Never doubt Braden Holtby and other things we learned from Blue Jackets, Capitals series

The Washington Capitals eliminated the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday in their first round series. They will now head back home and await the second round against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Let’s see what we learned so far.

The Washington Capitals might need a mop after this entire matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets, namely to clean up the sweat they had to be pouring by going down two games to start. Alas, they went on to win the next four in what turned into a pretty thrilling series. Mostly for the fact that four of the six games went into overtime. We love overtime.

What, though, do we gather with all now said and done? Dig in below for three lessons we learned from this series, and what it might mean in the future.

Three Things We Learned

1: Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella is an awful prognosticator.

That ‘s Torts after his team’s Game 5 loss, guaranteeing that they would be seeing a Game 7. Unfortunately, Game 7 will only exist for them in NHL ’18. Maybe it hurt Columbus that its coach added pressure in that way, maybe it didn’t matter. The Blue Jackets slowly lost their grip on this series after Game 3, one in which they could have landed a knockout blow in overtime.

We aren’t the best at predictions or guarantees, that’s for sure. But we have a feeling Tortorella should have simply let it ride without comment after Saturday’s loss.

It may not have had much of an impact on his own team, but it certainly gave more life to Washington.

2. Braden Holtby should have been starting all along.

Capitals head coach Barry Trotz probably did the smart thing to begin this series. He started goaltender Philipp Grubauer, the hot hand, over stud Braden Holtby, who wasn’t great at all down the stretch. It didn’t work out, as Washington lost the first two and Grubauer was awful. That could have been costly, and if Washington had lost this series, it would have definitely been questioned. In all, Grubauer gave up eight goals on only 49 shots.

Holtby came in and promptly reminded Trotz and Caps fans why he should’ve been in there all along. He allowed only 10 goals in five games, winning four including the clincher. This series is going to affirm Holtby’s status as an elite goaltender come playoff time, and he probably shouldn’t be sat again in favor of a “hot hand.” His numbers now through 64 career playoff contests are great. Goals against average right around 2.00, save percentage of just over .930.

He simply needs more help in the second round. Which leads us to…

3. The Capitals get a chance, yet again, to remove the monkey off their backs.

Not only has Washington never advanced beyond Round 2 in Alex Ovechkin’s tenure (staggering), but it;s lost back to back years in the second round to Pittsburgh. Guess who’s up next? The Penguins are going to come into this series vying to keep their three-peat hopes alive, while Washington badly wants to rid themselves of this stain they carry every year. If Holtby plays the way he did against Columbus, they have a shot.

They will need more from Ovechkin, though. He tallied eight points in the six games, which is great, but is it enough? The Penguins offer incredible scoring depth, and if Washington is to move on, they will need a lot more from #8. He’s going to need to match Sidney Crosby, at least, to get his team out of this years-long rut.

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