This series takes another bizarre turn
SC Highlight Of The Night
WASHINGTON -- One team can't score, can't stay out of the penalty box, has its coach get into an altercation with a fan, had to bench a player to send a message Friday night and is plain old grumpy right now.
The other team is loosey-goosey, owns the puck seemingly 80 percent of the time and has outshot the opposition 170-119 in the series.
The body language says otherwise, but let it be known, it is the New York Rangers, with their measly seven goals in five playoff games, that lead the Washington Capitals 3-2 in their first-round series with a chance to wrap it up Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
It's just that … well … forgive us for not buying it. If Friday night's 4-0 Caps whitewash of the Rangers is any true indication, it just feels as though the team on the brink is confident and the team that's one win from the second round is in disarray.
It's been that kind of series. Bizarre. Unconventional. But, eventually, when you play with fire, you're going to get burned.
The Rangers were outshot, outchanced and, for the most part, outplayed through four games in their Eastern Conference quarterfinal, but defied all odds to take a 3-1 lead in the series thanks to the all-world netminding of Henrik Lundqvist.
On Friday night, the chickens came home to roost. Lundqvist had a stinker, allowing four goals on 14 shots before getting yanked after 40 minutes, and his teammates responded by playing even worse.
So what you do have when Lundqvist comes down to earth? A very average Rangers team.
"I still think the pressure is on them because I still think they're the better team," Lundqvist said. "They ended in the second spot, and we're in the seventh spot. We still have a chance to come back to New York and play a better game, as a team and personally for me."
And there's the rub. If the one-man show from Sweden can do it one more time Sunday, the upset becomes reality despite all the contrary evidence that suggests a Rangers collapse.
"Every great goaltender now and again makes a mistake," said Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau. "After that second goal, I was thinking on the bench, 'Uh-oh, he's going to be great next game.' Great goaltenders usually bounce back."
Ah, yes, that second goal. Matt Bradley's second of the night, a squeaker from an impossible angle that somehow dribbled in. You knew right then and there it was game over 12:07 into the first period.
Wait a minute, rewind for a second. Matt Bradley? What in the name of …
"He got us going tonight," said Caps star blueliner Mike Green, who had his best game of the series. "He's our superstar tonight. I'm proud of him."
Bradley, he of the five goals in 81 regular-season games this season, was proudly wearing the red hard hat Caps players hand to their player of the game. He deserved it. The highlight shows will focus on Alex Ovechkin's sensational second-period goal (ho-hum, he does it again), but the reality is, Bradley's two-goal outburst in the first period was the story of the game.
Credit Boudreau for starting Bradley on the opening faceoff with Brooks Laich and Dave Steckel -- he wanted energy, and he got it. The line banged around in the Rangers' end, and the tempo was set. On the next shift, Ovechkin's line jumped on the ice and No. 8 steamrolled Rangers center Scott Gomez with a thunderous but clean check. Gomez retaliated with a slashing penalty. It was all downhill from there.
Bradley's opening goal was huge for a team that hadn't scored on Lundqvist since Game 3. His short-handed tally on a breakaway 4:58 into the game gave the home fans their first goal to cheer in person since Game 1. The building rocked, and the Caps danced around like it was Christmas. Laich jumped on Bradley and knocked him over.
"That was the hardest hit I took all series long," Bradley said with a laugh. "Seriously, though, that was a great feeling that I'll remember for a long time. But the focus now is on Sunday."
More of the same will be the key for the Caps on Sunday.
"Just come out and hit 'em," Green said. "Seems like that got us going tonight when we did that."
Not more of the same for New York. Rangers coach John Tortorella called out his veteran guys Friday night and needs someone to deliver up front other than just youngsters Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky.
"Something has to give with our top guys," Tortorella said. "I'm not trying to insult them. This is a game where your top guys have to be your tops guys. Not the kids."
The night began with controversy as Tortorella surprisingly scratched bad boy Sean Avery, whose six minor penalties in the previous two games were enough for the Rangers coach.
"No, I'm not going to explain it in this forum," Tortorella said when asked about his reasoning. "It was my decision, and that's all I'm going to say."
ESPN.com tried to talk to Avery, but he walked right past us in the hallway at Verizon Center and refused to stop. (Nice to talk to you, too, Sean. Nice suit, by the way.)
We're guessing he'll be back in the lineup Sunday after paying for his sins. Again. Interestingly, the opposing coach seemed to think Tortorella made the right call with Avery.
"John is up 3-1 in the series -- what a good time to send a message to a player," Boudreau said.
What kind of night was it for Tortorella? He got into it with a fan behind the New York bench, apparently throwing a water bottle at the patron in question. He likely will face a league fine.
"Ask me a question about the game," Tortorella said when asked about the incident. "Ask me a question about the game."
We ask again, folks, which team is leading this series?
"They have to win one game, and we have to win two," Boudreau said. "The pressure is on us."
If you say so, Bruce; but we're sensing a lot more stress in the other dressing room.
Can't wait for Sunday.
Pierre LeBrun covers the NHL for ESPN.com.
