POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Caps 3, Bruins 2 (OT)

Over Everything -Washington's 3-2 overtime win over the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Saturday night came with a healthy serving of adversity. But that's no surprise, that's how it's been for most of the season for the Caps, particularly at the goaltending position.

Nic Dowd won it in overtime for Washington, making a winner of Craig Anderson, who came on in relief of an injured Vitek Vanecek. Pull up a chair, it's a long story.
Since before the outset of the 2020-21 NHL season, the Caps have had to deal with and overcome a fair amount of adversity in the crease. Two months after signing future Hall of Fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to a one-year contract to share goaltending duties with sophomore Ilya Samsonov, Lundqvist had to step away from the game for this season in order to undergo heart surgery.
Four games into the season in mid-January, Samsonov landed on the COVID-19 protocol list and was lost to the Caps for a span of six weeks. During that time frame, untested rookie Vanecek stepped up and shouldered the netminding load for Washington, starting 13 straight games at one point, and starting 17 of Washington's first 20 contests of the season.
Washington's planned netminding duo of Lundqvist and Samsonov never came to fruition, and aside from the first four games of the season, the Caps didn't have the tandem of Vanecek and Samsonov available to them at the same time until the final days of February.
The Capitals opened the season on Jan. 14 in Buffalo against the Sabres. On that same day, they signed veteran goaltender Anderson, a slight hedge to their bet on the youthful and homegrown goaltending tandem. Anderson, who turns 40 on Friday, had been with the Ottawa Senators for virtually the last decade, but hadn't hooked on anywhere over the offseason as an unrestricted free agent.
Within a week, Anderson was on the roster and backing up Vanecek. The Caps' early season schedule was fairly forgiving in terms of back-to-backs; Anderson saw action only in a relief effort against Philadelphia on Feb. 7 and in an afternoon start against New Jersey on Feb. 21, in the back half of a set of back-to-backs.
Once Samsonov returned to the active roster the following weekend, Anderson returned to the taxi squad and that group's grueling daily practice routine, staying ready for an opportunity that might never come. When he came on in relief of Vanecek in an April 15 game against Buffalo, it was Anderson's first action in nearly two months.
In each of the five previous seasons, Washington got through the campaign with two goaltenders. Not since 2014-15 had they deployed as many as three different goaltenders in the same season, a distinction they achieved just a dozen games into this season.
In the season's final week, Samsonov landed on the COVID-19 list for a second time, so Anderson returned to the active roster as Vanecek's backup. Anderson started the Caps' penultimate game of the season against the Flyers on May 8, earning a 2-1 win when Conor Sheary scored to win it in overtime.
In addition to his role as a depth goaltender, Anderson served as a sounding board and a "big brother" to the Caps' young goaltending tandem. Immediately after games, the Caps' starting goaltender huddles up with goaltending coach Scott Murray for a quick assessment of the night's work. Often as soon as Murray is finished, Anderson follows up with some words of advice or encouragement of his own.
But on Saturday night, the Caps needed Anderson to step up on the ice and he did. Enter Anderson, stepping into a playoff game for the first time in four years after seeing only 169 minutes worth of regular season action.
Vanecek left the game at 13:10 of the first, after injuring himself while trying to stop Boston's first goal, a Jake Debrusk shot from the slot after a Bruins face-off win on the right dot in the Caps' zone.
Anderson was solid the rest of the way, yielding only Nick Ritchie's power-play goal from in tight. He finished the night with 21 saves on 22 shots in 51:29 of work to claim his first playoff victory since May 23, 2017.
In doing so, Anderson (39 years, 359 days) became the oldest goaltender in Caps history to win a game, supplanting Mike Liut (34 years, 110 days) from his 31-year stay in the franchise record books. Liut won Game 5 of Washington's second-round playoff series with the Rangers in New York on April 27, 1990, also winning in overtime on John Druce's game-winner.
Anderson also becomes the fourth oldest goaltender in NHL history to earn a playoff victory in relief, following Lester Patrick (44 years, 99 days; Game 2 of 1928 Stanley Cup Final), Curtis Joseph (40 years, 350 days; Game 3 of 2008 Conference Quarterfinal) and Jacques Plante (40 years, 75 days; Game 1 of 1969 Quarterfinal).
After the game, Anderson was asked whether the feeling of victory was worth all the travel and practice and extra shots he has faced over the previous four months.
"I try to stay in the moment as best as you can," says Anderson. "The taxi work and the extra shots, it's a mindset. When you're playing every night, the extra shots can kind of get to wearing on you. But with the proper mindset going in there, you know you're going to have fun playing 3-on-3 with the taxi guys and making a game of it. And you play a little cat-and-mouse where you maybe play a little different style just to mix it up that day. Some days, I like to play full butterfly and pretend that I'm another guy in the League. And other days I'll play standup, like it's Grant Fuhr back in the day.

"You just try to make light of it and keep it fun. But at the end of the day, we're here in this moment and this is what we play for. It's a great opportunity, and it's the work we've done that allows us to have success now."
Count To Ten - Saturday's game was the 10th straight playoff game between Washington and Boston to be decided by a single goal. That extends the longest such run by a pair of franchises in NHL history.
The streak includes a 2-1 Washington win in a round-robin game in the Toronto bubble last Aug. 9 as well as the entire seven-game first-round series between the two teams in 2012.
The streak started way back on May 3, 1998 in Boston when Brian Bellows' double-overtime goal gave the Caps a 3-2 win in Game 6 of the first-round series between the two teams, propelling the Caps into a second-round set against Ottawa. Washington went on to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in its history that spring.
Ten Layers Down - Dowd's game-winning goal was Washington's first overtime goal in the playoffs since Brooks Orpik scored to win Game 2 of Washington's first-round series with Carolina on April 13, 2019. Each of the Capitals' last 10 playoff overtime goals has been scored by a different player.
In addition to Dowd and Orpik, the following players have scored overtime game-winners for Washington during this streak: Evgeny Kuznetsov (vs. PIT on 5/7/18), Nicklas Backstrom (vs. CBJ on 4/21/18), Lars Eller (vs. CBJ on 4/17/18), Kevin Shattenkirk (vs. PIT on 5/1/17), Marcus Johansson (vs. TOR on 4/23/17), Justin Williams (vs. TOR on 4/21/17), Tom Wilson (vs. TOR on 4/13/17) and T.J. Oshie (vs. PIT on 5/1/16).
Feels Like The First Time - Both Daniel Sprong and Anthony Mantha made their Stanley Cup playoff debuts on Saturday night with the Caps, and each player found his way onto the scoresheet with a secondary helper.
Sprong started the scoring play that led to Washington's first goal of the game, a Wilson rush tally in the first period. And Mantha earned an assist on Brenden Dillon's second-period goal, the Caps' second goal of the game.
Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears hosted the Binghamton Devils on Saturday afternoon at Giant Center, skating off with a 3-2 victory.
Down 1-0 after the first 20 minutes of play, the Bears tallied three times in less than three minutes in the back half of the middle frame to take control of the contest.
First, Paul LaDue netted his third goal of the season at 12:56 with a single assist from Connor McMichael, tying the game at 1-1. Just 82 seconds later, Aliaksei Protas notched his second goal of the season with help from Shane Gersich and Alex Alexeyev, giving the Bears a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish. McMichael scored his 13th of the season with help from Brett Leason and Mason Morelli at 15:37 of the second.
The Devils scored a power-play goal early in the third to close out the scoring, making McMichael's goal the game-winner, his league-leading eighth game-winning goal of the season.
Zach Fucale made 23 saves in the Hershey nets to improve to 9-2-0 on the season. Saturday's win pushed Hershey's record to 23-7-2-0 on the season, clinching the North Division and also claiming the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL's regular season champion.
The Bears conclude their successful season on Sunday afternoon at Giant Center when they host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
By The Numbers - Dmitry Orlov led the Caps with 24:51 in ice time … Washington outhit Boston 51-41 with Dillon and Michael Raffl leading the way with six hits each … Wilson, Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin each had four shots on net to tie for the team lead, and Ovechkin led the way with eight shot attempts … Dillon, Orlov and Nick Jensen each had three blocked shots to lead the Caps … Washington won only 40 percent (26 of 65) of the game's face-offs.