WASHINGTON — Michal Neuvirth was a Buffalo Sabre for most of last season and it was one of the busiest times in his hockey career.
He faced on average 37 shots per game in a Buffalo uniform, including 52 one night in November against Edmonton. During a 12-day stretch in February 2015, Neuvirth played seven games and faced 278 shots, just a shade under 40 per match for the tanking Sabres.
Survive that, and you can easily survive a do-or-die playoff game against the team that drafted you on a weirdly one-sided night where they took 82 shot attempts to only 27 for your team. Neuvirth stopped all 44 attempts that actually hit the net.
“When I was in Buffalo last year I faced a lot of shots,” said the 28-year-old goaltender after his perfection stole a 2-0 victory for the Philadelphia Flyers from the Washington Capitals in Game 5 on Friday night.
“I like a lot of shots.”
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So, Caps fans, blame the Sabres for preparing Neuvirth for what he’s done in the past two games, stopping 75 of 76 shots and making this, quite suddenly and quite shockingly, an intriguing and competitive Stanley Cup opening round series.
After Washington triumphed 6-1 in Game 3 to jump ahead in the series 3-0, it seemed over. But then the Caps came out in lackadaisical fashion for Game 4, behaving as though the rest of the series would be gift-wrapped for them.
Instead, with Flyer coach Dave Hakstol replacing starter Steve Mason with Neuvirth, they lost that one by a 2-1 score, and then got shut out Friday despite outplaying the Flyers by an overwhelming margin on a seemingly tilted rink. The win forced the series back to Philly for Game 6 at Noon on Sunday.
The Flyers managed only 11 shots in Game 5 — the lowest total for regular season or playoff play in Philadelphia’s 49-year team history. Neuvirth’s 44 stops were a franchise playoff record.
“I always talk about the hockey gods and people think I’m crazy,” said Washington coach Barry Trotz. “But in Game 4, I didn’t think we played hard enough. And we’re learning that’s a resilient team on the other side.”
The Caps haven’t won since veteran defenceman Brooks Orpik was lost in Game 3 to a suspected concussion. Trotz, meanwhile, said his team needs more from its top two centres, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov. After an outstanding 77-point regular season, Kuznetsov has one point in the series and has been rather quiet for the most part.
By winning Games 4 and 5, the Flyers have also managed to get the ghosts of Washington playoff failures past to stir a little bit. These kinds of playoff speed wobbles have happened over and over for the Caps during the Alex Ovechkin era despite his individual brilliance, and even last year they led the Rangers 3-1 in a series and let that one slip away.
After losing to the Flyers on Friday in a game in which Philly essentially declined to attack for most of the game, well, it’s natural that the topic of Washington’s inability to close out playoff series will resurface.
“I don’t think this team has any playoff history,” maintained Caps defenceman Karl Alzner, who has been around for most of the spring disappointments. “These are our first playoffs together.”
That’s got to be the Washington team mantra, that and the fact they actually played very, very well in Game 6, but didn’t get the result.
“We play like that next game, we should be fine,” said Trotz.
The Flyers played on their heels all night except for around their own net. Neuvirth calmly controlled rebounds, while his teammates shielded Caps forwards away from any loose pucks and blocked shots like crazy, 19 of them in all.
“We played hard in front of our net,” said Flyers captain Claude Giroux, who is still without a goal in the series.
Neuvirth was a second round pick of the Caps in 2006 and a member of the Washington organization until he was traded to the Sabres in 2014. He and Caps starter Braden Holtby essentially battled for a job, and Holtby won out.
“I know they know me, and I know them,” said Neuvirth,. “So I think it’s even.”
Since being totally undisciplined in that ugly Game 3 loss, the Flyers have played with improved composure, while on Friday night the Capitals gave the Flyers six power plays, all of them on dumb penalties, including eight minutes taken by Justin (Mr. Game 7) Williams.
Trotz said the penalties taken by his team were “crazy,” although he praised T.J. Oshie for inviting Flyer forward Brayden Schenn to fight with the game only 10 seconds old, apparently as retribution for Schenn’s cheap crosscheck to Kuznetsov’s knee in Game 4.
“Obviously he and Schenn had a date,” quipped Trotz. “But look, in our dressing room, there’s a lot of honor when a guy steps up for somebody else.”
That fight didn’t really seem to give either team momentum, but it solidified Schenn’s reputation as the Flyer who is getting under Washington’s skin the most.
“He’s playing hard, meeting everything head on,” said Hakstol.
The only goal the Flyers actually needed was credited to grinding winger Ryan White at 7:52 of the second period, and was essentially a power-play goal since Williams had just stepped out of the box after being penalized for high-sticking.
White tried to pass the puck across the top of the crease, but it hit the skate of Washington defenceman Taylor Chorney and bounced behind Holtby. It was then rope-a-dope for the rest of the night, with the Flyers only getting three more shots until Chris Vande Velde guided the insurance goal into an empty net with 31 seconds left.
“Well, we outshot them in Game 2 (42-23) and lost,” said Flyers winger Jakob Voracek. “I’d rather have five shots and win a game.”
Voracek knows Neuvirth well, and helped convince him to sign with the Flyers as an unrestricted free agent last summer.
“He’s always calm in the net. That’s just the way he is,” said Voracek. “I’ve known him for 15 years and I haven’t seen him mad once.”
Now it’s the Caps who have to regain their composure and silence those who want to bring up past playoff flops. This one, of course, would be the biggest one yet. It seems unthinkable, but Neuvirth and the Flyers are making everyone think about it.
