Earlier this season, we posted Alex Ovechkin's early years in DC](https://www.nhl.com/capitals/news/early-times-of-the-great-eight/c-311761890) and another Nicklas Backstrom's five-year contract extension](https://www.nhl.com/capitals/news/backstrom-takes-center-stage/c-313921356). In the process of crafting those stories and talking to the subjects themselves and many others, we were reminded of how exciting and thrilling the 2007-08 NHL season was in these parts.
It stands as Ovechkin's career year, it was Backstrom's rookie year, Bruce Boudreau took over behind the Washington bench on Thanksgiving Day, and the Caps made the playoffs for the first time in five years, winning 15 of 19, 11 of 12 and seven straight at season's end to come back from a dismal 6-14-1 start to win the Southeast Division title.
That season and that run into the playoffs augured in the "Rock The Red" era of hockey in DC, the beginning of 11 playoff appearances in a span of a dozen seasons. At this time a dozen years ago, the Caps were in the midst of that wild run. With the NHL's 2019-20 season "paused" for the foreseeable future, we're going to spend the next month looking back at the day-to-day of that remarkable late-season run, revisiting some of our coverage at the time with some fresh hindsight mixed in. On the off days between games, we will revisit some events from earlier in that landmark season. Enjoy!
Time CAPSule - Caps Finish off Florida, Long Climb to Division Title
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The long, arduous rise began on Nov. 23, 2007 in Philadelphia. Nicklas Backstrom's game-winning goal that day - his second NHL goal on his 20th birthday - gave Bruce Boudreau a victory in his NHL coaching debut, and it lifted the Caps to a 7-14-1 record on the season.
That win on Black Friday in Philly started the Caps' ascension up the Southeast Division standings, and their 3-1 win over Florida in the regular season finale culminated that climb, giving Washington its first division title in seven years and its first playoff berth in five years. It would be the first postseason foray for Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin, the first of 11 playoff appearances in the next dozen seasons.
Tomas Fleischmann started the scoring at 7:19 of the first, netting his 10th of the season on a two-man forecheck with Brooks Laich. The tandem forced a turnover in Florida ice, and Fleischmann carried right to the net, beating Panthers goalie Craig Anderson on a second effort to give Washington a 1-0 lead.
Florida tied it up in the second on Kamil Kreps' eighth of the season - four of which were scored at Washington's expense - while the Panthers were on the power play.
Late in the second, the Caps went ahead for good. Alexander Semin made a sublime backhand feed in neutral ice, and his cross-ice feed sent Sergei Fedorov into Florida ice with enough time and space to crank a slapper from the top of the left circle. The shot eluded Anderson, and Fedorov's second goal in his 18 games with the Caps that season stood up as the game-winner, coming with 4:57 left in the second.
Semin provided a power-play insurance tally early in the third, going off the iron and in with a rocket of a one-timer from the top of the right circle at 2:21 of the third. Cristobal Huet won his ninth straight game, the longest winning streak for a Caps goaltender in more than two decades.
Washington won seven straight - its longest winning streak in 15 years - to finish the season. It won 11 of its last 12 and 15 of its last 19, and it went 37-17-7 after Boudreau was installed behind the bench. Three straight last-place finishes were distant memory as a red-clad, sellout crowd reveled in the Caps' remarkable rebound as the clock ticked down in their win over the Panthers.
"This is one of my dreams," Ovechkin said after the game. "Now we're there. It's only one step. Now we can think about playoff games."
This Sunday was an off day a dozen years ago, a day to savor the team's achievement and to await the identity of its first-round opponent in the Stanley Cup playoffs later that week.
Here's our postgame notebook and a blog post from the day after an unforgettable Saturday night on F St.
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Postgame Notebook
Never A Doubt - When Bruce Boudreau took over the reins of the Caps on Nov. 22, the Caps were already 14 points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the Southeast Division lead. With Saturday's win over the Panthers, the Caps completed an improbable comeback and became the first team in the 30-team era of the NHL's history to go from 14th or 15th place in their conference to a playoff spot.
After the game, the Caps' locker room was teeming with both traditional and non-traditional media, almost all of whom had written the team and the season off at some point in the previous months.
Each time it was knocked down, Washington got up off the mat and fought back. Hard.
After a 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes in Carolina on Feb. 23, the Caps went 15-4-1 the rest of the way. After a 3-2 loss to the Leafs on Mar. 1, the Caps won 13 of 16. After demoralizing losses to Boston and Pittsburgh on Mar. 8-9 - the first consecutive regulation losses of the Boudreau era - Washington won 11 of 12. After a humbling 5-0 blanking at the hands of the Blackhawks in Chicago, the Caps ran the table, authoring seven straight wins over divisional foes, their longest winning streak in more than 15 years.
They didn't know it until tonight, but they had very little margin for error. One point, to be exact. The Caps edged the Canes by two points in earning the fourth division title in franchise history and the third Southeast crown. It is the Caps' first division title in seven years.
You could call this team "the little engine that could," except there is nothing little about them.
"There was never a word of 'We couldn't,' or 'We won't,' or 'We can't,'" reflects Boudreau. "It was always pushing through and believing in yourselves. You had to win seven in a row at the end just to get in, and they're all playoff seventh games. You've got to sit there at some point and think, 'Listen, I'm tired of pushing.' And they didn't. They were awesome. It's an unbelievable group."
In the end, it did not matter that few believed the Caps were capable of what they've achieved in 2007-08. There was more than enough belief in the room, the only place where it matters.
The Nail - Sergei Fedorov's rocket shot late in the second proved to be the game-winning goal tonight, but Alexander Semin's power play strike at 2:21 of the third period took away what little fight remained in the Panthers.
Playing their second game in as many nights, and with a bedraggled penalty-killing unit, the Cats were unable to kill off a hooking minor to Karlis Skrastins. The Caps made maybe a dozen short, crisp passes until they were able to isolate Semin up high. He blasted a shot that beat Florida goaltender Craig Anderson cleanly, and the Caps had the insurance goal they needed.
Sevens are Wild - The Caps ended the season with seven straight wins, and Boudreau's NHL coaching record stands at 37-17-7.
Ovi Watch - Ovechkin did not register a point in the regular season finale, but he drew three penalties and finished the campaign with 65 goals and 112 points. He'll be carting off some hardware this June in Toronto.
D-Pleted - For the second time in three games, the Caps lost a key member of their defensive corps. Blueliner Jeff Schultz left the game early in the second period, just four nights after Shaone Morrisonn was lost with an upper body injury.
Shoot to Kill - The Capitals outshot their opponents 117-67 in the three must-win games of the just completed homestand.
Divisional Dominance - The Caps won each of their last eight games against Southeast Division opponents this season and finished the campaign with a record of 18-11-3 against divisional foes. Since the lockout, no team with a losing record against its own division has earned a Stanley Cup playoff berth.
Huet, Huet -Caps goaltender Cristobal Huet won his ninth straight start on Saturday, one shy of the Caps' all-time franchise record established by Pat Riggin in 1984.
In 13 starts since joining the Capitals, Huet is 11-2 with two shutouts, a 1.63 goals against average and a .936 save pct.
In nine career appearances against Florida, Huet has allowed more than three goals in a game only once. Kamil Kreps' power play goal at 6:47 of the second period ended Huet's shutout run over the Panthers at 96:26.
10 with 10 - Tomas Fleischmann netted the Caps' first goal of the game, his 10th of the season. Fleischmann's goal gave the Caps 10 players with double-digit goal totals on the season.
Backstrom Breaks It - Nicklas Backstrom's third period assist was his 55th helper of the season, an all-time single-season franchise record. Backstrom broke Ovechkin's mark of 54, established in 2005-06.
Trade Winds - The deadline day deals that brought Huet, Fedorov and Matt Cooke to Washington had a lot to do with Washington's late push to the playoffs. Each of the three veterans made huge contributions to the cause, and the Capitals went 14-4 after their arrival.
Home Cooking - Washington has now won six straight games on home ice. The Caps have held the opposition to exactly one goal in each of their last five home games.
McDonald is the Man - No slight to any of the other regular and semi-regular anthem singers at Verizon, but nobody does it better than Saturday's singer, Bob McDonald. And besides, when the Caps made their run to the Cup finals a decade ago, McDonald was the guy doing the pregame honors virtually every night, if not every night.
Just saying.
Last Loss for Andy - Before Saturday's loss to the Capitals, Panthers goaltender Craig Anderson had won six straight decisions. His loss to the Caps was his first setback since Feb. 10.
Power Outage - When Ovechkin was whistled for a slashing minor at 16:41 of the first period, it broke a string of 15 straight minor penalties taken by the Panthers. The Cats were called for the last two minors of their Tuesday game in Atlanta, and they took nine minors in Friday's 4-3 win over the Hurricanes in Carolina without drawing a power play of their own all night. Florida was whistled for the first four minors called in Saturday's game in the District before Ovechkin was sent to the box to break the streak.
Too Much Restraint -The Panthers entered the game with 273 restraining penalties on the season, the most in the NHL. The Swamp Cats added five more to that total on Saturday.
Panther Punch - The Cats entered Saturday night's game with an average of 31.1 shots on goal per game, the fourth best rate in the league. Florida also featured the league's fifth best power play coming in.
On This Date in NHL History - Ex-Caps defenseman Joe Reekie netted his first NHL goal on this date in 1987, beating Hartford netminder Steve Weeks while playing for the Buffalo Sabres.
"It was the last game of my rookie season in Hartford and we were out of the playoffs in Buffalo," recalls Reekie. "I want to say that it was and end-to-end rush where I beat everyone and beat the goalie, but it wasn't. I just came in, closed my eyes, shot and grabbed the puck. I came in off the blueline, I forget who passed it to me. I took a quick slapshot. Steve
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OVECHKIN IS ALL HART
Members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, including your faithful scribe, will turn in award ballots this week, and if Alexander Ovechkin isn't a unanimous choice for the Hart (MVP), then someone will have a lot of 'splainin' to do.
A.O. hammered in two more goals Thursday night, bumping his league lead to 65, and moving ahead of Luc Robitaille as the all-time leader for most goals (one season) by a left winger. It's not only that the Capitals star scores a lot of goals (now 163 in only three years), but he scores them with an energy and verve that make him, unquestionably, the greatest entertainment attraction in the game today.
Like Bobby Orr of old, and Brett Hull, Denis Savard, and Pavel Bure of not so old, Ovechkin doesn't allow the viewer to stop watching. Even if he isn't on the ice, the anticipation of his next shift, and maybe his next running leap into the glass after he scores, is enough to keep the audience engaged.
Sidney Crosby, as he good as he is, doesn't do that. Crosby's fellow Penguin, and superb talent, Evgeni Malkin, doesn't do that. They both may get there someday soon (Malkin is my bet there to get there first). But for now, there is only one true sensational player in today's game, and it's the 22-year-old Ovechkin. Makes one wish the moniker "Magical Muscovite" hadn't been dispensed (see: Sergei Samsonov) a decade ago.
Now, for the nitpickers, it's true, the Hart Trophy is not awarded to the most exciting or sensational player. It goes to the player who is "adjudged to be the most valuable to his team."
Well, you know what? In today's game, with how difficult it remains to score, and how overcoached and tightly played the games are, a lot of guys can be considered under that lone standard. Ovechkin still wins on that alone, for how he carried the Capitals all year and especially down the stretch.
He's all of "most valuable," with the sensation and entertainment factors sort of just added value.
Dupont wasn't the only one to weigh in today, either.
Anyone suggesting the Caps would have to make the playoffs in order for Alex Ovechkin to qualify for the Hart Trophy must be working on an alternative, attention-seeking agenda. This year, there is The Big O and then everyone else, the runners-up featuring a most-worthy Alex Kovalev of Montreal.
The NHL's force-feed focus on all Sidney Crosby all the time and Pierre McGuire's relentless pandering and cheerleading over the air are going to create a backlash against the remarkable 20-year-old center, mark our words.
So yes, last night was special. And today is a great day to be a Caps fan. But even better days are still ahead. Enjoy the ride.
