Among stats nerds, Braden Holtby’s small sample size of success* has made him something of a punchline. The Washington Capitals must hope that he can regain that spirit, however, as Michal Neuvirth went down writhing in pain during tonight’s big game against the Washington Capitals.
Then again, there might actually be a nice indirect effect to Neuvirth’s potential leg injury, which came when former Cap Marco Sturm fell awkwardly around his knee. (Obligatory joke: Sturm isn’t content to simply hurt himself anymore.)
Alex Ovechkin scored a 2-0 goal shortly after Neuvirth was injured, and while this could just be a coincidence, I got the feeling that Washington saw its goalie go down and decide to nix the “sit on a two-goal lead” plan. (And just as I was about to publish this post, Brooks Laich made it 3-0.)
The Capitals have been guilty of trying to get by with flimsy leads an awful lot lately, although they’ve managed to squeeze out some shootout wins in all but an ugly loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
There’s still plenty of time for Washington and Florida to swap fates - if you are a committed follower of the NHL’s stretch run races, you know that weird things can happen - but there might be at least a short-term shot in the arm advantage to this injury.
Still, the longer-term worry is undeniable: the Capitals might just be down to their third goalie as the playoffs approach if Neuvirth’s issue ends up being serious. (Many believe Tomas Vokoun’s Capitals days are already over.)
* - Some Caps fans based a tiny body of work last season as proof that Semyon Varlamov was the team’s third best goalie at the time. Cute.