‘The goalie is everything for us’: Capitals
Game 5 triumph started and ended with Braden Holtby
WASHINGTON — The eruption came afterward, a release that shook Capital One Center with more than 100 decibels, a roar followed by “Let’s Go Caps!” chants that may well have rattled dishes and exploded wine glasses at nearby restaurants. The gamewinning goal happened when Jakub Vrana, the breakout star of the Washington Capitals’ postseason, buried a puck past Matt Murray and unleashed pandemonium. What happened before the big noise was a familiar noise: the thud of vulcanized rubber off the pads of Braden Holtby.
Everything that transpired Saturday night, like most everything in this National Hockey League Eastern Conference semifinal series, could be traced back to Holtby. The Washington Capitals will travel to Pittsburgh for Game 6 in a crusade of a second-round series with a 3-2 lead over the Penguins. There are plenty of explanations. The clearest reason the Capitals stand one victory from advancement, rather than one loss from ruin, is the soft-spoken, bearded goalie who started these playoffs on the bench.
Holtby made 36 saves in the Capitals’ 6-3 victory, the biggest coming when he stoned Brian Dumoulin’s backhand from just outside the crease with less than five minutes left, which led directly to a rush the other way and the game-winning goal. Holtby had single-handedly kept the Capitals in the game during the second period, when the Penguins controlled play utterly but emerged with only a one-goal lead. On a night when Vrana scored the game-winner and added two assists, Holtby was the first star, and nobody would argue.
“He was fantastic,” coach Barry Trotz said. “To me, your backbone of your team is the goaltender. When you don’t have your best stuff, like we didn’t in the second, he was huge for us. He kept the game reachable. It didn’t get away from us.”
Holtby’s excellence, in this round against this opponent, may become one of the most significant developments in the
Alex Ovechkin era.
When the Penguins ousted the Capitals last year, the Capitals internally believed the Penguins prevailed because Marc-Andre Fleury outplayed Holtby. This year, the Capitals lead the series because Holtby has been better than Murray.
“The goalie is everything for us,” Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov said.
“We just have to give him the lane, see the puck, he will stop every puck, for sure.”
Holtby’s teammates will carry such confidence in him to Pittsburgh because of saves like he made late in the third period.
But first, go back to the other end of the ice.
“I think you’ve got to look at Holts first,” forward T.J. Oshie said. “Usually, it always starts with Holts, and it did on the game-winner and pretty much throughout the entire game for us tonight.”
With less than five minutes remaining and the score tied at 3, Ryan Sheahan wheeled around the right corner in the Capitals’ zone. Washington’s defence let Dumoulin sneak behind them, alone in the centre of the ice at point-blank range. Sheahan fed him a pass on the tape.
Dumoulin moved to his backhand and, crossing from left to right, flicked a shot.
Holtby slid on his knees and became a wall, blocking the puck and executing a challenging save, having accounted for both the obvious threat Sheahan posed and the sudden danger Dumoulin presented. “A lot of those plays have to do with your timing,” Holtby said. “Try and keep enough momentum to push back the other way, and also stay square enough if they shoot the puck. Just try to be patient. Luckily, I read the play right.”
After the puck bounded off Holtby’s pads, Kuznetsov bolted down the ice and fed Ovechkin, who carried it deep into the Penguins’ zone and found Vrana, who deposited the game-winner.
For the Capitals to have even a chance at that play, they needed Holtby’s borderline heroic second period. He made 18 of playoffhigh 36 saves in the second, when the Penguins dominated. Coach Mike Sullivan would say the performance “might have been our best game of the series.” That the Penguins lost, anyway, is a direct reflection of Holtby.
The meaningful comparison for Game 6 is how thoroughly Holtby is outplaying his counterpart. Where pucks bounced off Murray, Holtby vacuumed possible rebounds. When the Capitals started testing Murray in the third, it felt like he was there for the taking. As the Penguins bombarded Holtby, it felt like he was growing impenetrable. In the game’s biggest moment, he was.
In the immediate aftermath, Holtby identified a different save as his most important: his very first of the night. Sidney Crosby broke loose and ripped a shot, and Holtby reached his glove back behind him and snared it, just barely keeping the game scoreless.
“One of those desperation saves,” Holtby said. “That’s a part of the game when I wanted to step up. Obviously, you get scored on first shot, you want to come up with a save however you can.”
In the end, Holtby had a moment to savour. Amid the clamour and joy and two empty-net goals turning Capital One Center into a party, another chant broke out. It reverberated through the building, loud enough, perhaps, to carry deep into spring. The red-clan fans chanted, over and over, “Holt-by! Holt-by.”