For the second straight time, the Washington Capitals seemingly shrugged off a brutal overtime loss and took it to the New York Rangers. This time around, an inspired Capitals overwhelmed a Rangers team in a game that had a deceptively close 2-1 score. With that, both teams will be pushed to a Game 7 for a second series, which will take place at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
Let’s get talking.
- Alex Ovechkin now has 30 goals in just 50 career playoff games. How stupid on a scale of 1-10 do those already-dumb “clutch” critiques look now? I’d say 30.
- Braden Holtby was robbed off a shutout, but he was a brick wall, letting up fewer and fewer rebounds especially as the game went on. Can he best Henrik Lundqvist in Game 7?
- As great as Holtby looked, his 30-save performance wasn’t as magnificent as it looked on paper because New York barely showed up for most of the contest. Will the Rangers regret their tepid Game 6 efforts?
- Speaking of which, the Rangers barely squeezed out a quarterfinals win against the eighth seed Ottawa Senators and will go to the max against the seventh seed Capitals too. Is anyone a little disappointed with a team that seemingly went from “scrappy upstarts” to “legitimate contenders” this season?
- OK, the obvious one: who do you have in Game 7? Is all the pressure on the Rangers?
- Finally: is Joel Ward exonerated from “goat status” or do the Capitals need a series win to wipe that clean?