NHL Playoffs 2012: How This Year's Capitals Are Similar to the 2009-10 Bruins

With egregious underachievement defining their 2011-12 regular season, the Washington Capitals stabilized their precarious playoff push in the penultimate game on their schedule and the last installment of their home slate.

The Boston Bruins, or at least the holdovers from two seasons ago, know that feeling. That exact same sequence sums up their 2009-10 regular season.

The Caps’ struggles were owed, at least in part, to a multitude of protracted key injuries, most notably to defenseman Mike Green and forward Nicklas Backstrom. Both are presumably back to stay after missing 50 and 40 games, respectively.

The 2009-10 Bruins brooked a similar plight, variously losing Patrice Bergeron, Andrew Ference, Milan Lucic, Marc Savard and Dennis Seidenberg for lengthy stretches.

The Capitals finished the regular season with a 6-2-2 run in their last 10 and a 4-0-1 run in their last five. The Bruins went an identical 4-0-1 in their last five and nearly identical 6-3-1 in their last 10 to wrap up the regular season two years ago.

Washington’s top two goaltenders, Michal Neuvirth and Tomas Vokoun, are presently listed as day-to-day with their ailments and their participation in the series is up in the air. Their presumptive stand-in, Braden Holtby, is an NHL playoff neophyte, although he has logged a 14-4-3 record with a .929 save percentage and 2.02 goals-against average in 21 regular-season starts.

But recall that Tuukka Rask was entering his first Stanley Cup playoff two springs ago with the comparatively seasoned Ryan Miller tending the other cage for the Buffalo Sabres.

Miller had 34 NHL postseason games as well as 333 regular-season twirls on his transcript at the time. Thomas, the incumbent starter for the Bruins, has played in 378 regular-season bouts and 43 playoff contests entering the series with Washington that commences this Thursday.

It will be imperative for head coach Claude Julien and the 13 Bruins holdovers that lived through some or all of the 2009-10 campaign to harbor and spread an understanding of the opposition. Especially since, in the other locker room, ex-Boston blueliner Dennis Wideman is essentially experiencing the same tribulation again with the Capitals.

Naturally, and as always in any compare/contrast case, Washington’s 2011-12 saga is not quite a Xerox copy of Boston’s 2009-10 annals. The Capitals’ most momentous headline this season was Dale Hunter supplanting Bruce Boudreau as head coach after initial starts of 7-0-0 and 9-2-0 devolved into a 12-9-1 record as of the Nov. 28 switch.

A 30-23-7 run under Hunter’s supervision was sufficient to finish seventh in the Eastern Conference, a virtual tie with Ottawa broken by virtue of more regulation or overtime wins.

But the fact with the most meaning, if not the only fact with any meaning, is that the Caps relinquished their four-year stranglehold on the summit of the Southeast Division this season. And since the long-gone Boudreau pivoted them into the direction of a contender, they still have yet to surpass the second round of the playoffs.

Almost twice as much time has passed in the Capitals’ renaissance compared to that of Julien’s Bruins when they had their hardship in 2009-10. But the difference in time takes a backseat to the lack of change in position.

The Bruins entered their Buffalo series raring to revive memories of their run to first place in the conference the previous year and kick ice chips over their shaky regular season. The Caps will indubitably do the same basic thing in this best-of-seven bout with Boston, preferring to prove they still have what got them those four straight Southeast Division crowns.

In terms of what they have experienced, what they bring and what they can control, Hunter’s pupils are not much of a far cry from the 2010 edition of the Bruins.

The more asserting news from a New England standpoint is that Julien’s squad is now more playoff-seasoned, having been to the second round three years running and being the defending champions. The Buffalo team they faced two years ago had just terminated a two-year absence from the tournament.

Provided they flex their two-way depth and provided Thomas is reliable but not overly relied upon, the Bruins ought to abolish the Caps in six or seven games. But the primal intangible X-factor in this series will be their respect and appreciation for what Washington has been through and what Washington is pursuing.

They should know it as well as anybody.