There is no such thing as an easy playoff series. Some series may last longer than others, but it doesn't mean it was easy. At the least it's four games in a tough, physical sport.
Are the Caps just simply surviving?
When you're a top team with Stanley Cup ambitions sometimes you have to fight off some unexpected challenges, or challengers. It's not surprising when two great teams face each other and one team finds themselves in a challenge. That is kind of the point of the playoffs.
Look at a matchup last year in the first round, Dallas vs Vegas. Two great teams, two teams that had Cup aspirations, one went home. It's unfortunate, but it's the way the playoffs are set up these days. If you find yourself in a dog fight in a series like that it is acceptable by fans.
Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation like the Washington Capitals may be in this season. Potentially, in survival mode, vs a clearly inferior team. It happens. You play a team that doesn't have the pressure on them. They know they are the underdogs, just go give the better team hell kind of a mindset. And that better team just hasn't risen their game quite yet. You'll see this every so often.
Washington is obviously the better team in this series. But since Game 1 Montreal has at the very least looked like they are on par with the Capitals, if not a little better.
In Game 1 Washington came out with their hair on fire. Playing very fast, very physcial and eventually going up 2-0 in that game. Montreal would make it 2-1 midway through the third. When Montreal scored to make it 2-1 the Caps were leading in shot attempts by +12. The Habs would tie the game and send it to overtime. By the end of overtime the Caps were -8 in shot attempts.
In the span of about twelve or so minutes the Caps were out attempted by 20. In one sense it's not that shocking. The team that is losing late will usually get a boost and out attempt the team that's winning. But that is a large number in a short amount of time.
The Canadiens have followed that up by winning the shot attempts battle in the next two games as well. That resulting in the Capitals being the third worst team in the playoffs in the shot attempts percentage category at 43.41%.
Montreal has clearly looked like they are up for this challenge.
As bad as this sounds for a team like the Capitals, it really isn't so bad. The scoring chances are dead even right now at 74, and the Caps lead in high danger attempts 34-28. And, oh yeah, Washington is up 2-1 in the series.
As much as a territorial advantage the Canadiens have had and simply as good as they have looked Washington has been right there. The survived Game 1 and they fought off another comeback in Game 2.
Game 3 got a little out of hand for Washington. At the end of the game the shot attempts were 64-36, chances were 29-19 and high danger attempts were 13-8, all for Montreal obviously. But even as one sided as this game looked on the ice and in the stats, this game was tied in the third period at one point.
Meaning, even when Montreal plays very well, and the Capitals are not up to their standards (yet) the Caps are still right there, and are up in the series overall.
The reason this could be a "survival mode" situation is because the Caps are clearly not playing their best and are getting a very good challenge from a team clearly well behind them. I have to imagine most people thought this would be a quicker series with Washington simply overpowering the Canadiens. That hasn't happened to this point.
At the same time the Capitals are not playing very well yet. So, just survive. Get past Montreal any way you can. They're still up 2-1 in the series, even after an ugly game 3 loss. Playing the way they are the Caps should still be able to fend off the Canadiens.
Obviously we all want to see improvement from Washington. If they do improve this could get "easy" for the Caps. But the way things are right now, what these two teams have shown us up to this point, the Capitals simply need to survive.
Us as fans and commentators can worry about the way the Caps are playing later. Worry about injuries later, like the one we saw to Thompson in Game 3. Charlie Lindgren is fine, he should be able to help fight off the Canadiens challenge.
Right now, just get past the Canadiens any way you can. It might not be as pretty as you and I think many might have thought. But the Capitals should be able to do it regardless.