The Official Simeon Varlamov Coming Out Party
The DC Sports Page Apologizes for the Entry Not Being Posted Sooner - Original Posting From April 21st!!!! Due to a system error the article below by Steph Bagley of ESPN The Magazine and www.HockeyBarn.com wasn't posted when it was originally written. We sincerely apologize and hope everyone enjoys the EXCELLENT Article by Steph!! - The Sports Freak.
Saturday afternoon, when Boudreau made the game-time decision to start Varlamov over Jose Theodore, many hockey fans-especially in New York- heard the name “Simeon Varlamov” for the very first time. He did a solid job, and earned some verbal shoulder-pats for only letting in one goal. By 10:00 PM last night, Varlamov not only earned his second start and first win; he became the steel-cast foundation of the vaunted Capitals Iron Curtain.
The beer bottles have been cleared from the Garden ice, Sean Avery long-since continued on home after his 10 minute misconduct sent him to the showers early and Coach Tortorella’s admission that the Rangers D “stunk” has been splayed across the New York papers. One thing has not lost its novelty: the magic that took place between the pipes for sixty minutes last night.
The 20 year-old rookie goalie from Russia stole the show by stopping 33 shots and blanking the Rangers in their own house. When you combine that with his Game 2 effort, Varlamov has only let in one Rangers goal in 57 shots.
As the old adage goes, “goaltending wins Cups.” If Varly continues to read shots like Chris Drury’s third period rocket that appeared to have him beat as he dove right and the puck veered left until he swung his legpad out in the complete opposite direction to stop it in its tracks…the Rangers are in trouble.
Varly’s playoff track record seems to hint that the Blueshirts might need to call a Code Red while Caps fans are busy Rocking the Red. Last spring, in 16 playoff games with Russian Super League team Yaroslavl, Varlamov had a 1.62 GAA and five shutouts on his way to lead his team within one game of a championship.
Rangers backstop Henrik Lundqvist, who had held the Caps to a spectacularly-low single goal in 77 shots prior to the 4-goal assault last night, had little defensive help last night as the Rangers relied (too) heavily on him and also went 0 for 5 on the PP. Henrik still put on a solid performance, but you can’t expect to win if the other team trumps your trump card.
On a night where the other Russian stars put on stellar performances and solid numbers, Varlamov was the most significant impetus for the quiet that set in over the Garden Faithful. Alex Semin put up two goals and three points, Alex Ovechkin recorded a pair of assists and Sergei Fedorov had an assist on Brooks Laich’s second period power play goal.
Varly, his performance and his celebratory “glass of milk” have been the buzzwords in the hockey blogosphere all day, with Varlamov being a top trending topic according to www.hockeytweets.com.
While Ovi put on an exceptional defensive show with his superman-like pokecheck and also notched two assists, if we see a similar shut-down performance from Varlamov Wednesday night for Game 4 in New York—DC might just have a new golden boy with a Russian accent…. who does not wear No. 8.
