WASHINGTON — Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau did his cagey best to avoid saying whether he plans to bench Jose Theodore for rookie Simeon Varlamov in Game 2 of their playoff series Saturday against the Rangers.
Theodore, a former league MVP whose up-and-down season made him the biggest question mark for Washington entering the series, allowed four goals on 21 shots in the Rangers’ 4-3 win Wednesday.
“You guys are asking,” Boudreau said, “and I’m not divulging anything.”
When Theodore was asked, he seemed surprised the subject was even up for discussion.
“It’s the first game, I don’t know what you’re really referring to when it’s 1-0 in the series,” Theodore said. “I’ve been down 3-1 in the series, and we came back and won. I think you’re jumping the gun a little bit when your team’s down 1-0.
“The story changes so quickly. You’re down one game, then they say the goalie is shaky, he got outplayed, which was the case. … We might see you Sunday and it will be a totally different story.”
Theodore said there’s nothing he would change about the second and third goals — “pretty good shots,” he said — but he conceded he might have misplayed the angles a bit on Scott Gomez’s second-period goal and Brandon Dubinsky’s game-winner with 8:17 to play.
Theodore nearly lost the starting job to Brent Johnson in December but rebounded to play well for much of the second half of the season. With Johnson injured, the backup is Varlamov, who turns 21 this month and has played in six NHL games, albeit with a 4-0-1 record.
“He has played in the Russian Elite League and he’s played in the World Championships in front of big crowds,” Boudreau said, “so it’s not like he’s going to be a star-struck young guy … if we went with that decision.”
Even as the Capitals contemplate a possible change in goalie, the Rangers have already pulled off the first significant personnel switch in the teams’ first-round series.
Veteran defensemen Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival each played nearly half the game, logging season-highs in minutes and displacing nervous-starting youngsters Dan Girardi and Marc Staal as the top defensive pairing against Alex Ovechkin and Co.
“Marc and Danny, I thought, fought it for a little bit out there,” coach John Tortorella said after today’s optional practice. “It’s to be expected as you open up the series, but Reds and Rozy really stabilized us when they were coming at us pretty hard.”
The Rangers were on their heels early. Girardi took a penalty 18 seconds into the game, and the Capitals outshot the Rangers 14-4 in a scoreless first period. Girardi and Staal also were on the ice when Viktor Kozlov scored Washington’s only even-strength goal late in the second period.
“We can’t allow Kozlov to go though our D and tap that one in,” Tortorella said.
So it was Redden and Rozsival who were getting the key shifts as the game went on, and Tortorella said he’ll “start it that way” in Saturday’s Game 2, stressing he hasn’t lost confidence in the younger pairing.
“Girardi and Marc Staal are the foundation of our back end there as we move forward in the New York Rangers organization,” Tortorella said. “This is how you gain experience.”
Staal entered the series as the player expected to shadow Ovechkin all over the ice. Instead, he logged only 18 minutes, 37 seconds, his smallest amount of ice time since Jan. 18. He graded himself as a mere “OK.”
“There are a couple of mistakes I’d like to have back, obviously,” Staal said. “But they’re a team that is going to create offensive chances. You’ve got to look past it and keep working.”
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Chris Drury, who sat out Game 1 with an undisclosed injury, took part in the Rangers’ optional skate.
“I was wanted to test it out and see what it can take,” he said.
AP freelance writer Ian Quillen in Arlington, Va., contributed to this report.