Time CAPSule - Caps Come Up with Another Comeback Win

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!

Friday, March 28, 2008
For the Caps, the sun rose in Sunrise, Fla. on this day a dozen years ago. A night earlier, they earned their third straight win - and their seventh in eight games - with a 4-3 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Brooks Laich staked the Caps to a 1-0 lead with a shorthanded goal late in the first frame, his 20th goal of the season. But the Bolts rebounded and tied the game on the same power play when ex-Caps captain Jeff Halpern scored to bite the hand that once fed him.
The two sides traded goals in the second period as well, and the Lightning grabbed its first lead of the game on a Michel Ouellet goal at 6:51 of the third. With less than five minutes left, the Caps forced overtime. Sergei Fedorov won an offensive draw to Alexander Semin, whose shot from the top of the right circle eluded Tampa Bay netminder Karri Ramo, tying the game at 3-3 with 4:48 left.
In overtime, Laich set up unlikely hero Tomas Fleischmann for the game-winner. The goal ended a 10-game pointless drought for Fleischmann.
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Postgame Notebook and Quotebook
Flash Beats Bolts - Coming into Thursday's game, Caps winger Tomas Fleischmann was without a point in his previous 10 games, the longest scoring drought of his NHL career. He was without a goal in 14 games. But the man known by his teammates as "Flash" netted the second game-winning goal of his NHL career and his first overtime game-winner in the league on Thursday to give the Caps a third straight come-from-behind victory, a 4-3 overtime thriller over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The win enabled the Caps to hold serve in the tense race for the final playoff berths in the Eastern Conference standings.
Fleischmann, whose previous goal also came in this building back on Feb. 16, had not collected a point since he recorded two assists in a 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 26.
If not for an ailing teammate, Fleischmann would not have been on the ice for Washington in overtime.
"He picked a good time to get one," said Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. "It's funny the way fate works, because quite honestly if [Viktor] Kozlov was feeling any better, he would have been out there with Brooks [Laich] because those are the three units we go with in overtime. He didn't, we threw Tom out [on the ice] and he came through."
Kozlov blocked a Shane O'Brien slapshot just after Semin's tying goal, and had to crawl off the ice. He was walking around with barely a limp afterwards and should be none the worse for wear for Saturday's road finale.
Fleischmann has scored some huge goals in his AHL career, but none bigger than this one at this level.
"This one is pretty huge," he said happily after the game. "At this point of the season we're trying to get every point we can get. An OT winner, I'm happy."
Fleischmann said he'd been trying to put the drought out of his mind.
"I'm not trying to think about it," he said. "I'm just trying to play hard. It's good that it went in, against Tampa again."
Fleischmann now has six goals and 10 points in a dozen career games against the Lightning.
Twenty for Twenty-One - Caps center Brooks Laich entered this season with 15 career NHL goals in 151 NHL games. On Thursday night in Tampa, he netted his 20th goal of the season, a shorthanded tally that gave the Caps a short-lived 1-0 lead. Laich notched his 20th of the season in the 78th game of the season.
He joins Alex Ovechkin (61) and Alexander Semin (24) as the third 20-goal man on the Capitals this season. The goal was the fifth shorthanded strike of Laich's NHL career.
M.B. - M.B. stands for Matt Bradley, and also for "money in bank," which is what the Caps are whenever Bradley records a point. On Thursday in Tampa, Bradley netted his seventh goal of the season, matching his highest single-season total as a Capital and his highest total since he netted nine as a rookie with San Jose in 2001-02. Washington is now 11-0-1 in games when Bradley records a point this season.
Money Man -Eleven of Semin's 24 goals this season have come in the third period of games.
Road Warriors - Thursday's win over the Lightning in Tampa ensures Washington of its first winning road record since 1995-96 when it finished out the season with a record of 18-17-6 away from USAir Arena. Going into Saturday's road finale of the 2007-08 campaign, the Caps have a 19-16-5 record away from the Verizon Center.
For what it's worth, there are currently eight teams with 20 or more road wins this season. Of those clubs, only Phoenix (20-16-2 on the road) would miss the postseason if the Stanley Cup playoffs began today.
The Capitals are 4-1 on their current road swing.
Secondary Scoring - Heading into Thursday's game with the Lightning, the line of Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Viktor Kozlov had accounted for 20 of Washington's 35 goals (57.1%) in the month of March. That trio was held off the scoresheet entirely against Tampa Bay, but the Caps got enough secondary scoring to come away with a crucial win.
Laich, Bradley, Semin and Fleischmann scored for Washington, enabling the Caps to get a rare win on a night when Ovechkin did not collect a point. The Caps are now 6-9-3 this season when Ovechkin is held pointless, and they are 13-39-7 in games when he has not scored since the start of his career in 2005-06. Sixteen of those 39 losses were shutouts in which none of Ovechkin's teammates scored, either.
Half Century - Caps defenseman Mike Green picked up an assist on Fleischmann's game-winner, giving him a total of 50 points on the season. That total is the most recorded by a Caps defenseman since Sergei Gonchar totaled 67 (18 goals, 49 assists) in 2002-03.
Another One - Washington's win was its 39th of the season (39-31-8), its highest total since it finished 39-29-8-6 in 2002-03, the last time the Caps made the playoffs.
The Chase - Boston beat Toronto, eliminating the Leafs from any postseason hope. The Rangers edged the Devils. Buffalo downed Ottawa in a shootout, and Atlanta took the Panthers down. That win was the Thrashers' first regulation victory over an Eastern Conference opponent since they beat the Caps 2-0 at Verizon Center on Feb. 2.
So … Washington trails both Philadelphia and Boston by two points, and both the Flyers and Bruins have a game in hand on the Caps. Buffalo - which is three points behind Washington - also has a game in hand on the Caps. Washington is also two points behind Carolina for the Southeast Division lead, but the Canes also have a game in hand on the Caps.
The Rangers and Devils are both five points ahead of the Caps and the fourth-place Ottawa Senators are six points ahead of Washington.
Biting the Hand - Ex-Cap center Jeff Halpern continued to show the hot hand. He scored the Lightning's first goal and was one of the best players on the ice on this night, all over the ice. Halpern's goal was his 18th of the season and his eighth since joining the Lightning in a Feb. 26 trade with Dallas. Halpern has eight goals and 16 points in 14 games since joining the Bolts.
POSTGAME QUOTEBOOK
Caps coach Bruce Boudreau
On the win:
"It was a big win and we were a desperate team at the end because I didn't think we had very much jump. We looked a little tired. It was a mentally tough game, but we found a way. That's all that counts right now."
On the Caps' timeout late in the third period:
"I just wanted [Boyd] Gordon to get a rest because he was out there and he had to take the faceoff. I made sure that [I told them] if we lost control of the puck, let's protect our net."
On Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella being upset over the Caps' tying goal:
"I think he might have thought that we didn't skate hard enough on the icing and it shouldn't have been an icing call. That's my guess on it right now."
On the icings and non-icings in the third:
"They beat us to three of them in the third period, which is a little disturbing. But we'll watch it and we'll see. Were they hungrier or did we take a bad angle? I don't know. I haven't seen it twice.
On the Caps not getting chances to win it in regulation after they tied it:
"Our thing is when it's that close at this stage of the game we want to get it to overtime at least to get you and ensure you the point and then have the belief that in either shootout or overtime we'll have the chance to win it."
On Boston winning again:
"They're playing like everybody else at this time: with a sense of urgency. The Flyers, Boston, Buffalo just won in a shootout. The sense of urgency is an amazing thing. They know, as we do, the season is on the line. We don't even know at this stage if we can afford one loss the way everybody else is winning. In the last five minutes, I'm telling the [defensemen] just go down the boards and play like a four-one. If they get a two-on-one, Cris is going to stop it. He'll make the big save for us."
Caps center Sergei Fedorov
"I don't know. You don't think about that. You just try to accustom yourself to the situation; who is playing against you and how it has been going on the whole game. And then you react. It was just a reaction."
On Semin's game-tying goal in the third:
"It was a very important goal for us. What can I say? I'm glad Sasha found a way to finally put it in on that shot. Obviously it helped us a lot."
On some of Washington's passes failing to connect:
"The ice was terrible. I've got to say it was like sandpaper. The puck never settled down. You had to give each other a lot of time in order to settle down the puck. It was a tough game. A lot of players on both teams got a little bit upset with it. What can you say? You have to battle through it, but that's been the worst I've seen in a long time.
"But you can't really blame the ice. Both teams tried to play a forward game, put the puck ahead and try to chase it down. At some point we lost the momentum in that department, but we still believed in our system. We kept pushing it. We tried to make a play. It was good enough to make a play forward, so we didn't make any mistakes on the way back. Eventually it paid off."
Caps center Brooks Laich
On his 20th goal and the game:
"I don't care about No. 20 right now. We'll worry about that later. We're in a dogfight here. Unfortunately, Boston won. But we didn't lose any ground. I think other teams know we're coming. They're starting to play really well. We're desperate, we're hungry. It's a great time to play right now."
On the Caps' inability to take control of the game:
"They played well, too. They didn't roll over and die. They made it tough for us to get chances. In the third period we started pinching our D more and more to try and create something, but they played well tonight, too.
"We just didn't give up. Same thing happened in Atlanta, same thing happened in Carolina. We just fought and clawed and I can't say enough about how hungry our guys are. You see the celebration at the end and how elated everybody is. We've just got to keep going here."
On Fedorov's pass that set up his goal, and Fedorov's game:
"He's still got it I guess, eh? Just a nice play by Feds. He just holds onto the puck and lays a saucer pass, gives me all the time in the world. I was just able to get [Tampa Bay goaltender Karri Ramo] sliding one way and shot it in the other way. It was a great play by Fedsy. I thought he had a really good game. He does a lot of the other things, the faceoffs, and he won the face-off that Sasha scored on. Real strong game for him."
Caps defenseman Mike Green:
On whether he knew that his skate had cut Lightning defenseman Dan Boyle on the game's final play:
"Honestly, I just heard right now before I came out here."
On how the puck got from him to Laich to Fleischmann on the game-winner:
"I whacked it out front and the goalie didn't cover it. Brooksie poked it over to Flash and it was in. Basically I was swimming there for a while trying to get it. I finally got a piece of it."
On being at the end of a long shift when the goal was scored:
"I felt great. I could have went back down and back again."
On the teams ahead of them winning:
"Yeah, it's frustrating. We're not getting any help here. But as long as we keep winning, we'll be where we want to be. Something has to give here. We'll do our part and make sure that we're there at the end of the year. But it's kind of frustrating looking at the scores and then getting no help."
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Caps Sign Perreault
The Caps today announced that they've signed center Mathieu Perreault to a three-year, entry level deal beginning next season.
Perreault, 20, was the most valuable player in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in 2006-07 and led the QMJHL in scoring this year. A 5'9", 166-pound native of Drummondville, Quebec, Perreault recorded 114 points (34 goals, 80 assists) in 65 games for Acadie-Bathurst in 2007-08, his second consecutive 100-point season. He led the Titan to a third-place finish in the East Division and a berth in the playoffs, where they are currently tied in the first round, two games apiece, with St. John's.
Perreault led the QMJHL in assists in 2007-08 and established an Acadie-Bathurst club record with a 27-game point-scoring streak. He was a two-time QMJHL Offensive Player of the Week and the league's Player of the Month in March.
Perreault was Washington's sixth-round choice, 177th overall, in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.