Last night the Washington Capitals were defeated by the Montreal Canadiens 2-1. The loss last night allowed the Canadiens to win the series four games to three. With the Capitals season now over we will take a look back today at how they got here, what went wrong, & where they go from here.
How they got here:
Washington finished the season with a record of 54-15-13. That was good enough for 121 points, 1st place in the Eastern Conference & the 1st ever President's Trophy for the franchise.
Unfortunately as many 1st time winners have come to realize, the President's trophy doesn't guarantee post-season success.
What went wrong:
There are a lot of things that have to go wrong to lose a series that you had a three games to one lead in. Four things from this series stand out for me.
1. The failure of the Power Play:
Washington had the best Power Play percentage in the regular season at 25.2 %. It didn't carry over into the post-season as the Capitals went one for thirty-three with the man advantage.
2. The play of Hal Gill & Josh Gorges on defense:
They were able to keep Alex Ovechkin in check. Ovechkin still lead the Capitals in points with ten in the post-season & tied for the lead in playoff goals with five but the duo of Gill & Gorges never allowed him to take over & dominate a game like he is capable of.
And whenever Ovechkin tied to push the play up the ice to spark the team either Gill or gorges was in his way to slow him down.
3. The disappearence of Alexander Semin & Mike Green:
Semin was 2nd on the team with 40 goals & Green led all defenseman with 19 goals. Neither one was able to find the back of the net this post-season. Semin only scored two points in the series while Green only did one better scoring three points.
4. Jaroslav Halak:
He was pulled in the Game three loss and benched in Game four. He was put back in as the started in Game five and proceeded to channel his inner Patrick Roy the rest of the series.
In Games 5 thru 7 he stopped 131 of 134 shots that he faced, giving up only one goal in each game. After that performance I think it's safe to say the Halak has finally won the job in goal in Montreal.
Where they go from here:
This is not the 1st time the Capitals have lost a series where they led three games to one. (1995: Pittsburgh, 1992: Pittsburgh) This is the 1st time however a number eight seed has come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series.
I honestly don't know what else the Capitals can do to improve. It's like they are the San Jose Sharks of the Eastern Conference, a talented team that is built to win in the regular season but fails to produce in the post-season.
The front office needs to do a lot of soul searching this off-season. They are one or two players away from making that leap into being an elite team and a serious cup contender.
As to who those players are, I don't know but I hope they can find them. This team has too much talent to stop playing hockey in April.
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