Photo: Patrick Smith

Braden Holtby lay on his back with his eyes glazed over looking at the rafters of Madison Square Garden. Derek Stepan celebrated in the corner as the New York Rangers headed to the Eastern Conference Final. Holtby had posted one of the best postseasons performances in National Hockey League history with a save percentage of .944 and a goals against average of 1.71 over 13 games. He had kept the Capitals afloat all playoffs, but he finally cracked.

A year later, Holtby comes into the postseason on a team with one of the best assemblages of talent we’ve seen in recent memory. Holtby is still the Washington Capitals’ rock, but he no longer has to do everything himself. Last year, Holtby played in 73 games, the most of any goalie in the league. As usual, Holtby handled the pressure well, but there was a lot of it. This season, the Caps were able to play Braden less. With a strong backup in Philipp Grubauer, Washington didn’t need Holtby to win every single night. In return, he delivered a Vezina-caliber performance, matching Martin Brodeur for the most victories in a single season. But come Thursday night, Playoff Braden will return.

“There’s something about Holts,” Nate Schmidt said. “Even just watching the last two days of practice. He’s incredibly dialed in. He kicked it into another gear.”

That’s nothing new. Of all goalies to play at least 20 postseason games, Holtby has the highest overall save percentage of any goaltender.

“I base my regular season around how I want to be preparing in the playoffs so it comes second nature,” Holtby said Wednesday at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “Same routine, same mentality coming into the game, guys can’t shoot any harder or anything like that. You know the plays are going to be different, the emotions during the game are going to be. I’ve never had a problem with zoning that out and just focusing on my job.”

When I talked to Schmidt, we tried to devise a good analogy for Holtby’s relaxed demeanor mixed with laser focus. The best thing we could come up with was Braden Holtby.

“He’s got his own brand, his own image.” Schmidt said. “It’s the HoltBeast. The Holt is the calm and the Beast is the intense.”