Role players on each side could be key to the series
The focus is on the biggest stars. That is the way it always is when a Stanley Cup playoff series is about to start.
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But while Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh Penguins centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are three of the greatest hockey players in the world today, none of them can win this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal on their own.
“If [Ovechkin] scores two goals and we lose the hockey game — but Crosby has zero — we don’t win and he doesn’t win,” said Caps forward Brooks Laich, one of those unheralded players who will have to produce if his team expects to advance. “The determining factor will be what the team does, not what the individual player does.”
So while Crosby and Malkin combined for 17 points — including four goals each — in their first-round win over the Philadelphia Flyers, they also needed goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to stop 178 of 193 shots on goal. Ovechkin had three goals and four assists against the New York Rangers. But the Caps wouldn’t be in the second round at all if Alex Semin — a world-class player in his own right — had not produced a series-high five goals.
Defenseman Tom Poti contributed two goals and four assists in the New York series. Forward Matt Bradley had an improbable two-goal night in Game 5 to help Washington keep its season alive. For Pittsburgh, defenseman Mark Eaton and forward Tyler Kennedy had a pair of goals each against the Flyers.
“I think both teams have great supporting casts. It’s one of the reasons that Pittsburgh made it to the finals last year,” said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “I think in the end usually what happens is the superstars get covered and the role players end up being the unsung heroes.”
Second-round series has major star power
They will put up with all the hype and the scrutiny. It comes with the territory in a matchup as anticipated as this one.
But if the playoff series between the Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins means that the NHL takes center stage during a busy sports month then bring on every Ovechkin-Crosby-Malkin question you can muster. Players from both teams know that those story lines — broadcast around the world thanks to a media crush that only just started on Thursday — will help expose casual fans to their sport.
“It couldn’t have been scripted better,” said Caps captain Chris Clark. “But then again — for us, it’s the first game of a series. There’s no fans or media on the ice when we’re playing. We can block all those extra things out.”
