This story sounded familiar: a high-flying Presidents' Trophy team roaring into the playoffs all primed and ready to forget the past and make a solid run at Lord Stanley — only to be stymied by an upstart eighth seed with ridiculous goaltending.
It's been two years in a row we've seen this story, last year with the league-leading San Jose Sharks and this year with the Washington Capitals. But did both teams take familiar paths to defeat? Upon closer look, these two teams lost in far different ways.
The Opponent
The San Jose Sharks lost to the eighth-seed Anaheim Ducks — but the eighth seed was a bit misleading, as the Ducks were one of the hottest teams in the second-half of the season. Though they scratched and clawed (erm, quacked) their way back to life in the last spot, no one wanted to play them. And with a recent Stanley Cup win and two Hall of Fame defensemen patrolling their blueline in Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, it proved to be a difficult battle for any team. This was no typical one-vs.-eight match-up.
The Washington Capitals, on the other hand, were nearly universal favorites, many predicting a quick series that would end in four or five games. The Montreal Canadiens had questionable goaltending, questionable forwards, and questionable defense. The Capitals scored an astonishing 101 more goals than the Canadiens did and were nearly unbeatable at home. This, in fact, was a typical one-vs.-eight match-up.
The Lead
San Jose lost the first two games at home, the first with a listless effort and the second with a barrage on Anaheim goaltender Jonas Hiller. Hiller played outstanding, but it was the backup efforts of Anaheim's blueline that boxed San Jose out and kept their players from crashing the net or creating screens. After going down three games to one, the Sharks fought back with an overtime winner, but ultimately lost in six — and many didn't call it an upset.
While Montreal took the first game with a strict defensive game, Washington unleashed its weapons in Game 2 by roaring back from a three-goal deficit. After winning that game, the Caps rolled on the next two, and looked to finish strong, needing only one win in their final three games — a win that they never got.
The Defense
The Anaheim Ducks of the 2000s will be remembered for building from the blueline out. With one of Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger on the ice for pretty much the whole game, many teams felt an immediate disadvantage coming in. Skill players were either deftly handled by Niedermayer or simply punished into submission by Pronger. The 2008-09 Ducks also were unique in that Niedermayer didn't come back until halfway through the season, sparking the team towards its playoff run.
While Montreal has its share of quality defensemen, there's no two that can compare with the resume of either Pronger or Niedermayer — heck, Montreal's best defenseman Andrei Markov is skilled but not in the same league as either of those two guys. Instead, Montreal had to rely on a much more systematic approach with all five players committed to defensive responsibilities.
The Stars
The Sharks got their Presidents' Trophy off strong seasons by Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. During that playoff series, Thornton and Marleau got their share of points but they failed to dominate any game. And when the secondary scoring fell off the map for San Jose, it was pretty much lights out.
To say that the Capitals' best players disappeared during the series against Montreal is only a half-truth. While Alexander Semin and Mike Green woefully underperformed, Alex Ovechkin still put up 10 points in seven games, and Nicklas Backstrom was a consistent force on the ice. The blame certainly can't go on those players; in fact, a bigger picture perspective looks at the Capitals' system — both the defensive system that let in key goals at bad times and the overall breakout/entry that wasn't adjusted to negate Montreal's trap.
What was the same between these teams? Last year's San Jose team saw a big goose-egg from secondary players such as Joe Pavelski, Ryane Clowe, and Devin Setoguchi, and Anaheim's Jonas Hiller nearly stole two series in the playoff run before returning to earth. Similarly, Washington's secondary scoring disappeared, and Jaroslav Halak's contributions couldn't be overstated enough.
But the bottom line was that these were two completely different series. While history judges last year's Sharks squad harshly, many pundits viewed the series as a pick 'em at the time. This year's Capitals/Canadiens series was a true upset, and one that will leave Washington fans scratching their heads all summer long.
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