Caps: Round 2, Game 1

Whew... that was stressful, but the Caps pulled it out in the end. As I said, two of the big things in this series will be the goaltending and the second and third lines. Two of the Caps goals were contributed by the energy-liners, Tomas Fleischmann and David Steckel, when they crashed the net. They used the tactics that they developed against the Rangers, and capitalized on hard, dirty goals right in front of the front of the net. If they continue to crash the net, I definitely see them beating Fleury on rebounds and passes through the middle.

In the Caps net, Varlamov was solid for most of the game. The two goals he did let in were a bit soft. The first, on Crosby, Varly had a clear line of sight, but Crosby managed to beat him high shelf. The second goal just managed to slip out of Varlamov's glove, which was a bit low. However, he also had a good half dozen or more absolutely amazing saves. The most notable was the one on Crosby which maintained the tie.

Varlamov was on the left of the goal, and was beat by a pass left to right. He whipped his stick back across the net and literally deflected the puck on the line and away. As the commentators declared, that was quite possibly the save of the playoffs.

For much of the game, the defense seemed shaky. They continued to allow odd man breaks and fast breaks on sometimes poor decisions or poor passing. However, they did step up after many of their mistakes and didn't give much of anything away to the Pens, and cleared up out front of Varly. They also had trouble containing Crosby and Malkin, who will give them trouble all series long.

As the series continues, look for the Caps energy line forwards of Bradley, Fleischmann, Steckel, Gordon, Fehr, and Clark to step up and not only wear down the Pen defense by holding the puck in the offensive zone, but also scoring the hard goals right in front of the net. As long as they keep from taking bad penalties, they will be a thorn in the side of the Penguins. Also, the defense will need to adjust to the speed of the Penguins forwards as compared to those of the Rangers. They got better in the second and third periods, but this will continue to be a learning experience for the D.

Also, look for the power play to improve in this series, as they will be better able to execute against the Penguins defense. Ovechkin will continue to find chances to get lost on the break and receive one-timer opportunities.

While having the first game win definitely helps the Caps' odds for winning the series, this was by no means a dominating performance, and they will have to continue to battle in each game in order to pull out a victory in this series and a berth to the Eastern conference finals.

Until next time,

-TES