Time CAPSule - Huet Blanks Cats as Caps Win Fourth Straight

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!

Sunday, March 30, 2008
The Caps arrived home in the wee hours of this day a dozen years ago, with an off day stretched out ahead of them following one of the most successful road runs in the team's recent history. With Cristobal Huet's 32-save shutout over the Panthers in Florida, Washington finished a daunting stretch of six straight road games with a 5-1-0 mark, reaching 20 road wins on the season for the first time in more than a decade.
Alex Ovechkin continued to break his own club record for most goals in a season, scoring his 62nd goal in the third period.
Coupled with Carolina's 2-1 loss to the Lightning in Tampa Bay, Saturday's win over Florida moved the Caps to within two points of the first-place Hurricanes in the Southeast Division standings. Washington also trails eighth-place Boston by two points, but the Bruins have a game in hand.
With a week left in the season, the Caps are set to start a three-game homestand on Tuesday against Carolina. Tampa Bay and Florida will follow the Hurricanes into D.C. this week.
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Postgame Notebook/Quotebook
Road Killers -With their season quite literally on the line night in and night out, the Washington Capitals come home from a season-long six-game road trip with a 5-1 record. The Caps now carry a four-game winning streak into the final three games of the season, all of which will be played at Verizon Center.
Washington has won four straight road games, its longest road winning streak since it put together a five-game run from Feb. 14-Mar. 7, 2001.
Caps fans will be watching meaningful April hockey in the District for the first time in five years on Tuesday when the Carolina Hurricanes visit Verizon. The Canes lead the Southeast Division by two points, and the Caps can draw even in the race for the division title with a regulation victory on Tuesday.
Saturday's win in South Florida was Washington's 20th road win of the season, the team's most since it tied a team record in winning 22 games away from its former USAir Arena home in 1993-94. The Caps closed out the 2007-08 road portion of their schedule with a 20-16-5 record on the road.
20/40 - This season marks the sixth time in franchise history that the Caps have earned 20 or more road victories.
Saturday's win was the team's 40th of the season, marking the first time since 2000-01 and the 10th time in franchise history that the Caps have notched 40 or more wins.
Seeking a Five-Spot - For the third time this season, the Capitals have won four straight games. They'll try again to extend that streak to five straight on Tuesday when the Carolina Hurricanes come calling.
Stop us if you've heard this one before, but it has been more than seven years since the Caps have won as many as five straight games. That's the longest current drought between five-game winning streaks of any team in the NHL, and it's also the longest such drought in Washington's franchise history.
"We haven't gotten to the five yet," cautions Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. "That's Tuesday. Hopefully we can climb over that mountain. We've gotten to four three times now.
"These are things that start slowly. You get more consistent and more consistent, and I think the last 15 games we've been very consistent except for the Chicago game. Everything else we've been right there every time."
Surely You Jest - We've seen some curious three stars selections in our day, but Saturday's choices at the BankAtlantic Center were a bit baffling, to say the least.
When a guy (let's call him Cristobal Huet) makes 32 saves - including one on a shorthanded breakaway when the game was still 0-0 early in the second and 11 during the opposition's five power play chances - and pitches a shutout, it's generally accepted practice to anoint him the game's No. 1 star. And if for some reason you seem to think that all 32 shots came from like 80 feet away, then maybe you give him the second or third star.
Not on Saturday.
Mike Green (goal) was the third star, Viktor Kozlov (game-winning goal and primary assist) was the second star, and Alex Ovechkin (goal and assist) was numero uno. If it were up to us, we'd have tabbed Huet No. 1, Kozlov No. 2 and Tom Poti or Ovechkin as the third star.
Just sayin.'
Huet is Huge - Speaking of Huet, he has now won six straight starts, including five straight on the road. He has two shutouts since joining the Caps on Feb. 26, and has allowed just seven even-strength goals in his 10 starts with Washington.
In his 10 starts with the Capitals, Huet is now 8-2 with a 1.83 goals against average and a .931 save pct. Huet will undoubtedly be in goal on Tuesday against Carolina, and he'll be gunning for his seventh win in succession. Huet's current six-game streak matches his career high, established from Mar. 23-Apr. 4, 2006 when he was with the Montreal Canadiens.
The last time a Caps goaltender won seven straight starts was when Olie Kolzig did so from Mar. 11-28, 2000.
Huet's only losses were the back-to-back matinee setbacks to Boston and Pittsburgh, respectively, on Mar. 8-9. The loss to the Bruins was a 2-1 defeat in which the Caps got into severe and late penalty trouble and surrendered a pair of 5-on-3 goals late in the third period after nursing a 1-0 lead to that point.
The loss to Pittsburgh was a 4-2 setback in what was a tie game with 30 seconds left. Nicklas Backstrom inadvertently put one in his own net and the Pens added an empty-netter seconds later.
That's how close Huet is to being 10-0 with the Caps.
By the way, the franchise record winning streak by a goaltender is 10. Pat Riggin won 10 in a row from Jan. 27-Feb. 18, 1984.
Green Puts End to Blueline Blues - Green's goal was his first since Feb. 29 and the first by a Capitals defenseman this month. It was also his 18th of the season, the most by any Capitals blueliner since Sergei Gonchar netted 18 in 2002-03.
Poti added a pair of assists to give Washington blueliners 141 points (33 goals, 108 assists) on the season. That's the most points the Caps blueline corps has accounted for since the 2000-01 group racked up 146 (43 goals, 103 assists).
Home Cooking - Kozlov spent the majority of his NHL career with the Panthers and still maintains a home in South Florida. He had a terrific game against his old teammates, scoring the game's first goal (it proved to be the game-winner) and making a strong power move to the net in the third to draw the primary assist on Ovechkin's 62nd goal of the season.
Kozlov still ranks third all-time on the Panthers' franchise list in points (291) and fourth in assists (190).
He eclipsed the 50-point level (16 goals, 35 assists) with his performance on Saturday. He also pushed his plus/minus figure to plus-27, the best mark any Capital has had in a season since defenseman Sylvain Cote posted a plus-30 mark in 1993-94.
"He is plus-27 now," notes Boudreau. "You can't deny the way he plays both offensively and defensively. He has been a great acquisition. He is part of that big line, and they got two of the three goals again tonight."
The Other July 1 Acquisition - Not everyone was happy with the July 1 free agent signings of Kozlov and Poti, but both players have proven to be very prescient pick-ups for the Caps.
Kozlov has been a staple on the team's top line and Poti has been a revelation in his own end of the ice. He arrived in town with a reputation for being an offensive defenseman who was a bit suspect in his own end, but that has turned out to be an unfair portrayal.
Poti has 28 points (one goal, 27 assists), a plus-8 rating, and he has been a rock on the team's penalty killing unit. He was at the top of his game on Saturday night, constantly knocking pucks off sticks, taking away time and space and contributing to the attack.
With the Caps clinging to a 1-0 lead in the early portion of the second period, Washington was forced to kill four minutes of Florida power play time in a span of just 4:04. Shaone Morrisonn, another of the Caps' top penalty killing defensemen, was the second man to the box on those two power plays.
Poti spearheaded the two successful kills and helped Washington escape the game without surrendering a power play goal for the first time in seven games. Poti was on the ice for 3:16 of those four shorthanded minutes in the second frame.
"I thought he was excellent," says Boudreau. "Unbelievable. Good stick, under pressure, fabulous, all those things. He was very good."
Ovi Watch - Ovechkin ran his season totals to 62 goals, 47 assists and 109 points and pushed his defensive rating to plus-26 with his performance on Saturday. He finished March with 14 goals and 26 points, the best single-month goal and point totals of his career. Ovechkin had at least a point in 11 of Washington's 14 games this month and had nine multiple-point outings in March. Ovechkin was plus-17 in March.
Ovechkin fired four shots on goal against the Panthers, giving him 430 for the season. That's the second-most in a season in NHL history, just ahead of Paul Kariya's 429 in 1998-99 and behind only Phil Esposito's 550 in 1970-71. Ovechkin is the only NHL player in this decade to record more than 400 shots on goal in a season, and he has done it twice. Ovechkin leads his nearest pursuer by 92 shots; Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg has 338 shots on goal this season.
With 109 points, Ovechkin now leads Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin (103) by six points in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, given annually to the league's leading scorer. Ovechkin has three games remaining; Malkin has four.
Breathing Room - Discounting last Friday's game in Atlanta when Boyd Gordon's goal gave them a two-goal lead with less than 10 seconds remaining in the contest, Saturday's game in South Florida marked the first time since the first game of the road trip - Mar. 18 in Nashville - in which the Capitals led by more than a single goal.

Each of Washington's previous three victories in the current four-game streak required the Capitals to come from behind in order to claim the two points.
Patchwork Goal - When Kozlov scored the first goal of Saturday's game, he was on the ice with a pair of unfamiliar linemates, Brooks Laich and Matt Cooke. Laich spent the game playing with Tomas Fleischmann and Eric Fehr and Cooke normally skates with Alexander Semin and Sergei Fedorov.
The three forwards from three different lines had a great shift, working the puck around the wall and winning some battles down low until Laich was able to get the puck back to Kozlov in the high slot. He let the shot rip and Cooke was right in front of the cage, helping to cause a disturbance. The quilted line's goal was the game-winner on this night.
Shooting Gallery -Washington entered Saturday's game with an average of 30.6 shots per road game this season, the second best road average of any team in the NHL. The Capitals maintained that average with 32 shots on Florida goaltender Tomas Vokoun on Saturday.
Divisional Dealings - Saturday's win ran Washington's record against Southeast Division opponents to 15-11-4 on the season. Each of Washington's remaining three games is also against a Southeast foe. Since the lockout, no team with a losing record against its own division has earned a Stanley Cup playoff berth.
The Chase - The Capitals continued to apply pressure on the teams in front of them, but the Philadelphia Flyers continued their pattern of using late-game heroics to earn standings points. The Flyers fell behind the New York Islanders 2-0 and trailed 2-1 heading into the third period on Saturday night. But Mike Richards' goal at 15:38 of the third tied the game at 3-3 and Philly won it 4-3 in a shootout.
The Boston Bruins drubbed the reeling Ottawa Senators 4-0 to maintain their lead over Washington. The Caps got some help from the Tampa Bay Lightning, which edged Carolina by a 2-1 count.
On This Date in NHL History - Ex-Caps forward Steve Leach, brother of Caps assistant coach Jay Leach, scored his first NHL goal on this date in 1986. Leach's first NHL tally came against the Hartford Whalers.
Down on the Farm -The AHL's Hershey Bears were at home at Giant Center on Saturday, hosting the Hamilton Bulldogs in a rematch of the 2007 Calder Cup finals. The Bears prevailed, 5-2, with Chris Bourque scoring four goals and Daren Machesney making 31 saves.
After Hamilton jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Janne Lahti's first period goal, the Bears stormed back with four unanswered goals in a span of just 13:13. Chris Bourque tied the game late in the first, with help from Kyle Wilson and Josef Boumedienne. The goal was Bourque's 21st of the season.
Bears defenseman Grant McNeill gave Hershey a 2-1 lead at 2:53 of the middle period with the assists going to Shawn Collymore and Ryan Garlock. The goal was McNeill's first ever in the AHL, and it came in his 86th AHL contest. McNeill has eight goals in 175 career ECHL games and failed to score in his three-game NHL trial with Florida in 2003-04.
Bourque completed the hat trick by adding two more goals in a span of 46 seconds in the middle of the second period. Wilson, Patrick McNeill, Andrew Gordon and Boumedienne collected the assists on Bourque's second and third goals of the evening.
The Bulldogs scored in the third to pull within a pair, and then Bourque ended any drama with an empty-netter just before the buzzer. Machesney and Jay Beagle assisted on Bourque's fourth goal of the night and 24th of the season.
The Bears are now in fourth place in the AHL's East Division, nine points behind first place Philadelphia and four points ahead of fifth place Binghamton. Hershey trails third place Albany by five points. Hershey hosts the Manchester Monarchs at Giant Center on Sunday.
Down a level, the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays hosted the Columbia Inferno at North Charleston Arena on Saturday. The Rays jumped out to a 3-1 lead, only to fall behind 4-3 in the third period. But the Rays rallied and tied it on Matt Smith's goal with 18 seconds left in regulation.
A minute and 10 seconds into overtime, Travis Morin won it for South Carolina with his 34th goal of the season. Morin is sixth in the league in goals and tied for sixth in scoring.
Trent Campbell, Todd Griffith and Matt Scherer scored the other South Carolina goals. Defenseman Sean Collins had three assists, Campbell and Morin both had three points and Sasha Pokulok was a plus-4 on the night. Josh Johnson made 24 saves to earn his 22nd win of the season for the Stingrays.
South Carolina is tied for second place in the ECHL's South Division with the Gwinnett Gladiators.
POSTGAME QUOTEBOOK
Caps head coach Boudreau:
On watching the end of the Flyers-Islanders game before the press conference:
"Well it's overtime with the Islanders and Philly and the Islanders have had two 4-on-3s in overtime and they can't get a shot on net. I'm a little mad at their power play."
On his team playing better when they're desperate:
"We knew we couldn't afford to lose with Boston winning this afternoon. I thought our defense and goaltender played extremely well.
On whether he worries that the team will let Huet take care of things because he is on such a roll:
"I don't think so. I think we all play for each other. He had to make some dazzling saves but at the same time I thought we were all constantly on the bench talking about, 'Get back, get back, third man high,' and doing the right things. There was never a question in my mind that the players were saying, 'Let's just go for it and let Cris make the saves.'
On being outside the playoff picture despite a 5-1 road trip:
"I'd believe anything. But I know if we keep winning something good is going to happen. We can only do what we can do. If it takes 95 points to make the playoffs, so be it. But I believe if we continue to play like we play, somebody is going to falter once. And we'll be there to jump on them."
On the teams ahead of the Caps feeling pressure because Washington keeps winning:
"You ever seen 'Butch Cassidy and [the Sundance Kid?]' They're up there going, 'Who are those guys?' That's what I was thinking on the bench. That's what they're saying, and hopefully they continue to say it."
Caps defenseman Green:
On his first goal since Feb. 29:
"Thanks for reminding me. I'm shooting the puck; they just weren't going in. Alex made a great play to set me up in front of the net. I've got to give the credit to him."
On having a 5-1 road trip and still being on the outside looking in as far as a playoff spot:
"That just goes to show the character of the teams hunting down a playoff spot, and we're one of them. As long as we keep winning, we'll be in a spot where we want to be and if not, that's pretty sad."
On Huet:
"He plays so consistent. You know exactly where he is going to be and where the puck is going after he stops it. It always helps as a defenseman. It's been a treat having him."
Caps goaltender Huet:
On the game:
"They're a team that shoots the puck a lot and tries to create something on the power play and 5-on-5, but we did a good job of keeping them to the outside. We were lucky; [they hit] a post in the first. But overall we played a good game."
On the playoff race:
"We just have to do our job. We can't control what they do. We think about the next game right now, and that's all we can look at. That's working right now, and we're a pretty confident group. We're going to keep working."
On the back-to-back penalty kills in the second period:
"That was big. Like I said before, it's good to see our PK not getting scored on. They've been blocking shots and working so hard all this road trip. It's fun to see them getting the job done in a game where special teams are very important. They didn't have much 5-on-5 so we knew we had to step up on the PK."
On coming home after a long road trip:
"It was very challenging to go six straight, and we were 5-1 so we're very happy. We have a couple days to charge the batteries. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy to play at home, but we look forward to the next game, to get some rest and go."
On the breakaway save he made on Florida's Jozef Stumpel while the Panthers were shorthanded and the game was 0-0:
"We were on the power play and it was Stumpel. He's a good breakaway guy and he has scored on me on the power play. I challenge him a lot and tried to make him deke, but he shot it and I was fortunate enough to have it get a piece of my glove."