Well the boys made us wait till the last game of the season to make us sweat to see if we would make the big dance. If it wasn’t for an early goalie pull by the Flyers who knows if we clinch the last wild card spot, but here we are in the playoffs lets make some noise.
The first round of the playoffs will be as follows for the Eastern Conference:
(M1) New York Rangers vs (WC2) Washington Capitals
(A1) Florida Panthers vs (WC1) Tampa Bay Lightning
(M2) Carolina Hurricanes vs (M3) New York Islanders
(A2) Boston Bruins vs (A3) Toronto Maple Leafs
The Washington Capitals will play the President’s Trophy Winners the New York Rangers who finished 55-23-4.
The Rangers and Capitals have much history when it comes to the playoffs. They have played 10 times and first time since 2015 and NY has won 5 of the previous 9 series, including the last 3 matchups, and the matchups have been must watch and electric! (usually ending with Capitals heartbreak see below)
Still not over this goal that Caps team was so good, but I digress.
As you may have heard we had -37 goal differential and is the first team to make the playoffs with that bad of a goal differential since the early 90s.
With that said the NHL playoffs are unlike any pro sports playoff, because truly everyone has a decent shot at making it to the Cup Final because all it takes is getting hot at the right time and a couple bounces going your way. Not to mention the Caps have nothing to lose in this series and the Rangers have al the pressure on them with the Presidents Trophy curse which the Capitals know all to well.
This is the Rangers 3rd straight year in the dance and the Capitals are back after missing the playoffs last year which ended a 8 year run.
The Capitals spilt the 4 games they played this season with the home team winning every game.
Artemi Panarin is the key guy in this series being that he had 120 points on the season and if the Caps are able to hold him out of the scoring column it could give them a great chance for success.
For the goalies the Rangers might have a little goalie controversy in that they have Igor Shesterkin who went 36-17-2 and the OG Jonathan Quick who went 18-6-2 and who has been play great as of late, and if you know anything about hockey and the playoffs you have to ride the hot hand so it will be interesting to see if Igor gets the nod but is on a very short leash.
As for the Capitals the only answer should be Charlie “The Hitman” Lindgren who went 25-16-7 and has stolen so many games for Washington this season. As for Darcy Kuemper who went 13-14-3 he can hold Lindgren’s jock and be ready when called upon.
Speaking of Lindgren he gets to face off agaisnt his brother and Ranger’s defensemen Ryan Lindgren.
“I’m really excited,” Charlie Lindgren said. “It’s going to be a fun family affair, obviously. I know my brother’s looking forward to it. My parents, I’m sure their stress levels are going to be pretty high, but obviously so excited that our journey as a team, we’re not done yet. We get to go into the dance and go continue to play hockey.”
Also, we could possible see a Wilson vs Rempe (Reaves 2.0) faceoff, but I picture this like the Wilson vs Reaves situation because those two should almost never be on the ice at the same time because Wilson is a playmaker and Rempe is just a big traffic cone that likes to fight and doesn’t offer the Rangers any true defensive or offensive skill.
Spot me if you’ve heard this before but thee Rangers are clearly the younger faster team so the Caps will have to slow them down and make the Rags play their game and capitalize in spots when they have the Rangers off guard. I think the Capitals having to basically play playoff hockey over these last couple weeks gives the boys in red a slight advantage given that the Rangers were the first to clinch, but that also means they are healthier and more rested than the Caps.
Two injuries to keep and eye on is Nick Jensen and Rasmus Sandin.
Sandin has missed the last two games to an upper body injury, and Jensen who stretchered off the ice in his last game so its optimistic right now if both will be ready for the playoffs. If I were betting man I think Sandin touches the playoff ice before Jensen. If the two remain out the Caps will look upon Vincent Iorio, Lucas Johansen and Dylan McIlrath to fill the void and play big time playoff minutes.
For the Caps to win this series they are going to have to steal a game or two, but like I mentioned early they are playing with house money right now and NOONE expects them to contend in this series.
So obviously want the Caps to win the series, but if they can make the Ranger’s fans sweat and complain a little and go either 6 or 7 games that will be a win in my book, because we are getting our young guys legit playoff experience.
We shouldn’t be in this position with how our season went till the All Star break so lets do this thing! Lets bring some of this playoff energy to this series!
The Morning Skate 