Holtby’s playoff dominance goes beyond ‘the save’

ARLINGTON, VA. » Alex Ovechkin covered his eyes with his gloved hands in disbelief. Barry Trotz hid his disbelief inside.

Chandler Stephenson had the perfect view and didn’t like the odds. The net was wide open and Braden Holtby reached his stick across and stopped Alex Tuch’s shot in the final minutes to save the game.

“I thought, ‘Oh, no, no, no,”’ Stephenson said. “And then his paddle was there and he made the save and I just couldn’t believe it.”

Holtby’s unbelievable move might go down as one of the most important moments in Stanley Cup history. It allowed the Washington Capitals to even the final against the Vegas Golden Knights and served as further evidence of Holtby’s dominant playoff run.

Most of the buzz going into the Cup Final surrounded Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, a deserved Conn Smythe favorite who already has two championship rings. But Holtby stole the show in making 37 saves in Game 2 and returned to his career-long playoff dominance after allowing five goals on 33 shots in a Game 1 that was far from goalie-friendly. It’s the kind of play his Capitals teammates have come to expect this time of year.

“The guy’s just a machine,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said. “Boy, has he been good. Making the saves that he’s sup-

posed to make look really routine and he’s made some game changers — none better than the one with a couple minutes left in Game 2.” Holtby is not impressed. Trotz has watched “the save” a handful of times, and Holtby has analyzed it but believes “there’s a lot more saves that I’ve made even these two games that I like a lot more than that one.” The laser-focused 2016 Vezina Trophy winner is far more worried about how to not need to make that desperate of a stop in Game 3 Saturday night and beyond.