 The Capitals made a strong push and finished with the seventh overall seed in East, draining the defending champion Boston Bruins in the first round.The Capitals shocked the NHL by defeating the heavily favored Bruins in seven games on an overtime goal by Joel Ward.Every game in the series was decided by a one-goal margin; previously, no single series in the Stanley Cup playoffs had ever gone as far as six or seven games while neither team ever held more than a one-goal lead.