike Knuble took a shot from the circle, and Huet stopped it but the Flyers' Jeff Carter was driving the net and he chipped the puck up and over the Washington netminder.

Streakbuster - Philadelphia's win at Washington on Sunday ended a string of six successive road losses in the playoffs for the Flyers.

Hot Goalie - Philadelphia netminder Martin Biron now has three shutouts in his last four starts, dating back to the final two games of the regular season.

Biron becomes the eighth different goaltender to blank the Capitals in the postseason and the first Flyers goaltender to do so. Pittsburgh's Johan Hedberg blanked Washington on Apr. 16, 2001 in the previous playoff shutout the Caps suffered.

"You gotta beat hot goalies in the playoffs to win," says Caps winger Matt Cooke. "You just have to find ways and that means crashing the net or getting rebounds; you gotta get it done. We had enough opportunities to win the game and we just didn't."

Down on the Farm - Congratulations to the Hershey Bears, who sealed a playoff berth for the third time in as many seasons as a Capitals affiliate with a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Phantoms at Giant Center on Saturday night.

Congratulations also to Bears winger Francois Bouchard, who netted his first professional goal this afternoon early in the first period of a game with Binghamton at Giant Center on Sunday. Bouchard's tally was a power play goal at 1:41 of the first period.

Finally, congratulations are in order for Bears center Kyle Wilson, too. Wilson netted his 30th goal of the season near the end of the first period to give the Bears a 2-0 lead over the Senators (game in progress at the time of this writing).

The Bears host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Division semifinals on Wednesday at 7 p.m. This marks the third straight season in which the Bears and the Baby Pens have tangled in the playoffs. Each of the prior two springs' match-ups came in the Eastern Division finals, with Hershey prevailing in both games.

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Postgame Quotebook:

Caps goaltender Cristobal Huet was asked to assess his play thus far in the series:

"I don't think I've played as well as I've wanted to play. But in the second part of the game [on Sunday] it was maybe good for me to get some shots and get into the series. I feel real into it now, and I look forward to playing [on Tuesday]."

Huet on playing the same team game after game in the playoffs:

"You play them so much that it creates a rivalry. You get on the edge and you want to play your best. We lost one, and obviously we feel like we need to step up and come back at them."

Caps coach Bruce Boudreau on Game 2:

"Philadelphia played very, very good. A lot of times, it's one team that is playing bad, it's the other team is playing overly good. I thought Philly was a determined group [Sunday] and they played very hard. They deserved everything they got and they made us look bad."

On Alex Ovechkin:

"He didn't touch the puck too much [Sunday]. Alex had a mediocre game for him. He'll get back to it. When he plays like Alex and the way he plays, he's pretty hard to stop. Every team for 82 games that he played was putting guys on him. It's no different here. He's done it in the past, and he's got to do it again."

On the Caps:

"We have to play with a sense of urgency. They played with it [Sunday]; we didn't. We were a very complacent team. Like I said, they made us look complacent because they were very good."

On playing at home vs. playing on the road:

"I don't think there's a lot of adjusting. We've just got to play. I think we won 20 games on the road and 23 at home. We're fairly consistent in both spots. I believe we'll be ready. We'll come to play."

Caps center Brooks Laich on Sunday's performance:

"We've got a lot of things we didn't do well. I think our passing wasn't very good. It seemed like always we were a foot too far ahead or a foot behind the guy with our passing. And also we've got to pay more of a price. We learned what happens to us when we don't pay the price; when we don't do things well, when we aren't structured, when we don't forecheck as three-man and five-man units instead of just one guy going. It's a learning lesson and we'll be better Tuesday."