from Katie Carrera of the Washington Post,

The Capitals are quite familiar with the agony-inducing, pressure-packed contests that are a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Winner-take-all nailbiters where every shift and every mistake are magnified because at the end, one team’s season will come to a screeching halt.

Five of six contests in this series have been decided by one goal and two have gone to overtime, so it’s not all that surprising that the Capitals and Rangers would need Game 7 to determine a winner of this Eastern Conference quarterfinal.

“I kind of thought that right from the beginning of the series that it was going to be a long one,” Karl Alzner said. “The fact that we went up 2-0, I thought that was great, but I knew that wasn’t the case. Game 7 against this team is kind of normal now, so we’re ready for it.”

Of the nine playoff series in the Ovechkin era (dating back to 2008), seven have gone the distance, including this matchup against the Rangers. Washington is 2-4 in Game 7s in that same span and 1-3 when that decisive contest occurs at Verizon Center.

continued