Capitals 3, Flyers 4 (OT)

For the first time this season, the Capitals lost a must-win game, and in heartbreaking fashion too. Allowing Mike Knuble the time and space to get two good whacks at the puck in the second overtime session cost the Caps the game and will send them home down 3-1 in their first playoff series in five years.

It wouldn’t necessarily be unfair for Capitals supporters to question some of the officiating during last night’s game (and after this season the league should definitely run a clinic for its officials on “goaltender interference” and when setting a moving pick is supposed to be a penalty these days), the Capitals have by and large shot themselves in the foot in this series, going the better part of the first three games with nothing in the way of clearing their crease, crashing the Philadelphia net, or consistent forechecking, all while trying to do too much with the puck. The good news is that the Capitals seem to have corrected these problems. The bad news is, of course, that they’re now down 3-1 in this series.

Do the Capitals have one more great comeback left in them? Should they even have hope of winning this series? History, statistics, the series to this point and perhaps even common sense say ‘no’. But if there’s any team, in any year, that can do it, it’s this team, this year. The most important thing for the Capitals to remember at this point is that they can only make up one game at a time. The focus needs to be on wining in front of their home crowd on Saturday afternoon and trying to garner some momentum. If they can do that, well….hey, you never know.