The Boston Bruins could wait. If you were anybody in the Washington Capitals organization, you were enjoying a glorious Saturday afternoon, savoring a victory that for so long had been close enough to touch but not close enough to grab.

"It did take a while to sink in," Capitals owner Abe Pollin said yesterday. "After all the 16 years of frustration of not being able to achieve something and finally to do it is a great feeling."

In years past the Capitals often have had free weekends in late April. But with their 2-1 overtime defeat of the New York Rangers Friday night, they won the Patrick Division final series and earned two days of rest before getting ready to play Boston in the Prince of Wales Conference finals. It wasn't a complete day of rest. Coach Terry Murray and General Manager David Poile were in Baltimore watching the Skipjacks get eliminated by Rochester in the American Hockey League playoffs.

The best-of-seven series against the Bruins begins Thursday night in Boston. Like the Capitals, the Bruins won their series four games to one, with the clincher a 3-1 victory Friday night over Montreal.

The Bruins had the best regular season record so they will have home-ice advantage for as long as they stay in the playoffs. Thus, the Capitals will be at home for Games 3 and 4 (May 7 and 9) and Game 6 (May 13), if it is necessary.

The Capitals have made the playoffs the last eight seasons (most of any Patrick Division team), but never had advanced beyond the division until now. After a season of mediocrity, they are playing their best hockey. They are 9-3 this month and the four consecutive wins over the Rangers ties their longest winning streak of the season.

"Wasn't that sweet?" Dino Ciccarelli said after the game. "My leg's feeling better already."

Ciccarelli's sprained knee is just one of the injuries that have depleted the roster. There might be a chance that Ciccarelli, who was injured a week ago today while trying to check the Rangers Kris King, could be back for the tail end of the Bruins series.

King was directly responsible for injuring defenseman Kevin Hatcher in the second period Friday night. As Hatcher was carrying the puck up ice, King took several strides at him and stuck out his leg. Hatcher's left knee twisted in a nasty way. A team physician examined him after the game and there will be another examination Monday. Hatcher was using crutches yesterday, so his availability for the start of the series is uncertain at best. Poile said the injury could as serious as the one that has Ciccarelli sidelined.

"It's a little stiff," Hatcher said. "I've been icing it all day and staying off of it. It didn't swell that much."

Hatcher saw King coming and then saw a replay of the hit.

"It looked like he stuck his knee out a bit but I had a step on him," Hatcher said. "I really hope he didn't {do it on purpose}. Whether it's dirty or not, he caught me with his knee."

The Capitals also were without goalie Don Beaupre, who pulled a groin muscle in Game 3, and Michal Pivonka, who had a kidney stone removed Thursday.

"At the time {Hatcher} went down, there was a little sigh on the bench," Mike Ridley said. "He was a big player going down for us. With all the parts we have, we don't want to be missing too many. At the time there was some worry, but everybody pulled together and made up for it."

Pivonka, one of the Capitals penalty-killing forwards, still was in pain yesterday. The last of the tubes used to remove the stone from the urinary tract was taken out Friday.

"They say it can hurt for a couple days," Pivonka said. "I couldn't even go {to New York to watch the game} because I was lying here on the couch. It was a great game and it's a great feeling for everyone on the team. We have a big chance to do something."

They will have a better chance of doing something with Beaupre healthy. He skated Thursday and the extra time between games will help him recover.

The goaltending combination of Beaupre and Mike Liut has produced wonderful results: Beaupre won the last three games of the New Jersey series; Liut was the loser in Game 1 against the Rangers, but has been superb since Beaupre was injured early in Game 3.

Friday night he stopped Paul Broten on two breakaways and made a slew of other great stops. He also had some luck on his side. In overtime he made a save on John Ogrodnick, but the puck "spun up my arm," Liut said. "I was just trying not to knock it in the net." He didn't, and the Capitals went on to win.

"I felt strongly, as did David Poile and {team president} Dick Patrick, that as the year was winding down that we needed to have some help in goal," Pollin said. "We had to go in with two strong goaltenders. That's been one of our Achilles' heels through the years -- poor goaltending in the playoffs. David pulled off a coup in getting Mike Liut. One of the other things that happened was that some of the players you always expect to come forward have come forward. Plus, there was a great surprise in a guy like John Druce. If you wrote the script like that, you wouldn't believe it."

The Rangers certainly would not have believed Druce would score nine goals against them to raise his playoff total to 12. His deflection of Geoff Courtnall's pass 6:48 into overtime won the deciding game.

"The story of the series was John Druce," Rangers Coach Roger Neilson said. "Here's a guy who is a checker. He's not a scorer. He has never been a scorer. Every time he stuck his stick out, the puck went in. It was an unbelievable series for him."

The Capitals have had a tough season. It began with a trip to Sweden and the Soviet Union. In late December they won four games in a row to grab a share of first place. But during that streak defenseman Rod Langway injured his right knee and had arthroscopic surgery on both, and defenseman Scott Stevens broke his foot. Eight losses later, Bryan Murray was fired after eight years as coach. The team struggled until this month and made the playoffs only four days from the end of the season.

"There is a range of emotions," Pollin said. "Starting with the trip to the Soviet Union, which was a fantastic experience for the team, my family and me. I told the guys at the beginning of the year when I met with them and whenever I've met with them that I believed that these guys were the best team I've ever had -- the combination of youth and experience.

"Obviously, there were times of disappointment when they were not winning and times of real happiness when they were. Normally through the years the Capitals always had winning streaks of six or seven games. But I never lost faith in what I believed and what I believed was that this was the best team we ever had."

None has gone further. None has had a chance to do more.