2012 NHL Playoffs: 10 Heroes from the Capitals vs Bruins Series

Redemption can be a funny thing.

Like a lightning bolt, you can never be quite sure where, or when, it will strike.

It can happen at the most unexpected times. It can come from the most unlikely of sources.

And, apparently, it can be contagious.

For the Washington Capitals, their epic seven game series with the Boston Bruins was very much about redemption.

It was about a team that has almost always fallen short finding redemption at a time when no one gave them any real chance to do so.

It was about players who had been disappointments in prior playoff series redeeming themselves when the team needed them the most.

It was about players who had endured sub-par regular seasons becoming heroes in almost unbelievable fashion.

And, ironically enough, this all happened against a team who one year earlier found a similar level of redemption.

For the Boston Bruins, their run to the Stanley Cup in 2011 was filled with redemption. They first had to beat their long time rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, just to get out of the first round.

Then they had to redeem themselves against the Flyers, to whom they had blown a 3-0 series lead the year before.

Ultimately, against the Canucks, the Bruins would redeem a franchise that had not won the Cup since 1972.

So we now sit on the brink of the beginning of the Eastern Conference Semifinal series between the Washington Capitals and the No. 1 seed, the New York Rangers.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the Rangers will be looking for their own measure of redemption against the team that has eliminated them two out of the past three years.

New Yorkers are certainly hoping that redemption is contagious and that the Rangers are about to catch a lethal dose of it.

But before we get to that, let's take a look back at the 10 biggest heroes of one of the greatest playoff series in NHL history.

10. Rich Peverley

No one tried to stave off the Bruins elimination more than Rich Peverley.

The Boston right-winger led the B's in scoring with three goals and five points.

In two of the three games that the Bruins won, Peverley had a goal.

He was a catalyst for much of the Boston offense and was one of the key Boston players the Caps were concerned about as the series progressed.

In Game 7, Peverley exercised great restraint when Braden Holtby and John Carlson tried to goad him into a penalty that, in all likelihood, would have earned him a match penalty.

About the only thing Peverley did wrong was not win faceoffs as often as he could have as he prevailed less than 50 percent of the time (47.89 percent to be exact).

In the end though, and despite his excellent effort, Peverley could not prevent the Capitals from winning in Game 7 and ending the Bruins' reign as Stanley Cup champions.

9. Troy Brouwer

Troy Brouwer was one of those players from whom the Caps needed to get some production if they hoped to upset Boston.

Brouwer did not exactly light the world on fire in the series as he only had two goals.

But as is so often the case, sometimes it is quality that counts more than quantity and Brouwer's two goals were key moments in the series.

His first goal came in the second period of Game 2 and was the first goal the Caps got in the series. His tough, gritty effort showed the Caps that Tim Thomas could be scored on. It also showed the Caps the type of effort it would need to have a real chance in the series.

His second goal was much bigger. Late in Game 5, with the score tied, Brouwer wristed a shot past Thomas that Thomas would probably stop nine out of ten times.

Thomas failed to make the save though and Brouwer's goal, as much as anything, changed the complexion of this series. Suddenly, the Caps were heading home with a chance to win the series.

It did not go down that way, of course. But Brouwer's two huge goals made a definite impact in the ultimate outcome.

8. Alexander Semin

Alexander Semin has been a playoff disappointment for the Capitals during the Ovechkin era.

Against the Bruins, the other Alex finally came through and delivered.

Semin led the Caps in the series with three goals. He scored the game winning goal in Game 4 and got the Caps going in Game 5 with a great goal that showed an impressive amount of skill and patience.

But it was not all good for Semin. Over the final two games, he did not tally a point, was a minus-two in Game 6 and was also on the ice for Boston's only goal in Game 7. That is a trend Semin will need to reverse once the series with the Rangers gets going.

Nevertheless, Alexander Semin finally came through for the Caps with a solid playoff series and he has to be considered one of the heroes for Washington.

7. Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg

You can't really mention one without the other when talking about this series.

Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg did a masterful job of, for the most part, eliminating Alexander Ovechkin from the equation in this series.

The two stellar defensemen for Boston made life miserable for the Capitals captain and forced the Caps to have to go to other options in order to generate the offense it needed to be able to compete with Boston.

While that might have ended up being a blessing in disguise for the Caps, it is assuredly not the way coach Dale Hunter drew it up when he was putting together his game plan.

Both guys added some offense to the mix as well as they both had one goal and two assists.

Chara scored the game winner in Game 3 a win that, temporarily, put the Bruins in control of the series.

Seidenberg made an unreal stop on a shot by Ovechkin, late in Game 7, that almost surely would have won the game, and the series for the Capitals. Seidenberg's remarkable stop may have only prolonged the inevitable, but that does not take away from just what a remarkable play it was.

Even in defeat, these two Bruins have no real reason to hang their heads. Their collective effort easily made them heroes for the Bruins in this series.

6. Nicklas Backstrom

Similar to Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom had a reputation for coming up small once the playoffs began.

Not this time.

Backstrom only scored one goal—but it was the goal that turned the series around.

Backstrom's goal in the second overtime of Game 2 enabled the Caps to take home ice away from Boston and completely changed the mentality of the Caps.

Before Backstrom's goal, the Caps thought they could beat the Bruins.

After his goal, they knew they could.

Backstrom would also add three assists during the series.

Perhaps more importantly—and quite surprisingly—Backstrom was a physical spark-plug in the series as he led the Caps in penalty minutes.

This was not always good as his emotions got the better of him at the end of Game 3 when he got a match penalty.

But his actions also showed his teammates that he had definitely come to play and that even though he had missed a lot of time with a concussion, he was not going to let that slow him down.

The play of Nicklas Backstrom, without question, is a big reason the Capitals advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

5. Mike Knuble

Before this series with the Bruins started, I wrote on article on how I felt the Capitals could beat the Bruins.

One of the keys to the series I felt would be having an unlikely hero (or more) step forward and lead the Caps to victory.

Enter unlikely hero No.1, Mike Knuble.

Going forward with the theme of this article—redemption—most know that Knuble is a former Bruin.

Most hockey fans also know that Knuble did not have a good regular season for the Caps.

On many occasions, he was a healthy scratch from the lineup.

But in the playoffs, Knuble's contribution to this upset of Boston cannot be overlooked. In Game 5, he scored a huge goal that gave the Caps a lead and broke the momentum the Bruins had built with their rally at the end of the second period.

But, obviously, his play in overtime of Game 7 helped to win the series for Washington.

Knuble's block of the Bruins' attempt to play the puck back into the Washington zone set in motion a two-on-one that would ultimately end with Joel Ward's rebound of Knuble's shot on Tim Thomas.

The effort of Knuble on that play showed just what sort of heart he had left—and the type of effort the Caps finally seem to understand it will take to compete for a Stanley Cup this postseason.

4. Karl Alzner and John Carlson

There were many heroes all along the Washington Capitals defense in this epic victory over the Boston Bruins.

No two were more important, or effective, than Karl Alzner and John Carlson.

Alzner and Carlson were charged with the responsibility of disrupting the Bruins' offensive scheme and neutralizing the big depth advantage Boston held over Washington.

It is hard to see how they could have done much better than they did.

No one in a Bruins uniform was given any quarter once they got near the Caps' blue line and Alzner and Carlson were the main obstacles to anything and everything Boston tried to accomplish.

Boston simply could not get into any sort of rhythm due to the efforts of these two Caps defenders, who clogged passing lanes and choked the life out of the Bruins' ability to run their offense. This was especially true in Game 7.

When the Bruins were able to establish something in the offensive zone, they frequently found their passage to the Caps' goal impeded by someone getting down and dirty and blocking a shot.

Over the course of seven games, the Caps blocked 139 shots. Alzner and Carlson had their fair share of that total.

Alzner and Carlson would even contribute a bit to the offense as Alzner had an assist and Carlson had two.

But it was the effort the entire Caps defense did, and in particular these two, to the vaunted Bruins offense that was a key—and perhaps even the most important—reason that the Caps moved on and the Bruins went home.

3. Tyler Seguin

For Capitals fans, no one on the Bruins in Game 7 scared them as much as Tyler Seguin.

For the Bruins faithful, no one offered Boston a better chance to get past Washington then No. 19.

For the first five games of the series, Seguin could not get out of the blocks. He was shooting the puck enough, but could not break through.

In Game 5, he had a sure goal stolen from him by a great save from Braden Holtby.

But in Game 6, Seguin finally broke through. His overtime winner sent the series back to Boston for a Game 7.

In Game 7, Seguin's effort on the game tying goal was nothing short of spectacular.

You could see the determination the youngster had and no one was going to stop him.

For the remainder of Game 7 whenever he touched the puck, the possibility of success for Boston rose dramatically. Ultimately, though, he could not do enough to win the series for Boston.

The Bruins' surprising exit in the first round has many causes, but the play of Tyler Seguin was definitely not one of them.

2. Joel Ward

Joel Ward had a disappointing season in his first year with the Washington Capitals.

None of it mattered in Game 7 of the series with the Boston Bruins.

After having scored only six goals all season for the Caps, Ward cashed in on Mike Knuble's great individual effort to beat Tim Thomas and eliminate the defending champion Bruins in one of the most iconic goals in Capitals history.

It is hard to say anything more than what has been said a hundred times since this moment took place.

What you can say is that Ward is a hero in Washington now.

How this may translate into further success for the Caps as the playoffs progress remains to be seen.

But for one game, and one moment in time, Joel Ward made history for the Caps and scored the most important goal in Caps playoff history since Joe Juneau's overtime winner sent the Caps to the Stanley Cup finals back in 1998.

1. Braden Holtby

There is not much left to say about the heroic performance of Braden Holtby in this series.

The Caps rookie net-minder shocked the world with one of the greatest performances in NHL playoff history.

Entering the series, Caps fans just wanted Holtby to hold his own in the series against Tim Thomas. If he could do that, the Caps had a chance to win.

Instead, Holtby actually ended up being the better of the two goalies.

At the end of the day, Holtby stopped 233 of the 248 shots fired at him for a save percentage of .940 and a goals against average of 2.00.

For a rookie, it does not get much better than that.

Joel Ward scored the huge goal.

If not for Braden Holtby, Ward never gets that chance.