Caps 6, Montreal Canadiens 5 (OT)
We can go ahead and put that game on the 2020 edition of the NHL’s all-time greatest Washington Capitals’ games. I think most of you would pony up the cash for a 10-disc set with that one on it. Check out my game story for the major details. But as thrilling as the game was it wasn’t without some controversy. The Caps didn’t play that great. Bruce Boudreau said as much during his postgame press conference.
“It’s the only way we were going to win tonight — if we decided to go all offense. By no stretch did we probably deserve to win. But we got lucky and we did. We know we’re not out of the woods. There’s a lot of people that are going to say that Montreal’s outplayed us for two games. And they were on the road and now we’re going into their building. So we have to play an awful lot better. And we have to tighten up obviously if we want to succeed anywhere — whether it’s this series or beyond. Right now I’m just worried about winning the next game.”
There is also another goalie controversy after Jose Theodore was pulled after just two shots. Boudreau spoke before the series about not having Theodore on a “short leash.” He played well in Game 1, of course, stopping 35 of 38 Montreal shots. But things fell apart in spectacular fashion on Saturday. Canadiens forward Brian Gionta fired a glove-side shot past Theodore from about 35 feet out on the left wing. The Caps’ goalie appeared shaken. On one sequence he held his left post, but then inexplicably pushed a step or two across the crease when a Montreal shot nestled into the side of the net for an agonizing second or two until he recovered. That first big miscue against Gionta came just one minute into the contest. When Andrei Kostitsyn found room in the slot and beat Theodore at 7:58 of the first his night was over.
Boudreau immediately put last year’s playoff hero – rookie goalie Semyon Varlamov – into the net. That move was reminiscent of last spring’s goalie change after Game 1 when Theodore looked shaky against the New York Rangers and Boudreau started Varlamov in Game 2. He never came out, playing in 13 games and leading Washington to Game 7 of the second round before losing to Pittsburgh. Varlamov stopped the first 10 shots Montreal threw at him on Saturday, calming the Caps enough to get a goal back on a breakaway from forward Eric Fehr, who shot high and to the left of goalie Halak.
“I haven’t really thought about who’s playing Monday yet,” Boudreau said. “But it was more of a deflating thing on the bench that I thought we needed the change. The first one was a knuckle ball – and for your first shot on goal it was a tough one. We made such a bad play on the second one. Kostitsyn was in between the circles with a wrist shot. So I don’t know in the real world if Theo had much chance on either one of them. But I do know that we had expended an awful lot of energy for the first eight minutes of the game and we were down 2-0. So I thought that might be A) a lift for the crowd and B) a lift on the bench. I don’t if it worked or didn’t work, but we ended up winning.”
So, Caps fans: Who do you go with in Game 3? I say stick with Theodore. If you bench him now it’d be hard to go back to him later. If he has another subpar game then go with Varlamov and don’t look back. In a 1-1 series you have that luxury.
