On Frozen Blog

Hockey’s most mysterious quality is momentum. It wavers at times — is obliterated, even — from shift to shift. Years ago I saw it change for the Caps from bad to beautiful with a single shift of chaos from Kevin Kaminski. A solitary act of incompetence by a single referee, as with yesterday’s mystery infraction alleged against Sergei Fedorov in period two, can (and did) radically realign a game’s outlook.

The Caps earned a series-prolonging victory Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t until about 4:30, as I walked toward a Verizon Center exit behind Flyer forward Mike Knuble, that I thought this series’ momentum might have changed.

I was walking, but Knuble most assuredly was not. He was more in a shuffle of anguish. I’ve seen my share of miraculous recoveries from fairly major injuries in 48 hours’ time, especially in the NHL playoffs, but watching Knuble labor under such obvious distress, I began to wonder if the sudden shift in the series’ authorship of the physical — for the second straight game the Caps outhit the Flyers — might have signaled a new overall control. In this series, control of the physical most often means victory.

Suddenly, Saturday seemed like more than a single loss for the team still the favorite to prevail.

It was only after I’d arrived home that I learned from Corey Masisak’s blog that Knuble was indeed out for Monday — and Tuesday, if there’s a game 7.

Meanwhile, in the other dressing room, there are suddenly answers where 40 hours earlier there were only questions.

In a series in which Alexander Ovechkin is goal-starved his countryman Sasha Semin has announced himself as a stealth sniper, setup man, and in-your-face antagonist, the latter of which I don’t imagine was of much concern to the Flyers’ coaching staff when this series began. Semin’s game-winning goal Saturday was surreal — I described it in my game file as a “high-slot sling of heavy, heavy heat” — and the type of tally that can rattle an opposing team out of its comfort zone. It’s one thing to have a home team hold serve in a gritty elimination game; it’s quite another to see a secondary star being born into a primary role and leading a comeback. The Flyers have done a magnificent job of mitigating the impact of the planet’s best hockey player. Now they have to do something about his roomie on the road.

And keep an eye on that Mike Green fella.

Semin’s 6 points through the series’ first five games are second only to Green’s 7, but it’s when you stand about a foot away from the supremely shy 24-year-old and see the playoff’s black and blue etched deep within his face that you fully appreciate his maturation this postseason.

That’s right, there was an Alexander Semin sighting among the press yesterday afternoon. He did his best to duck us again — biking (his customary post-game pursuit), bathing, even immersing himself in a video training session — but eventually he came out and with the aid of a Russian journalist answered a half dozen questions from the local press. He has a Halloween-scary look about him now. It’s really quite beautiful.

“I’m playing as well as I can, I’m happy with how I’m playing and I feel good,” he said.

In his bashfulness Semin is economic with his expressions but also thoughtful in a summary kind of way.

“It’s a different game in the playoffs,” he noted. “You simply can’t make mistakes at the blueline — you can’t lose the puck, you have to use your chances.”

Semin’s turnover awareness may be most heartening to a fanbase patiently awaiting his maturation on that front. He’s playing with confidence, an inspiration for which there is no surprise: on playing with Sergei Fedorov — “He sees the ice very well, he’s a great passer and as far as what he’s brought to the team I think it’s more of a confidence.”

Alluding to Semin in particular and some of his other young players as well, Bruce Boudreau confirmed a change, a maturation within this series: “I think there’s a big difference from the first three games of the series to the last two,” the coach said in his postgame press conference. “Semin, Backstrom, some of these younger guys are really playing good hockey right now.”

Another player helping to change this series’ outlook is its unlikeliest, perhaps — Steve Eminger.

“He’s stepped in and done a tremendous job,” his coach said late Saturday afternoon. “He’s playing physical, he’s taking hits, he’s doing a lot of the stuff that Steve Eminger can do.”

There is no game film to analyze for the remarkable ascensions individual players make from one night to the next in the NHL playoffs. The opposition merely endures it and hopes one of its own can answer in kind. But the combination of three young Caps so delivering — Semin and his new-found grit, Backstrom suddenly looking no longer the NHL rookie, and Steve Eminger, the forgotten one now a third-pairing rearguard creeping toward top four minutes with his polish and poise — gives the Caps and their fans hope for the underdog on Monday night.

“It’s not a situation that we’re not used to,” Gabby noted. “We’re gonna go into that building and we’re gonna play as hard and we’re gonna leave everything in that building that we have.”

No one I think doubts the effort they’ll bring. The Flyers, however, now thrust in the must-win role themselves, elst they face Red Chinatown again, have to wonder if the series’ swagger has swung Washington’s way as well.