#11 Jason Chimera comeback against Rangers 2011
Everyone remembers where they were for certain games or moments in sports. While the Capitals and New York Rangers were battling it out in Game 4 on 4/20/11 at Madison Square Garden I was across the Hudson River visiting family in New Jersey. I was only able to watch on TV but did attend Game 2 of that series in D.C. It was spring break of my senior year of high school.
At that time I was at the top and bottom of the sports world experiencing the joy and triumph of victory and the pain of defeat. The joy and triumph? Back to back state basketball titles. We all know what the defeat was. It was that first round exit to the Montreal Canadiens the year before.
This was a game that it looked like the Rangers would dominate to the delight of their fans who chanted “Can you hear us?” at Bruce Boudreau and the Caps after their bench boss said Verizon Center was louder (it is).
The Rangers would go up 3-0 in the second period heading into the third. When they scored two straight goals seven seconds apart I was at my grandma’s house and I don’t think she ever heard me cuss so much.
In the third period the Caps answered with three unanswered goals. It was started by Alexander Semin while Marcus Johansson scored twice. The game would require overtime and then double overtime.
The beauty of this goal was Jason Chimera following the shot after Henrik Lundqvist was unable to keep it between his pads. It put the Caps up three games to one and unlike the previous year, the Caps slammed the series shut in Game 5. They would then get swept by the Tampa Bay Lighting.