The Washington Capitals

Round 1 Schedule, in case you missed it:

Game 1 - Tonight (4/15), 7:00, in DC
Game 2 - Saturday (4/18), 1:00, in DC
Game 3 - Monday (4/20), 7:00, at the Garden
Game 4 - Next Wednesday (4/22), 7:00, at the Garden
---------------IF NECESSARY-----------------
Game 5 - Friday, 4/24, 7:00, in DC
Game 6 - Sunday, 4/26, 2:00, at the Garden
Game 7 - Tuesday, 4/28, in DC (time TBD, but probably 7:00)

So, 7 games to beat the Caps 4 times. That's hard work. How do we do it?

The first step is containment. You've probably heard a thing or two about one Alex Ovechkin, the best player in hockey. That's not the sarcasm I use when I call Brodeur a Prince or Crosbaby the Face of the NHL - Ovechkin is actually the best player in hockey right now. Which is not to scare you, it's to prepare you. But it's not Ovechkin I'm the most worried about. He is going to break through and score a few unbelievable solo act goals, and we're gonna have to rely on Marc Staal and then Henrik Lundqvist (the two Rangers I would trust the most to do pretty much anything) to keep those to a minimum. Seriously, the key to the series will not be "stop Ovechkin." You don't stop Ovechkin. You put your best players between him and the back of your net, and you keep him to a minimum. I'm fine with that.

I'm talking about containing everyone else. Most notably: Alexander Semin and Mike Green. That's where the other guys come in. That's where we need solid defense all around. That's where we need a guy like Sean Avery to get in people's faces. He's not gonna distract Ovechkin - Ovechkin is too good. But he might distract Mike Green, and that could be a difference-maker.

So, that's the first part: Lundqvist needs to steal more than a few games, every defenseman needs to step up - Staal needs to be as good as he can be, but Redden and Rozsival also need to be better than I've seen them (as discussed yesterday).

What then?

If the Capitals have a weak point, it is their last line of defense. Jose Theodore just isn't great. However, he's playing behind a team that could score 7 goals a game, against a team that still doesn't really know how to score them, so that may not matter. How do we make it matter? Get shots to the net. I'm not asking for much from Redden and Rozsival, they have enough on their hands playing defense. But Mara needs to shoot. Morris needs to shoot. And every Ranger forward needs to be in the crease. If we default to our usual "come down the boards, stay to the outside and set up," we will lose this series. We need to take advantage of what weakness the Caps do have, and that means peppering Theodore with 40 shots a game. Not one-and-done shots, sustained pressure. The Tortorella way. This applies to everyone.

Everyone is predicting a Caps win in this series, and their reasoning is sound. I'm not going to tell you we'll win this series, but I am going to tell you we can. We know the Rangers are capable of driving to the net. We know Theodore will give up goals if we do. We know Lundqvist can stop breakaways normal humans can't. We know Avery can get in people's faces.

This isn't just bullshit, it is an actual way that we could win this series. The question is simply: can the Rangers pull it off? There's no doubt that we have a path to victory, and there's no doubt that the burden of proof is on us. That's why the posts about our own guys were the important ones. The Caps are a hard team to beat, and this post outlines a way that it could happen - but really, it comes down to the improvements I talked about yesterday. As always, as Torts professes, this is about us, not them. Puck drops in 6 and a half hours; clown time is over.