Washington Capitals Shouldn't Lump Game 7 Loss in with Previous Playoff Failures

NEW YORK — Another disappointing Washington Capitals season came to a close Wednesday night, as Alex Ovechkin again failed to deliver in a big game with all eyes… 

…no, that's not what happened. He guaranteed a win after losing Game 6 and then scored a goal in Game 7.

Well, it looks like it's the same old story for the Capitals: A rudderless team lacking structure was thoroughly outplayed and wilted under pressure on its way to a…

…wait, that's not how the Capitals lost, either. 

How did the Capitals let a 3-1 series lead slip away completely with their 2-1 overtime loss in Game 7 of their second-round series against the New York Rangers? None of the usual go-to narratives fit the situation in even the slightest way.

"Only players realize how hard it is, how many things have to go right," said Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen. "You have to have a good team, but there's a lot of things that have to go right. It's our sport. It's part of why it's so great, because it's so hard." 

The easy thing to do is lump this seven-game series together with the previous two these teams played in 2012 and 2013, also seven-gamers that concluded with the Rangers as the team smiling through the handshake line. The Caps were down 1-0 prior to the first TV timeout in 2012 before losing 2-1 and were massacred on home ice in a 5-0 loss in 2013, less than 24 hours after a 1-0 loss in Game 6. 

In 2015, the Capitals had three more chances to exorcise the Rangers demons, which on the surface makes this look like the most embarrassing of the three series setbacks.

It wasn't. It was an effort that was good enough to win. It just wasn't good enough to win.

"That's the majority of overtime goals; bounces, whether it's a good bounce for you or a bounce that goes the other way," Troy Brouwer said. "Tonight it was a bounce that went the other way. A lot of times, those pucks hit your pads and go into the corner or go out the zone.

"This time, it happened to go right into a good scoring area."

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The final goal total for this series: Rangers 13, Capitals 12.

The 13th and deciding goal, the one that separates these two teams, was the epitome of puck luck.

Defenseman Dan Girardi fired a shot from the blue line that didn't have a prayer of getting to goaltender Braden Holtby. There were at least five large human beings between Girardi and Holtby, and, not surprisingly, the puck collided with one of those human beings. 

Instead of bouncing to the corner or out of play, the puck squirted to Derek Stepan alone in the left faceoff circle, and with Holtby down on the ice, prone after extending to stop the Girardi shot that never made it to his crease, Stepan buried the Capitals for the third time in four years.

Sure, a team creates its own bounces, and consecutive icings before that faceoff that led to that goal facilitated the winner.

But it doesn't change the fact that all that separated these two teams over about 440 minutes of hockey was one bounce in overtime of Game 7.

That couldn't be said in past years, which is what makes this loss, one year after the Capitals missed the postseason, all the more frustrating. They were aggressive in overtime. They were a team without fear as they stared another collapse in the face, firing eight shots on Henrik Lundqvist in overtime and forcing the Rangers to cling to life as they were hemmed into their zone by a relentless forecheck and cycle.

The Capitals did everything they could to win Game 7. 

"Be relentless as you have all year and play without fear in Game 7," coach Barry Trotz said. "That's really what I asked again. I said leave your best game out there, and if that's good enough, you're going to win, and if it's not good enough, you can walk out with your head held high."

That's a double-edged sword, though. Sure, you gave it your all, but you also gave it your all, and it wasn't good enough. There is something comforting about hanging a loss on a bad call by a referee or a hot goaltender; the feeling that your best wasn't good enough must be an unsettling one.

Trotz concluded his press conference by talking about the future, how there were only "four or five" players who have been around for the playoff failures in recent years, how there's a new general manager in Brian MacLellan. He fortified the team in the summer by adding Niskanen and Brooks Orpik to the blue line, and they certainly helped make the team better.

But those "four or five" players are actually a dozen; that's how many players were in the lineup for Game 7 against the Rangers in 2012-13 who were on the ice Wednesday night. Mike Green, Joel Ward, Jay Beagle and Eric Fehr are part of that group, and all are unrestricted free agents this summer, and all may not be back. 

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Other players in that group include the core: Ovechkin, Holtby, Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and neither is Brooks Laich, who has two more years and $9 million left on his contract. If you believe the core is rotten, and even if it's true when it clearly is not, gutting it is not an option, and it shouldn't be one. 

There are teams in this league that would fire family members in the front office to have the "problem" of the Capitals core.

Yet it doesn't change the fact the Rangers will likely be in the Capitals' way again at some point in the near future.

"We could've won, but I'm not saying we were the better team in the series," Niskanen said. "Both teams had moments. Counting up total scoring chances, they probably outchanced us a little bit. That's what it felt like. But we had a great shot at winning that series. We played really well for enough stretches that we put ourselves in a position that we could've won.

"That's what hurts."

When the pain subsides, it's important to remember what Niskanen said earlier when he was doing his best Jimmy Dugan impression: Even if you have a good team, a lot of things have to go right. 

The Capitals have a good team. Ovechkin, Backstrom, Carlson, Holtby and even the emerging Evgeny Kuznetsov constitute some of the best building blocks in the league. MacLellan surrounded them with Niskanen, Orpik and Trotz last summer and will have money to spend on free agents again this offseason.

"We feel we played good enough to win the series," Holtby said. "They played good enough to win the series. It's tough to swallow. This group is special, and it's unfortunate." 

With a salary cap creating parity throughout the league, all you can do is build around your core and put yourself in position to get those breaks in series with evenly matched teams in the same situation.

The problems of the past are gone. Ovechkin is at his peak, and the Capitals have a system that works.

Now the Capitals just need to get a little better, so maybe the final bounce of a series can go their way in 2016.