The Caps practiced for about 30 minutes at Kettler Iceplex on Saturday morning in preparation for Game 3 against the New York Rangers in this first round playoff series. The scene shifts to Madison Square Garden for the 3p.m. contest Sunday with Washington up 2-0.
Only difference in lines was a swap of centers – Jason Arnott on the top line between Alex Ovechkin and Mike Knuble and Nicklas Backstrom on the second line between Alex Semin and Marco Sturm. We’ll see if that continues for tomorrow’s game or is just a brief experiment. It’s not like the Caps have dominated offensively against New York with 2-1 and 2-0 victories. Caps coach Bruce Boudreau claimed the two just put on the wrong colored jersey and he didn’t bother to switch them. That’s pretty hollow, to be honest, and it’s been used before anyway. Doesn’t mean Boudreau will make the switch. But he’s thinking about it.
“When you’re up 2-0 on a real good team, everybody’s playing good,” Boudreau said. “The defense is playing good the forwards are playing good, the question is can you sustain it? And that’s our question. Hopefully we can.”
Washington is 3-5 all time when winning the first two games of a playoff series and 1-4 when that happens during best-of-sevens. Several players said that hasn’t been a topic of conversation – in part because many of those playoff failures happened years ago and in part because roster turnover has brought in so much new blood over the last two years. The blown 3-1 lead to Montreal and the blown 2-0 lead to the Penguins are the only two that can be pinned on this group. How do they learn from it?
“To prevent it from happening, I don’t know. You try to prepare every day. You try to keep them focused every day,” Boudreau said. “But I wish I had the crystal ball to say ‘Okay, this is what we have to say or do so we don’t lose the next game’. We want to play very similar to what we’re doing. But only better. Because we feel every game we have to get better. We know the Rangers will get not only better, but as time comes on it’ll be more desperate.”
Meanwhile, defenseman Dennis Wideman skated for the second day in a row wearing just warm-up gear. He’s still recovering from the right leg hematoma that led to at least 11-day stay in a local hospital. Everyone else participated in Saturday’s practice.
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