Caps confident
Washington still believes it can win Cup
Posted: Wednesday June 10, 1998 06:45 PM
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Osgood made 16 saves to give the Red Wings a 1-0 series lead (AP) |
DETROIT (AP) -- This time, Ron Wilson didn't make a motivational
speech about the first moon landing or quote some inspirational line to the
Washington Capitals.
There was no need. The Capitals came out of Game 1
confident despite losing 2-1 to the Detroit Red Wings on
Tuesday night. Take out a couple of first-period breakdowns and
Washington held its own with the heavily favored defending champions. The
Capitals even had the better of play in the third period, but Red Wings
goaltender Chris
Osgood prevented a tie with a handful of good saves. The
question is can Washington carry the momentum to Game 2 on Thursday night
at the Joe Louis Arena? "I don't know if our thoughts on the
series have changed," Capitals goaltender Olaf Kolzig said
Wednesday, less than 12 hours after an outstanding 29-save performance.
"We knew we were going to give a good fight," he said, "Other
than a few mistakes I thought we played stride for stride with them, so I
know our team has a lot of confidence that we can play with this hockey
team and that we have a chance of beating them." Of course, the
Red Wings had their own way of looking at Game 1. They never trailed after
goals by Joe Kocur and Nicklas Lidstrom
and they limited Washington to 17 shots. "The outcome of last
night's game was not going to dictate the way the series was going to go,"
Red Wings center Steve Yzerman said
after a short skate Wednesday. "I believe one game to the next, things
always don't carry over, so you can't take too much out of one game, good
or bad. You just play the game, analyze it and make some adjustments."
One adjustment the Capitals will want to make concerns the Red
Wings' third and fourth lines, which were on the ice when Detroit scored.
"For us, it seems we gave those goals away," Capitals forward Joe Juneau said. "It
wasn't the big names scoring. It was still good plays and on the second
goal [Lidstrom] they cycled well and we left a guy open at the point. We
have to make sure we don't make mistakes like that." Red Wings
coach Scotty Bowman wants to do a better job matching his lines on
Thursday. It should be interesting to see what he does with Yzerman on the
ice. Washington had Dale Hunter on the
ice against Yzerman and the long-time tough guy shoved Yzerman's face into
the ice right in front of the Capitals net late in the second period.
"It's not something I want to make a big deal out of because
it's not," Yzerman said. "I know how he's going to play. He's doing his
job. You just have to play and accept a lot of the stuff and turn the other
cheek. You'd hope the referee would make some calls, but it's not that
severe a thing." Hunter also downplayed the matter.
"Just playing hockey," he said. That's the kind of emotional
play Wilson wants and he usually has gotten that in the playoffs following
his speeches. In the Eastern Conference final clincher against Buffalo, he
likened advancing to the final to setting foot on the moon.
Juneau played the part of Neil Armstrong in that series, scoring the
game-winner. For Game 2, a speech won't be necessary. Game 1
convinced the Capitals they can win the Cup. "We don't care what
other people think, we care what we believe in this room, and that's we can
beat this team if we play hard," Capitals forward Chris Simon said.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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