Braden Holtby Continues to Show Why He's Been Washington Capitals' Playoff MVP

The New York Rangers started Game 3 in their second-round series against the Washington Capitals strongly. The first three scoring chances of the game all came off Rangers sticks. They were physical, they were fast and they controlled the play.

Momentum shifted several times as the game went on, but by and large, New York was quite good. They finished the contest with a 30-22 edge in shot attempts. Despite this, they came out on the wrong side of a 1-0 score because Caps goalie Braden Holtby simply would not be beat.

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

In a game in which the Capitals could only manage a single goal—a fluky one at that—it was Holtby who carried the team to a 2-1 series lead, a lead which might prove pivotal in what has been a hard-fought series between two closely matched teams.

It didn’t matter what kind of shot Holtby faced. He stoned Martin St. Louis in a one-on-one battle after a blocked John Carlson shot sent the diminutive scorer on a breakaway.

He was brilliant in more confusing situations, repeatedly managing to stop the puck, which emerged out of a scrum directly in front of him. A sneaky backhand from Rick Nash had no more luck against him than cross-ice one-timer from Marc Staal did.

At the other end of the rink, Henrik Lundqvist was almost as good, turning aside 21 of the 22 shots he faced and getting beat by a strange redirect of a Jay Beagle desperation shot:

Alain Vigneault’s second-period comments to NBC commentator Pierre McGuire nicely sum up the game.

“It’s a fast pace by both teams here. I like the way we’re playing. We’re defending well. We got a little bit unlucky on the goal there, but we had some really good looks, and we need to capitalize on them.”

Holtby, as he has been so many times throughout these playoffs, was the primary reason for that failure in execution. Monday night was his first shutout of the postseason, but it was also the fifth time in nine games that he held the opposition to one goal or less.

After fighting through a shaky Game 1 against the Islanders in the first round and an illness which cost him Game 2, Holtby has been incredible, posting a 0.949 save percentage over the course of the playoffs.

Despite some strong performances elsewhere on the roster, nobody is carrying the load for Washington the way its goalie is.

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Defenceman John Carlson is probably the best alternative candidate for Team MVP. He has five points and is averaging 22:55 per game. He has a 52.9 percent Corsi rating, despite playing against tough opposition and starting in his own end more frequently than not. He was solid on Monday, despite a 17.7 percent offensive zone start and a hard match against Nash and St. Louis.

Captain Alex Ovechkin had several good chances, including a cross-ice one-timer from point-blank range on the power play which may have been Lundqvist’s best save of the night. With a team-leading eight points, he too deserves consideration.

But it is Holtby who deserves the most credit. He has five wins, despite losing every game in which he has allowed more than one goal. In four of those five wins, allowing so much as one more goal against would have tied the score for the opposition. He, more than any other player on the roster, has been the individual who has allowed the Capitals to squeak past opponents by the narrowest of possible margins. Stephanie Vail shared a GIF of Holtby in action:

The question is whether even Holtby will be enough for the Caps to advance past the second round. New York doesn’t lose a lot of games in which it has the edge in puck possession; Henrik Lundqvist sees to that. Even in this one, if not for a fluky bounce off Keith Yandle’s skate, he would have been good enough to at least force overtime.

Holtby has done everything possible for Washington, and it’s gotten the Caps this far. If they want to go deeper into the playoffs, though, it might be wise to stop relying on him so completely.

Washington is just a single game over 0.500 with Holtby in net, despite his brilliance, and both the team’s first-round series against the Isles and Monday’s game against the Rangers could easily have gone the other way with as little as a single unfortunate bounce.

Jared Silber/Getty Images

It has to be a harrowing thought for Barry Trotz, who has never seen one of his teams advance past the second round of the playoffs. The same holds true for the Capitals more generally; they haven't accomplished the feat since 1998, eight years before Ovechkin's rookie campaign.

For now, though, Holtby’s giving both coach and team an honest chance to write a different ending in 2015.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com, NaturalStatTrick.com and War-on-Ice.com.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.