Marvin Cohen of Waldorf, Md., didn’t even wait until the end of the question. “Nervous!” he blurted.
The question to the Washington Capitals fan, rocking a red team jacket, after he and about 100 others had watched the best regular-season team in the NHL practice last week? “How do you feel going into the playoffs?”
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Cohen isn’t alone, not among the fans at the suburban Virginia practice facility, or anywhere else in the metropolitan area with memories beyond this Presidents' Trophy-winning season. Every spring, whether they coast to one of the top seeds or claw their way in at the end, the angst among Caps followers never wanes.
Even with the rabid following of the city’s NFL team, and the recent teases by the baseball team, the Caps have cornered the market on frustrating, agonizing, heart-wrenching, inexplicable playoff losses.
To ask the Caps faithful to go all-in with no fear or dread is asking a lot. To watch the Caps at playoff time is to hold your breath longer than an Olympic swimmer. Exhaling is a luxury. Even a 3-0 start to their series against the eighth-seeded Flyers (the Caps failed to complete the sweep Wednesday night, losing 2-1 in Game 4) isn’t quite enough to earn it yet.
Logic dictates that this year’s team is heartbreak proof. They were far and away the best in the NHL this year; Alex Ovechkin was more brilliant than usual, if that’s possible, and no goalie has claimed more victories in an NHL season than Braden Holtby. The additions and subtractions have all clicked in their favor.
Facts, of course, say that Caps fans have heard that before — in 2010, when they won the Presidents' Trophy under Bruce Boudreau, yet managed to lose in seven to the Canadiens in the first round, blowing a 3-1 series lead in the process. Just in case anyone in the nation’s capital had forgotten.
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The franchise already had playoff baggage, and a pretty ugly leaguewide reputation, dating to the 1980s. After the 2010 fade, the baggage was then dragged forward through more grotesque playoff losses, and now multiple coaching, front-office and roster shakeups.
Which brings us to today and the “nervous” fan base.
“I get down on them myself. I think everybody does, it’s our nature,’’ said Cohen, who attended practice with his wife, their son and three of their grandsons. “But as long as they’re playing well, that’s OK. It’s when they have those godawful mental-lapse games, not even showing up mentally — I blow up, I lose it.’’
It’s too familiar a feeling, and too recent.
The Caps themselves show no signs of nerves. Not Ovechkin, the center of their universe, nor their fourth coach in five years, Barry Trotz. Ovechkin is one of just six players left from the 2010 disaster.
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As the opening-round series against the Flyers approached, Trotz was full of energy, confidence and faith in what he’s worked with this season and what he’s seen.
And he was cognizant of, at least, what transpired in his Caps playoff debut last year, a second-round loss to the Rangers. The Caps led that series 3-1 and were 101 seconds away from clinching the series in Game 5.
It was the fifth time they’d coughed up a 3-1 series lead … more than one-fifth of the 24 times it’s happened in NHL history.
This team, Trotz noted, is “a group that learned a lot last year from a very very tough first series (against, again, the Islanders) and a rollercoaster in the second series and ultimately having some disappointment, losing in OT in Game 7. So there was some pain and hurt.
“And I think guys recognize how special it is to play in the playoffs. It’s not a right to be in the playoffs. You have to earn your way in, and once you're in there, you have to earn every inch that you get out there.’’
And Trotz said that while describing two of the critical additions to this year’s team: Justin Williams in the offseason and Mike Richards at midseason, teammates on two Cup winners in LA.
It was two more pieces of meltdown insurance for a franchise that always needs it. It’s a topic that can be ignored or sidestepped, but never completely dismissed.
“Mentally, I think we’re more ready to take a big step than we were last year,’’ Ovechkin said. “Last year was the coaching staff changes, all the other things. Now we’re all settled, we know what we have to do.’’
Jason Chimera, one of the six still around from the last Presidents’ Trophy team, added: “You can’t even look at the records during the regular season. They mean crap, they mean nothing. You see 8-seeds beat 1-seeds, you see 1-seeds destroy 8-seeds.
“Expectations and all that stuff go out the window when playoffs start,’’ he added. “Everything is new.’’
Until it’s the same-old same-old.
No wonder the fan base is nervous.