NEW YORK – Hours before their first crack at eliminating the Presidents’ Trophy winners, the Washington Capitals preached a certain urgency before Game 5 at Madison Square Garden. Sure, they led the New York Rangers in the second round by two games, only one victory away from advancing to the Eastern Conference finals. Sure, they had time to finish the job. But they knew better than to find comfort in their advantage. After all, most of them had experienced the other side.
“We have a great opportunity here,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said. “We’ve put ourselves in a good position. It’s going to be hard to close them out though. We’re going to have to play better. I think we’ve done what we’ve had to do to win, but I think we’ve got to play better to beat them that fourth game.
“We get three tries at it, but we don’t want to give them any momentum. We’ve got to attack each game with everything that we have trying to close them out, because we’re going to have to play our best to beat them.”
More recently than the veteran Capitals, who blew a 3-1 lead against the Montreal Canadiens in 2010, Niskanen knew the dangers presented by a desperate Rangers team. Last season, Niskanen and the Penguins squandered the same advantage to New York, slipping into an early summer – and, eventually, significant front office overhaul – by losing three straight.
Down the hallway, inside the home dressing room, the Rangers attacked their predicament with confidence. Many of the same players who engineered the comeback against Pittsburgh are still around, and even during the regular season, six of their seven two-game losing streaks were followed by winning streaks of at least three games – exactly what they will need to have a shot at repeating as Eastern Conference champions. And since 2008, the Rangers have won eight straight elimination games at Madison Square Garden, an NHL record, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“Every time our back’s against the wall,” forward Derick Brassard said, “this team is always answering.”
“We know it’s possible,” goaltender Henrik Lundqvist said. “We also know that if we get a win tonight, they’re going to have a lot of pressure. We’ve been in that spot, too.”
Indeed, a Game 5 loss would heap a certain burden onto the Capitals to close out the series Sunday night at home and avoid returning to midtown Manhattan for a winner-take-all Game 7. A win, however, would give them a welcome break after their seven-game first-round series with the New York Islanders.
“I think there’s a benefit, no question,” Coach Barry Trotz said. “I think the more games you play, obviously the more chance you have to get dinged up, and everybody’s sort of banged up at this point of the year. Everyone needs to heal. But you try to do it as quick as possible if you can.
“There’s benefits to it. Physically there’s a benefit, mentally if your mind is in the right place there’s a benefit, or you lose your reps. I don’t know. I’d like to find out, though.”
For now, the upcoming schedule remains to-be-announced. The attention is trained on the now, specifically the first period of Game 5. In 11 postseason games, the Capitals have trailed first in seven of them. The Rangers, meanwhile, have taken a 1-0 lead in six of nine.
“They’re a quick-start team,” Trotz said. “… I think they’re plus-five in the first period, in playoffs. That’s their period. That’s where you’ve got to jump on people, they play quick, they come at you, they’re going to have the crowd behind them, all that. Let’s go after them, not sit back. You can be the hammer or you can be the anvil. I’d rather be the hammer.”
So what, Trotz was asked, would he say to the Capitals to prepare them for the desperation of the Rangers, in the building where they rarely lose under such pressure?
“Just meet the challenge,” Trotz said. “Don’t be afraid of it. We talk about go through games, not around games. Stare it in the eye, go through it. You know the Rangers have got a lot of character there, they’ve got a good hockey team. They’re going to bring their best game and we have to match it with our best game. Don’t be afraid of it, go through it.”
