Capitals fail again, but heads held high for Ovechkin and Co.

NEW YORK – Alex Ovechkin looked to his left and watched Derek Stepan end his season with an overtime goal in Game 7.

He hung his head for a brief moment, before raising it and stoically staring at the Madison Square Garden rink that was being consumed by the bedlam of a New York Rangers’ celebration. He slowly undid his chin strap and prepared for the handshake line.

No anger. No rage. No overwhelming frustration. He’s seen this movie so many times that he can hum the theme music and recite the cast and crew credits.

“I don’t know what to say. They’re a great team. But we deserve a better result,” said Ovechkin, who opened the scoring in the first period, the first time he has scored a Game 7 goal since 2009 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It was Ovechkin’s ninth Game 7 since 2008, and the sixth time his team has been eliminated in that series finale. Nine of the Capitals’ last 11 playoff series have gone seven games; three of the last four have been seven gamers against the Rangers, with Washington losing all three.

“We played a great game. One goal decided it,” he said.

Ovechkin made headlines for “guaranteeing” the Capitals would win Game 7, despite actually saying nothing of the sort. He merely stated that Washington would “come back [to New York] and win the series” in Game 7, because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

“You guys will talk history all you want. This is a new group. This is a new team,” said Capitals coach Barry Trotz, quick to remind everyone that the team is 1-1 in Game 7s.

“I think you saw what the Washington Capitals are all about tonight.”

Indeed. They’re all about the close games, and ultimately failing to win them.

Outside of blowouts to the Rangers in 2013 (5-0) and the Penguins in 2009 (6-2), the rest of the Capitals’ Game 7s have been razor-thin, one-goal affairs. Three times they’ve ended in overtime, including Wednesday night’s finale against the Rangers, the seventh one-goal game of the series.

“All seven games could have gone either way. That’s how close the hockey was,” said goalie Braden Holtby. “We challenged ourselves against the best team in the regular season. I’m proud of everyone who played here. There are no regrets in this room.”

Well, there might be one regret: The Capitals held a 3-1 series lead, and are now 0-5 in franchise history when blowing a 3-1 series lead, which is an NHL record.

“We were one game away, for three games, of making it. We could be talking together in June,” said defenseman Karl Alzner, who like the rest of the team’s core has never gotten past the second round of the playoffs.

“There are always going to be people that say ‘You can’t get past the second round.’ That’s their opinion," continued Alzner. "We played the best team in the league, and we played almost good enough to win.”

Holtby agreed that blowing a 3-1 lead, and failing to close out the Rangers with three chances to do so, isn't at all extra frustrating

“I don’t think that makes it any more frustrating for us. We had an opportunity to close them out, but all the games were close. It could have been 3-1 the other way, too,” he said.

This is what makes the latest playoff disappointment by the Washington Capitals confounding. Yes, it’s another sad chapter in the team’s postseason history; another series they had in hand that they blew; another Game 7 that saw some core players – not Ovechkin, but most certainly Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, the Penalty Machine – play poorly.

Another group surrounding the same core, another coach, another year in which they were ThisClose to advancing to the conference final but inexplicably lacked whatever intangible that’s torpedoed their efforts for the last seven years.

And yet there’s this silver lining, this sense of accomplishment and hope that was the underlying emotion to emerge from the Capitals’ room and their coach’s maw.

“I think my top guys delivered. They grew today. I know people went after Alex for saying what he did. But I love to go into the fox hole with guys who are willing to stick their neck out and say ‘I’m going to deliver for you’ and he did,” said Trotz.

“Play without fear. Leave your best game out there. If it’s good enough, you’re going to win. If it’s not good enough, you can walk out of here with your head held high.”

Ovechkin only hung his head for a moment. Ditto his teammates after the game.

“You rarely lose in playoffs and leave with your head held high, because you’re frustrated. But this was the best team in the league in the regular season, and we had them close to elimination in three straight games. So you look at it that way, and you can be somewhat happy with that,” Alzner said.

I can’t tell if this reaction completely insane or totally reasonable; just like I can’t tell if this Capitals team is turning the page on its various playoff disappointments with an infusion of new blood to the core, or if these players that haven’t been central to the past failures are simply being indoctrinated into the franchise’s malaise, like pledges to the world’s saddest fraternity.

I don’t think even Trotz knows what to do with the past. One moment he’ll say it’s a different team, the next he’ll say they need to remember the past to excel in the future.

“We’re learning from our history. We’re looking it right in the eye,” he said.

I guess the best way to put it: That for the first time since 2009, it feels like the Capitals are building towards something. There shouldn’t be any clarion calls to break up the core, or fire the coach or general manager; there shouldn’t be a league-wide campaign to shame Ovechkin and question his fortitude.

Despite fitting snugly into the framework of their previous failures, this loss to the Rangers feels more like a growing pain than watching a team with stunted growth or regression.

“We went after the New York Rangers in their own barn and almost pulled it off,” said Trotz.

“You’re going to see the Washington Capitals back here again. They’re going to have some unfinished business.”

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