Coaching With the Courage of His Convictions

As he met with reporters on the morning of his first game as an NHL playoff coach, Bruce Boudreau wore jeans and a golf shirt, in no mood to compromise. After engineering the greatest regular season comeback in modern hockey history following his 15 years of toil in the minors, Boudreau was bound to his convictions.

Yes, the rookie playoff coach would continue to roll four lines and utilize his depth, rather than shorten his bench or foist too much responsibility upon fellow playoff novice Alex Ovechkin, the game's greatest talent. Yes, Boudreau would continue to espouse a go-get-'em style in an era of trapping hockey, even with the stakes higher than ever. The Capitals have adopted a free-spirited, attacking ethos, and after a 37-17-7 tear to win the Southeast Division, Boudreau, 53, would demand the same.

"We're going to play like we've been playing," he said calmly yet firmly. "No trepidation."

Even in the face of a two-goal third-period deficit, the coach and his ever-believing charges remained confident, and they responded with a comeback befitting the amazing stretch it took to even reach the postseason. Budding star defenseman Mike Green produced two late goals to tie the score at 4, and Ovechkin's audacious display of ingenuity and talent put the Flyers away, 5-4, in Game 1 of their first-round series at Verizon Center last night.

Ovechkin anticipated Philadelphia defenseman Lasse Kukkonen's lazy pass with less than five minutes to play, stripped defenseman Jaroslav Modry, beat Kukkonen again, waited for goalie Martin Biron to sprawl, then deposited the puck for his first career playoff goal. It was a night of delicious firsts all around for this franchise, back in the postseason after five dreary years of rebuilding. All of which Boudreau took in his customary aw-shucks stride.

"Yeah, it was pretty cool," said Boudreau, who had roughly 30 friends and family members in attendance.

Boudreau, who rode an 11-1 march into the playoffs, could not have scripted a better start than to have tough guy Donald Brashear stake a lead just three-odd minutes in by merely going to the net, same as in Pee Wee hockey.

Philadelphia's first-period equalizer was purely workmanlike as well, again the result of a truism, with the importance of winning faceoffs looming large, with Daniel Brière beating Brooks Laich cleanly to trigger the play. Vaclav Prospal waffled a shot of relatively harmless intent and Scott Hartnell screened smallish goalie Cristobal Huet. (The Flyers, always eager to crash the net, will undoubtedly attempt to make Huet's size an issue as the series rolls on.)

Again, the fourth line lifted Washington. A simple dump-and-chase drew two Flyers to Matt Bradley by the boards, and he fed Dave Steckel alone in the slot. Steckel fired high to the glove side, exposing Biron's vulnerability. (One NHL general manager suggested privately prior to the start of the series that he foresaw Biron being replaced at some point in the first round.)

"He's really trusting us," Brashear said of the relation between Boudreau and the fourth line. "And he's been trusting us all year."

But the Capitals then failed to corral Brière as he darted from the penalty box midway through the second period, and Huet was beaten to his stick side.

The score remained tied at 2 for just 33 seconds. Boudreau sent his fourth-liners to center ice for the faceoff, looking for a high-energy shift to uplift the club, but instead the Capitals were far too passive defensively, leaving Prospal alone in the slot; Huet was felled once again to the stick side.