Caps Trade Offense for Grit, Victory

WASHINGTON – It became custom sometime ago that the hero in a victorious Capitals locker room received a shower of shaving cream from his happy teammates.

I didn't see late Tuesday night how much of the foamy white stuff the Capitals' game-seven winning shot maker Sergei Fedorov was left to clean from his face, but I did watch as the Capitals' 21-year-old rookie netminder Simeon Varlamov continued to clean cream from the corner of his eyes after telling reporters how he held the Rangers to one goal, while his teammates scored two, and helped propel his club to its first playoff series' victory in 11 seasons. (In Game 6 over last weekend, the rookie shutout the Rangers.)

It must be pointed out that the Rangers this season were not the most prolific offense in the league. In fact, they often appeared offense-challenged. They got to the playoffs and pushed this opening round series with the Capitals to seven games with defense and door-slamming goaltending.

The Capitals were the exact opposite. They were as prolific an offense as the league witnessed this year, and it was a good thing for them that they were. Their defense and goaltending was spotty at best -- until now. The Rangers over the last week or so forced the Capitals to play defense and the Capitals, to what must be the fear of the rest of the league, excelled at doing so. For over the last few games, a desperate Capitals' team emerged as a club that can score goals in bunches (four in Game 6), and stop you from even getting quality shots. The Rangers were credited with one shot on goal in Tuesday night's third period that started tied at a goal apiece.

"Don't tell any of our forwards," joked Capitals' center Brooks Laich after Tuesday's 2-1 win in the Verizon Center, "but defense wins championships. We got the job done tonight."

They did so with their all-world scorer and defending league MVP Alex Ovechkin getting off just five shot attempts all night and having four of them blocked. He didn't even register an assist, yet his team advanced.

The old Capitals couldn't win without a solid contribution from their superstar. The Capitals that escaped the Rangers to live to see another series can.

"It's the one thing we haven't done well all year," Capitals' general manager George McPhee admitted looking quite relieved leaning against a hallway wall after the drama was over. "We kind of got into playing pond hockey, winning shootouts.

"That game," he said of the Game 7, "will really help us in the next series."

It should be encouraging to the Capitals that they beat the Rangers at the Rangers' game of physical play and mucking up the opponents' work without their hired enforcer Donald Brashear. Brashear was suspended for Game 7 and five more to come after he cheapshotted the Rangers' Blair Betts in Game 6, busting Betts' orbital bone and rendering him unable to play.

Instead, the Capitals relied on each other. Milan Jurcina dished out a game-high seven hits and blocked two shots. Shaone Morrisonn added six hits and a blocked shot. As a team, the Capitals registered 46 hits to the Rangers' 30. By the third period, the Rangers looked lucky to get the puck out of their zone and even luckier to get it under some semblance of control after.

Had they been so fortunate, it looked unlikely they'd be able to accomplish much anyway because a poised just-turned 21-yard-old goaltender stood in the way.

This is the way stars are born in the net. Varlamov was given the start in Game 2 after veteran goalie Jose Theodore looked like Jose and the Pussycats in Game 1. Varlamov responded by allowing one shot to get by. Unfortunately, his teammates were as mesmerized by his play as those of us watching from the stands or the couch and they managed not to score at all.

That started a six-game series for Varlamov that ended with seven goals surrendered and 139 shots saved. Twice, he shut out the Rangers, including the first time in Madison Square Garden.

The smart money at the start of the series was on Ovechkin, who should win his second Hart Trophy in a row, to be the standout performer. He wasn't. It was the youngest Capitals' Russian, almost three years Ovechkin's junior.

"He seems so calm back there," Laich said of Varlamov. "You might get one [shot] by him, but you're not going to get another one."



"For a 21 year old kid to play the way he has is amazing," Capitals' defensemen Brian Pothier remarked. "He made a breakaway save in the first shift."

Capitals' coach Bruce Boudreau, who made the bold move to the rookie after Theodore coughed up four goals in the opener at home and suffered through a shaky season, isn't about to do anything different. He said Tuesday he hasn't even spoken to his lights-out young goalie.

"I don't want to screw him up," Boudreau said. "With the way they were coming for the first two periods, for him to have the poise that he did was tremendous."

Then he didn't get out of the way of the streams of shaving cream, either. Varlamov stood as proof this is a Capitals' team that can now survive the close shaves.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News. He lives in Silver Spring, Md.