It was a great but scary game, with the amount of missed opportunities the Caps had, I was afraid it would come back to haunt them, but they survived and won the game 2-1 to force a game 7 in the NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals.

Mike Green played over 21 minutes, had 1 assist and 3 shots on net, and a minor penalty, which was just bad luck as the puck went off the end of his blade and went into the crowd. He played really well, and almost scored shorthanded, he also took some solid hits again.

Here are the video highlights from game 6:

Green will get to play in his 50th career playoff game on Saturday night when the Capitals visit New York City to close out the series in the pivotal game 7, winner faces the Devils in the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, and the loser goes home. If the Capitals move on it would be the first time in the Ovechkin-Green-Backstrom eram and the first time they got this far since 1998, which was the only year they ever went to the Stanley Cup finals, but they lost it.

It’s so close, yet so far, can’t wait to see what happens on Saturday night! Puck drops at 7:30!

It’s really simple for the Washington Capitals right now, lose tonight and go home or win tonight and play in game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals on Saturday back in New York.

Tonight will be Mike Green’s 49th career NHL playoff game, and you can bet he wants to get to number fifty this year!

It won’t be easy, just like all of the previous 12 games the Caps have played in this year, they will need to battle hard, but hopefully they can overcome the heartbreak that was game number 5 in New York, and use the energy from the sea of red that is the Capitals home crowd. The key will be to take advantage of that early and hopefully Coach Hunter realizes that and plays the big guns right off the top to try and get some early offense.

Even if I haven’t been posting as often as I used to, I’m watching now more than ever, and will be standing on my feet for most of the game as usual when it’s all on the line.

Puck drops at 7:30ish tonight, don’t miss it! CBC in Canada and NBCSN in the US!

See you on Saturday!

It looked like old time, the big three each had a goal, Alex Ovechkin in the first period, Nicklas Backstrom in the second and Mike Green with the game winner in the third period to give the Capitals a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers.

Although the score sheet looked like the old days, the stats sheet and the actual game was a different story. Washington came out strong in the first period, completely dominating the tired New York Rangers. And even after the Rangers woke up in the second and third, the Capitals commitment to defense was great to see, and the 26 shot blocks in the game was even better to see.

Mike Green was named the first star with his goal that was a wicked shot that went through Henrik Lundqvist.

Check out the highlights including the game winner!

The fans went crazy, hell I went crazy in my living room, but nobody was as excited as Green himself and you could tell, it was his 2nd goal of the playoffs and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Game five goes tonight at 7:30 in NYC, hopefully we can see another repeat with Game Over Green doing it again!

It seems the biggest story of the night was Alexander Ovechkin’s ice time which was limited to only 13 minutes and 36 seconds, but it was almost forgotten thanks to the Washington Capitals winning the game and tying the series at one game a piece.

Washington now has home ice advantage since they stole a game in Manhattan, this is a pretty good position, but there’s no time to rest and relax, they need to keep pushing.

Before I get to Ovechkin / Hunter, lets talk about Mike Green, he played a solid game, he was a plus one in just over 18 minutes of ice time. He had 2 shots, and took a minor penalty which was a ghost call, but from the refs angle it’s hard to blame him, and the Ranger player didn’t dive, he just fell. Greenie was on the ice for the second Washington goal.

Here are the highlights from the game.

Now lets talk about the whole Alexander Ovechkin ordeal.

Obviously the game was won, so it’s hard to argue against Hunter’s actions now, but I have to say I didn’t agree with it, but I understood it. I don’t think it should’ve been done, since this team was built around Ovechkin and if this didn’t work either Hunter or Ovechkin would be gone, which could still be the case if this goes on.

At least we know Semin will likely be gone this summer, specially after seeing him practically sleeping on the bench in the third period. It’s funny how Semin played horribly last game, no effort and two stupid offensive zone penalties and he got rewarded with starting the game, hard to understand the logic there, but like I said, the game was won, so it’s on to the next one, which goes Wednesday night at Verizon Center in Washington.

Game 1 is over, the Capitals lost 3-1, Mike Green was a -2 and had only one shot in almost 22 minutes of play. It’s time to move on to the next game which goes tonight at 7:30 live from Madison Square Garden.

Hopefully the game will feature a little more shots than the 32 total shots we got in game 1, but if it remains a low shooting game but the Caps win, I would obviously be happy. It looks like Holtby will get the start again, as he should, even if he didn’t play great in game 1, he at least deserves a chance to bounce back.

Here’s a video of a few Capitals players, including Mike Green, talking to the media following the game one loss.

Tonights contest is on NBCSN in the US and CBC in Canada, hopefully the Capitals can steal one in New York so they don’t have to go back to Washintgon down two to nothing in the series. Check out the NHL game preview for game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semi Finals.

One goal, in one game, last night, turned a lost season into something special. This is as far as the Washington Capitals have ever gotten in the NHL playoffs. They have been to the 2nd round twice in the past three years before this year, but they have never gotten through to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Hopefully this year will be the Caps year to not only making to that third round but going all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals and winning the Cup!

Right now though, they need to focus on the next round, we still don’t know who they will play, here are the different scenarios depending on who wins tonight.

If the New York Rangers, it doesn’t matter who wins in the Florida – New Jersey game as the Capitals will then play the Rangers.

If the Ottawa Senators win and the Florida Panthers win, the Caps will play the Flyers, but if New Jersey wins then Washington will face them.

I’m not sure which team I prefer the Caps face off against as all three teams (New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia) can be tough opponents.

I’m looking forward to watching both Game 7s tonight as they should both be great games, and both could impact the Capitals!

Mike Green played in all 7 games of the first round, averaging over 23 minutes of ice time a game, second only to Karl Alzner on the Caps team. He had 1 goal, 1 assist and was a plus five, which is tied for second in the NHL. He played solid defense for pretty much the whole series, and had some great scoring chances, but luck just wasn’t on his side, hopefully round two will be the same defensively but with the offensive bounces he needs.

The good news is that the Washington Capitals won the fourth game of the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Boston Bruins and tied the best of seven series up at two games a piece. The game itself wasn’t very encouraging though.

Before we look at the bad, there is some good, like Braden Holtby stopping 44 of 45 shots, and also the Capitals outhitting (44 to 34) the big bad bruins and also winning more faceoffs (44 to 32).  They also blocked a good amount of shots (26) and stole the puck away from the Bruins ten times. Now to the bad, there were 14 giveaways, which is very high in an NHL playoff game, and then there’s the 3 shots in the first period, and the same number in the third.

I can understand the third period, because coach Hunter sat the offensive players in favor of defensive shot blocking players, but the first period is beyond my understanding.

Here are the three star players who saw limited ice time in the third:

Mike Green – 3:44

Alex Ovechkin – 1:58

Alex Semin – 3:03

It worked, so all is well, but if it backfired, all hell would’ve broken loose.

The one number I’m not happy about and can’t understand is Mike Green’s ice time on the power-play… he only logged 1:00!! He should be on the first unit instead of Denis Wideman, but Dale isn’t Bruce.

Anyways, despite who sits or doesn’t, hopefully the Capitals can win both games on the weekend and eliminate the Bruins in 6.

Game 5 goes Saturday at 3pm, and game 6 the following day with the time still to be determined.

Mike Green finally got his first point of these 2012 NHL Playoffs, he assisted on the Capitals third goal. Greenie was on the ice for all three of the Caps goals, and on the ice for only one of the Bruins goal, the game winning fourth goal. The Capitals loss the game 4-3.

It wasn’t a horrible game by any means, but it wasn’t good enough to beat the Bruins, whom have regained home ice advantage in the series. The Capitals will need to win the next game which goes Thursday night at Verizon center so stay away from the edge of elimination.

Mike had over 26 and a half minutes of ice time, to lead both teams, he finished plus one with an assist. He did get 4 shots, and looking at them, I’m surprised that not one found it’s way to the back of the net, hopefully he just continues shooting like he has been doing, eventually the bounce/deflection/screen will go his way.

Here are the video highlights of last nights game:

Obviously every team will say they would want to be up 2-0 after two games, but when you’re the underdog and you’re playing two games against the defending Stanley Cup Champions in their home building, you should be absolutely be happy with a 1-1 split.

Both games were so tight and close, they both needed overtime. The real story for the Washington Capitals has been their inexperienced goalie Braden Holtby playing amazing in relief of injured goalies Tomas Vokoun and Michael Neuvirth, but it’s not the only story, there’s also the new look “patient” Caps, with a bigger focus on defense.

There’s a great article about Mike Green’s focus on defense on NHL.com today.

Mike Green despite being focused on defense first, has had some great chances to convert, but he hasn’t yet, I believe it’s just a matter of time, but I’m a little biased and optomistic.

In the end, it doesn’t matter if he scores or not, the score is what matters, and the Caps have played really well this season at Verizon Center, so hopefully that can continue tonight in game number three, and Thursday for game number four.

The Washington Capitals they are happy not to have the stress of being the favorite and are embracing the role of underdog. It’s clear the Boston Bruins had a more successful season and they are the defending Stanley Cup Champions, but that doesn’t get the Caps off the hook if they get sent home in the first round.

With star players Alexander Semin and Mike Green becoming free agents on July 1st along with other names like Knuble, Perreault, Halpern, Beagle, Aucoin and Carlson, we could be seeing a very different Washington team next year if they don’t salvage this season by at least getting to the second if not third round. Anything short of that would do for the patient Washington fans.

That being said, I don’t see any reason the Caps can’t beat any NHL team in a 7 game series, they certainly have the talent, now it’s just a question of showing they have the heart and desire to do it.

One challenge that could be interesting is goaltending, right now Holtby and Sabourin are the goalies since Vokoun and Neuvirth are both out with injuries and we don’t know when they could be back. Honestly, any of the four could be great or be horrible, so I think the team as a whole will be the real question mark here. They need to get the ugly, dirty and cheap goals to win in the NHL Playoffs.

NHL.com has created neat pages for each playoff series, you can check out the Caps vs Bruins one here to keep up with all the news and stats.