Mr. Bounce Back? Braden Holtby remains undefeated following a loss

To some extent, the New York Rangers made it kind of easy for Braden Holtby to look like a star tonight. The Washington Capitals’ upstart goalie made 30 saves, but many of them came from less dangerous areas and/or without traffic in front of him. That shouldn’t take too much away from Holtby’s poised performance, though.

Holtby’s individual numbers mean more to nerds like me than most of you, so chew on this great stat from Jeff Giordat: Holtby is now 9-0 after losses this season.

Here are some other interesting stats to chew on regarding Game 6, Game 7 and the series in general:

• Alex Ovechkin scored his 30th career playoff goal, tying him for first all-time in Capitals franchise history with Petr Bondra. Gosh, Ovechkin is such a choker.
• The Ovechkin Era Capitals is 2-0 in playoff series against the Henrik Lundqvist-fueled New York Rangers. Washington won the two teams’ Game 7 at home.
• It’ll be a bigger challenge for a wide variety of reasons, but most interestingly: Giordat points out that the Rangers are 4-0 all-time in Game 7′s at Madison Square Garden.

The most depressing stat? No hockey games until Saturday night. Fear not, though, because we’ll be here to pump you full of banter, stats and whimsy.