And so the spotlight falls on Caps rookie goalie Michal Neuvirth in tonight’s first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers. For a team employing a kid with exactly zero NHL playoff starts Washington’s locker room seems remarkably calm. Doesn’t hurt that most of them have seen back-up goalie Semyon Varlamov win a playoff series against these same Rangers two years ago. And rookie Braden Holtby – waiting in the wings at AHL Hershey – has performed well for Washington this season, too, if either of the top two get hurt.
“We’re comfortable every which way,” said defenseman Scott Hannan. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in everybody in this room. We’ve got a lot of good players, we’ve got a lot of depth. We’re going to need probably all the players when all is said and done. That’s the plan.”
Neuvirth, of course, has never lost a postseason series — not in Canadian junior hockey, not in the American Hockey League. He has started 14 playoff series and won every time. He’s the most consistent — and healthy — of the Caps’ young goalies with a .914 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average. So Neuvirth was the obvious choice.
“Play up to your capabilities. That’s all we ask of him,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “And we know we’re going to get it. He’s a great goaltender. He’s underrated, he’s unknown, but he’s a great goaltender.”
It didn’t hurt that Boudreau got to see plenty of Neuvirth’s playoff success in person last season after his team was unceremoniously dumped from the NHL playoffs in the first round. Neuvirth led Hershey to back-to-back Calder Cup titles – though may have had to work a little harder for it last season, according to both defensemen John Carlson and Karl Alzner [click here for our feature on the young defensemen], who were with Hershey the last two springs.
“We were in control of pretty much every series the first year,” Carlson said. “The second year not so much. We went down to Manchester, we went down to Texas and he kept us in there and made it so we could battle back and win.”
Boudreau wasn’t kidding when he said he doesn’t even talk to Neuvirth – or at least not any more than necessary. Why get the kid all wound up? In fact, that’s probably more for Boudreau’s peace of mind entering the playoffs than his goalie’s mental state. But there’s no question there is a higher level of trust there than the last two seasons when veteran Jose Theodore was the Game 1 starter.
“We’ve got two good goaltenders,” forward Boyd Gordon said. “[Neuvirth] is our starter. We’re confident in him. But if something were to happen, an injury, knock on wood, we’re comfortable with [Varlamov], too. He has good playoff experience. Whoever it is we’re behind him 100 percent.”
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