Jose Theodore made 28 saves as the Caps beat Boston last night, 3-2.With a 3-2 overtime victory on Monday night against the Boston Bruins, the Washington Capitals notched their 52nd win of the season and added even more points to their already-clinched Presidents’ Trophy haul. For the Caps, the road to the Stanley Cup is now paved with advantages as the league’s number one seed. But Washington also has a chance to make the playoff stretch miserable for currently seventh-seeded Boston and the in-contention Atlanta Thrashers, each of whom have to come to Verizon Center during the final week of the regular season.
The remaining schedule got us to wondering: is playing playoff spoiler actually motivating the Caps during this final stretch of games? Caps defenseman Tyler Sloan seems to think so, since the Caps’ final three games are all against teams they could eventually see in the playoffs.
“For sure,” Sloan said of being motivated by playing spoiler — though he used the term in context of beating an opponent, not necessarily keeping them out of the playoffs. “[Head coach] Bruce [Boudreau] always says you never want to let a team think that they can beat you.”
Sloan was candid about the challenge of staying motivated at this point in the season.
“We’ve still got a lot to play for, but it’s a tough time,” Sloan said. “Everybody’s anxious to get into the playoffs. We’re just trying to make sure all facets of our game are hitting top gear when we get into the playoffs. It’s really tough, you’ve got to really focus and concentrate this time of year.”
Nicklas Backstrom, who scored the Caps’ first goal on Monday off a pass from Alexander Ovechkin, wasn’t really buying the spoiler mindset and implied the team was taking a more introspective approach.
“I think more we motivate ourselves like, we want to be the best, and we want to win every game,” Backstrom said. “Especially now, we’re focused on playing good defensively.”
