Three Players That The Capitals Need To Perform Well In The Playoffs
By CJ Witt
Braden Holtby
How many times has a bad goaltending performance killed a playoff run? Probably way more times than most of us can count. Luckily for the Capitals, they have not had to worry about that very often at all with Holtby between the pipes.
Holtby’s career playoff numbers are 48 wins and 41 losses. His goals against average is a very good 2.09 and his save percentage is at .928%. Some very, very good numbers from Mr. Holtby.
Holtby is similar Ovechkin and Backstrom. He’s a key player who the team does not have to worry about come spring (or whenever this years playoff starts) time. The only time I can honestly remember him struggling was during the 2017 playoffs vs the Penguins. I just remember him not being at the top of his game during that series in particular. Last year vs the Hurricanes he was good, but he got out played by Petr Mrazek.
Those two “down” years, he posted a 2.47 GAA and a 2.67. Other than those two years, his highest GAA was 2.22 in 2013. He’s had three playoffs with an average of under two goals a game. Pretty good!
Goaltending can make or break playoff runs. Holtby is a pretty steady hand back there and if the Caps want to make another deep run they will need him to be great once more. The backup goalie this time around is also a rookie in Ilya Samsonov. It’s not to say a rookie goaltender can’t guide a team to the Cup. It’s happened before, and Samsonov has shown he has the capabilities to be a great goaltender in the future. Still, it’s not ideal to stick a rookie in the net at the most important time of the year.
If every team had a list like this, I’m fairly certain the goaltender will show up on said list. This ones no different. The Capitals need Holtby to be at the top of his game to win their second Stanley Cup.