Heading into their Eastern Conference semifinal matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday afternoon, the hype swirled around Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin and Penguins center Sidney Crosby. But the question marks were really facing Caps rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov.
And rightfully so. Varlamov, who turned 21 last week, has all of 11 NHL starts under his pads — seven of those now in the postseason. Although he looked phenomenal bailing his teammates out in Washington’s first-round victory against the New York Rangers that still didn’t completely erase the idea playoff pressure could get to him.
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Despite tossing up jaw-dropping statistics against an admittedly scoring-challenged New York team, the young Russian faces a far stiffer challenge in Washington’s semifinal meeting with the Penguins and big guns Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar.
The returns from Game 1 were mixed — two soft goals and a dynamite, game-changing save.
After surrendering a wrist-shot tally by Crosby in the first and failing to clamp down a drive from Pittsburgh defenseman Mark Eaton in the second, Varlamov came up huge with arguably the biggest save of the season.
Chris Kunitz and Crosby broke into the Capitals’ zone on a 2-on-1 opportunity late in the second with the score tied at two. Kunitz drew Varlamov to the left side of the goal and flipped a pass to the waiting Crosby, who had an open net. Varlamov turned, reached back and paddled the puck off the goal line just in time to keep the Penguins from seizing a crucial lead heading into the third.
The reaction from Capitals forward Brooks Laich:
“I was stunned,” he said. ‘I was like ‘Oh my God.’ I was amazed. I saw Crosby shoot and I was like ‘Aw, that’s in.’ Then [Varlamov] just reaches back and grabs it and the whole bench was like ‘Wow, that’s our break, let’s get going. We’ve got to smarten up and play better.’ Incredible.”
The save served as the turning point the Caps needed. They scored the go-ahead goal early in the third and paced themselves to a Game 1 victory.
If Varlamov is facing the nerves that come along with playing in the NHL’s marquee matchup, he’s good at hiding it.
“Well, intensity-wise, it is pretty much the same [as the Eastern Conference quarterfinal with the Rangers),” a blasé Varlamov said through a translator. “But, unfortunately, since Pittsburgh is thought of as an important rival for us, the fans are a bit more hyped up and from that point of view, yes it is a little more intense.”
While Varlamov’s mental approach to the series is cool, his style of play is anything but laid back.
Caps coach Bruce Boudreau assessed his goaltender’s approach:
“Goalies are taught never to give up. You look at all the great goalies that are in hockey nowadays. No matter where the play is, they never give up,” Boudreau said. “They keep fighting. And that’s the only way the [Martin] Brodeurs and the Tim Thomases and the [Roberto] Luongos look like they make great saves. It’s because they never quit on the puck.”
Lucky for the Caps, Varlamov is beginning to emulate some of the game’s finest, most seasoned goalies. He just might need to be that good to thwart Pittsburgh.
