Ah Yes, it is truly that time of year again. We are in the midst of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Bruins are in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals and the offensive juggernaut, known as the Washington Capitals, sits on the outside looking in. So how is it that the Capitals got bounced in the first round by a Montreal team whose offense is lackluster at best? There is only one way to explain it, and that, is goaltending.
While other teams in the NHL began searching for a top notch goal scorer that would put their team over the top, the Capitals spent the trading deadline getting auxiliary pieces to improve their offense. Once the deadline came and passed I was amazed to see that not only did Washington make no moves for a Goalie, they had decided that they would try to rely on an aging José Theodore, and an unproven rookie named Semyon Varlamov.
No one can deny that there was a time when it came to goalies, José Theodore was a household name. He was even considered to be a serviceable goaltender for the same team that eliminated him this year. This season you could see the holes in his game more than ever. He takes too many chances in net.
Taking chances is fine when your team scores 4 or more goals in a game, but the second that your offense shuts down you need to figure out how to be the backbone for your team. That’s why the Capitals were eliminated. They didn’t have a goalie that they could be confident in to keep them in the game until the offense got moving again. The Canadians just kept using Jaroslav Halak to shut down the mighty offense and made the whole NHL realize why they didn’t trade their most valuable weapon at the trading deadline.
This is the main reason why the Bruins have a shot to keep playing long into May. The Bruins goaltenders know how to deal with a team that doesn’t score in front of them; they have been dealing with that all season long. Tuukka has stepped it up and shown that he will be an elite goaltender in the near future, but don’t think that Timmy Thomas isn’t ready at a moments notice. I really believe that if something happened to Tuukka that we’d see the Vezina Trophy the version of Tim Thomas that would be a dominant force in a 7 game series. Marc Savard coming back also adds an instant boost to the Power Play and the team in general.
So yes what we have seen here is a massive upset… but is it really? Everyone thought that Washington would storm through and give Mr. Ovechkin his first chance to lift the Cup. Did anyone ever stop to think that maybe the Capitals offense was pushed a little off track and that they might not be able to put the train back on the track? I hope the rest of the NHL has paid attention because as much as I despise Montreal, and I really do, they truly have proven one thing… Even in this era of offense first; Defense, and more importantly goaltending, still wins championships.
