The media horde has departed Washington. Dozens of reporters following this 1-1 series have moved on to Montreal in anticipation of Game 3 on Monday night at Bell Centre. A relatively smaller contingent stayed behind to catch the Capitals’ optional morning practice at Kettler Iceplex on Sunday morning before the team jumped a flight to Quebec this afternoon.
There were 18 players on the ice. Taking a needed day off: Tom Poti, Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Knuble, Brooks Laich, Alex Semin and Alex Ovechkin. There are still plenty of questions as Washington prepares for Game 3. The biggest? Who’s in goal, of course. I’ll have a story on that in Monday’s print edition as Bruce Boudreau chooses between Jose Theodore — pulled from Saturday night’s 6-5 overtime win after just two shots — or rookie Semyon Varlamov, last year’s playoff hero.
But there are others. Who will start at center on the second line between wingers Brooks Laich and Semin? That duo has struggled through the first two games with no points at all. Tomas Fleischmann was their center in Game 1. Brendan Morrison played most of the first two periods at that spot in Game 2 before Boudreau began shifting the lines in the third period with his team trailing. Maybe Eric Belanger gets a shot there on Monday?
Now let’s discuss the power play — something I doubt anyone thought would be an issue in this series for Washington. The league’s best power-play unit — by far — at 25.2 percent is now 0-for-7 in this series and 0-for-14 in its last four games, including the final two in the regular season. They are also just 3-for-24 against Montreal this season in six games. It’s such a strength for the Caps I think we all forgot that the Canadiens have a pretty good penalty kill. At 83 percent it ranked 11th in the NHL. Washington had just one stretch this season longer than the current 0-for-14 drought. It went 0-for-15 over four games between Oct. 17 and 27. They also had an 0-for-13 between Nov. 17 and 28 — a string of six games overall. Between March 18-28 they were 0-for-12 in five games.
Not that anyone is too worried. I had several Caps players tell me the Canadiens are doing a good job keeping them from setting up in the offensive zone and that their defensemen are extra aggressive on the penalty kill. Montreal — as it should — is concentrating on Ovechkin pretty heavily, too. But Washington had some opportunities with the man advantage, too, on Saturday and will continue to tinker as it prepares for Game 3. Coach Boudreau’s thoughts:
“We’ve gone through two or three stretches where we go 0-for-15 or so and then the next thing you know we go 5-for-7. So even though we didn’t score and our entries weren’t what we wanted. I thought we had some great looks and we just missed chances. So it’s not as if I’m dismally disappointed in our power play because they’re working at it and they’re trying to get stuff done and they’re having a modicum of success – meaning they’re getting a couple of chances during the power play. It’s not like Montreal’s got it in our zone the whole time.”
