1. The Caps live to fight another day by dancing with who brung ’em, namely Alex Ovechkin and the power play…
— Stephanie (@myregularface) May 7, 2016
Kuznetsov, on the Ovechkin power-play slapper: “You don’t have to ask me about that. You watched it 10 years in a row.”
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) May 8, 2016
Oshie goal pic.twitter.com/E3RdJFKGdv
— Stephanie (@myregularface) May 8, 2016
… and Braden Holtby being great:
Holtby certainly is a beast back there. #StanleyCuphttps://t.co/O7GWaq3B3G
— #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) May 8, 2016
***
2. No one was bigger than the Caps’ Vezina Finalist backstop:
Barry Trotz on Holtby saves: “We’ve been on the other end of that in this series it seems.”
— Brian McNally (@bmcnally14) May 8, 2016
T.J. Oshie said he jumped higher for Holtby’s two big saves than he did for any of the goals.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) May 8, 2016
Karl Alzner on Braden Holtby: pic.twitter.com/U8EXEpDpiw
— Chris Gordon (@Chris_Gordon) May 8, 2016
Ovechkin on Holtby and his magical saves: “That’s why he’s the best goalie in the league.”
— Chris Gordon (@Chris_Gordon) May 8, 2016
***
3. Too little, too late? We’ll see. But the Caps weren’t ready to let their season end last night, and they made sure that didn’t happen:
Trotz: “Coming to the rink I said to our coaches ‘We’re winning tonight.'”
— Brian McNally (@bmcnally14) May 8, 2016
Williams: “The mindset is, ‘I don’t want to go home. I don’t want our season to end.’ We stopped them once and we need to do it twice more.”
— Zac Boyer (@ZacBoyer) May 8, 2016
Karl Alzner said the players had a meeting after practice yesterday. What they learned: “No one wants to be finished playing right now.”
— Katie Brown (@katiebhockey) May 8, 2016
The Caps didn’t play a perfect game, but they didn’t have to. This time they had the hot goalie and got the good bounces. Hockey’s funny that way, and hopefully it’s similarly hilarious for two more games.