The Noon Number: 93.7 – Percentage of the Caps’ 17 playoff games over the last two seasons (i.e. Braden Holtby‘s playoff career) which has been played with the score tied or one team leading by a single goal. Against the Rangers, that number is 91.1% overall (ten games) and 86.8% this year.
Over the 17 games, the Caps have held a two-goal lead four times (for under three minutes against the Bruins and for just over two and 28 minutes against the Rangers last spring, and then for nearly 25 minutes in Game 1 of this series), and have trailed by two twice (for nearly 12 minutes and under one in two 2012 games against New York), meaning that in over 1,100 minutes of playoff hockey, the Caps have held the lead, been tied or could tie the game 98.9% of the time (including all 188 minutes of this year’s series with the Blueshirts).
The last time the Caps held a three-goal lead in a playoff game was when they closed out the Rangers in 2011, which came just three days after they’d erased that same deficit (in the third period, no less), to put themselves in a position to do so.