Game 7s unkind for Capitals, Ducks
Game 7 might be the most exciting phrase in sports to a lot of people — but probably not for the Washington Capitals and Anaheim Ducks.
The Capitals have lost six of nine Game 7s in the Alex Ovechkin era, and the Ducks have lost five in a row with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, including a heartbreaker in each of the past four years.
Wednesday night is the chance for each team to confront its Game 7 past as Washington hosts the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim hosts the Edmonton Oilers with spots in the conference finals at stake.
“I don’t know whether from coaching or playing whether you get into a mental block or not,” said Minnesota head coach Bruce Boudreau, who coached in Game 7 four times with the Capitals and four times with the Ducks. “I think Washington for sure is due to win. I’ve said it for four years in Anaheim we’re due to win, but in the end, your best players have got to be your best players.”
For the Capitals, that means more production from Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov, and strong goaltending from Braden Holtby when the puck drops for Game 7 against the Penguins. In those nine Game 7s, Ovechkin has three goals and three assists.
At the moment, he is earning praise from teammates and head coach Barry Trotz in this series for accepting a demotion to the third line.
Getzlaf and Perry have combined for only seven points in six chances in Game 7 going into another one at home against Edmonton.
Goaltender John Gibson was pulled from his only Game 7 start in 2014 after allowing four goals on 18 shots, and he’s coming off another hook after three goals on six shots in a 7-1 drubbing in Game 6 on Sunday.
Anaheim head coach Randy Carlyle didn’t blame Gibson and said it’s about the entire team being better.
“Obviously, there’s more at stake when it’s the final game,” said Carlyle, who won the Cup in 2007 but hasn’t won a Game 7 since 2006. “Now it boils down to one . ... I’m sure that you could poll 100 people, and 99 of them would say they’d rather play at home. It’s our turn to serve, and holding serve means that we go on. If we don’t hold serve, then it’s not what we’re looking for.”
Boudreau, who is 1-7 in his NHL coaching career in Game 7 after success in that spot in the minors, thinks goaltending will be the difference. Trotz doesn’t think it’ll have anything to do with history.
“I don’t know if there’s any hump to get over,” said Trotz, who is 1-1 with the Capitals in two Game 7 opportunities in 2015. “I just think with this group that I’ve been with, our Game 7s have been pretty solid. You’re not going to win every one. But I thought our game was really, really quite good in both those Game 7s.”
Why Crosby wasn’t pulled: A week after he was knocked out of playoff game with a concussion, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby slid headfirst into the boards during another tense game against Washington. He did not come out of Game 6 on Monday night.
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email that the league’s centralized concussion spotter decided the play did not meet concussion-protocol criteria that require mandatory removal from play.
The protocol states a player must be removed if a spotter sees symptoms in a player who takes a blow to his head or upper torso from another player’s shoulder, his head hitting the ice or from a punch to the head.
Briefly: New Jersey general manager Ray Shero is on the verge of landing yet another asset in his team’s rebuilding plan: Ilya Kovalchuk. Shero confirmed that Kovalchuk would like to return to the NHL next season, four years after the 2001 No. 1 draft pick bolted to play in his native Russia . ... The Devils signed defenseman Viktor Loov to a one-year contract.