Six years ago today, on May 30, 2018, Braden Holtby made one of the biggest saves in Washington Capitals history when he denied Vegas Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch of a sure goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. “The Save” kept the Capitals up 3-2 in the game with just two minutes remaining in regulation.
Holtby’s stop helped mark the turning point in the series and Washington did not look back from there. The Capitals went on to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history three games later.
The NHL tweeted out a highlight of the save on Thursday morning and asked their followers if it’s the best playoff save of all time.
In Game 2 of the 2018 #StanleyCup Final, Braden Holtby gave us "The Save".
Is this the best playoff save of all time?
🗓️: May 30, 2018 pic.twitter.com/MYThLXK1ZC
— NHL (@NHL) May 30, 2024
After falling in Game 1 to the Golden Knights, the Capitals’ slim lead in Game 2 was just inches away from evaporating before Holtby intervened. Vegas’ Shea Theodore gained the red line and dumped the puck in. The puck then took a crazy bounce off the corner boards and slid through the Capitals’ goal crease right to Cody Eakin.
Eakin sent a quick centering pass to Alex Tuch for a sure, one-time, tap-in. But, as Tuch fired, Holtby laid his goal stick out and made the save before covering with his blocker glove.
The postgame reactions to the unbelievably clutch stop were almost endless.
“It shouldn’t be possible,” Lars Eller said. “It would have been hard to go out having them tie the game on a weird bounce off the end boards that comes out of nowhere that you feel like they didn’t deserve and then the guy gets the empty-netter. Holts comes up big.”
“I was dog tired on the bench when it happened so I wasn’t even really able to yell,” TJ Oshie added. “I slapped my stick as hard as I could. It was outstanding. I’m sure on NHL [Network], the top 10, you can throw that in the mix.”
The incredible feat of goaltending even got some emotion out of the normally stoic Nicklas Backstrom.
“When it bounced right out to them, I was like, ‘Oh no.’ But then I was like, ‘Oh yes.’ That was great,” Backstrom said. “I mean, a huge save at the right time. We really needed that one. That was a great save by him.”
Jay Beagle referred to the play as the “save of a lifetime” and Olie Kolzig, the last Capitals goaltender before Holtby to lead Washington to the Cup Final, called it the “greatest save I’ve ever seen.”
After the Capitals felt like they were tough luck losers in Game 1, head coach Barry Trotz revealed his belief that higher powers helped power Holtby to the save.
“To me, it was the hockey gods,” Trotz said. “They evened it up from last game. They could’ve tied it up but they didn’t. I thought Braden was really good. I just think they played it the right way. Hockey gods always sort of even that out. I always talk about that. It was a great save and honestly there was about 1:59 left. You could see the emotion on our bench.”
This says everything pic.twitter.com/QBJpFp9cRr
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) May 31, 2018
The save was one of just 37 in the victory for Holtby and it’s not even the save he is most proud of from the 2018 run to the Cup. However, it’s definitely the one he’ll forever be most remembered for.
“If you keep doing the right things, that goes your way,” Holtby said then. “That’s just one of those things, if you keep working hard as a team, those things will go good.”
“Go good,” they sure did.
Parts of this story are copied from a past RMNB article.
