On Frozen Blog

In four games this week against quality competition, the Caps went 3-1, all four games decided by one goal, two of them requiring overtime. It was a week of white-knuckle high drama, and in all likelihood it served as the foreword for a page-turner of a who’s-gonna-do-it narrative the remainder of the way. Here’s hoping you like your NHL hockey undecided well into third periods and beyond, because in this 2007-08 league better known as Planet Parity, down the stretch, you’re gonna get an overdose of it.

There were four games played in the NHL last Thursday night — all four were decided by one goal. Of the eight games played yesterday, six were decided by a lone goal. Six points separate four teams in the Atlantic; seven points separate all five teams in the Southeast; seven points separate four teams in the Northwest; and just four points separate three teams in the Pacific. Only Detroit enjoys true and massive separation (23 points) from its division rivals. (The rest of that division is competitive.)

The good news is that Bruce Boudreau’s Caps are 14-5-4 in one-goal games. The bad news is the toll all these tight games is taking on the cardiology and hair color of the team’s fans. Worse, most of the remaining regular season — 25 games for the Caps — is likely to be just like this past week. In the NHL’s final quarter, teams lock down, scoring plummets, the line matching would bewilder Bobby Fischer, and injury reports are filed to the league office in morse code.

Throw in the element of uber parity — has the league ever been this balanced all across the board? — and we the spectating are on the boarding platform for one of those malevolently engineered amusement park scream coasters. At night. It’ll be six white flags of surrender for some, and we in Washington, unaccustomed to meaningful hockey down the stretch for some while, are out of spectating shape for the high stakes. Even good beer is of limited assistance for the stress associated with these showdowns.

Think back to that 5-on-3 penalty kill in overtime in Pittsburgh a few weeks back, with Quintin Laing making like a minimally padded goaltender on the triangle point. Think back to those frantic and frenzied final seconds — your spouse or partner likely still has your nails’ wounds etched about forearms and thighs. Now imagine an in-kind tension enveloping many of these final 25 games, and increasing with each passing week as we move into spring, when opportunities dwindle but the pack remains tight. That’s what’s ahead.

The Caps, you see, aren’t built for feet-propped-up blowouts; they’re still young and green and conspicuously inexperienced when it comes to such stretch runs of meaning. And two fellas on the roster who are savvy high-stress vets — Chris Clark and Michael Nylander — are on the shelf.

Bruce Boudreau’s system has garnered a good deal of attention since he took over, but where’s he’s really succeeded in revamping the Caps is with one-goal-game outcomes. The team won a grand total of nine last season. (They went 9-10-14 in them overall.) He’ll double that tally before February ends. Or at the end of this week. But it’s getting to that good outcome finish line that is so extreme theme-park thrilling. Verizon Center these days is packed to the rafters with screaming bodies. They’re either hockey junkies turned on by an exciting, winning product or sadists.

We’re new to this winning stuff — and it necessarily has to be of the hard-earned variety.

In tight games like these — as with the playoffs — specialty teams prove paramount. In the most relaxed of schedule times, two minutes on special teams are nerve-wracking endeavors for a team’s supporters. At Verizon Center Friday night, you may have heard the home partisans render a bit of a spirited verdict with the team’s 5-on-3 power play. The Caps’ precarious standings position is underscored by their specialty team rankings. Their 59 points rank 20th in the league. On the power play they rank 18th; on the PK 21st. You have to think it’s going to be especially difficult for the Caps to get white-hot with a man up, without a no. 2 center QB to run it. Meaning: more inconsistency from tight game to tight game; meaning: more drama.

Remember how the Islanders needed to prevail in a shootout in the final game of the regular season last year to qualify for the postseason? Here’s a hockey-heart-into-flatlining scenario for you: the Caps’ final seven games are against Southeast foes. Imagine a still tightly packed Southeast come very late March, with perhaps only Tampa by then eliminated from the postseason. Then imagine a majority of these — oh heck, all of them!– going to a shootout. Who’d need Kings Dominion?