Capitals buying into a grinding style

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- Even if the Capitals were playing the exact same way now as they were in the 2011 playoffs, even if Bruce Boudreau still were coaching and not Dale Hunter, the Rangers wouldn't have much to draw upon from last season's five-game loss in the opening round of the playoffs.

"It's a completely different style than they used to play," said Michael Del Zotto, who wasn't even on the Rangers' roster for last season's playoffs, out with a fractured finger. "Their top guys have been buying into their system, grinding it out, finishing checks. They're a tough team to play against."

The Rangers also are fairly different, at least in their consistency. John Tortorella's "process" with his team has progressed from sneaking into the playoffs on the final day of last season and then losing in five to the top-seeded Caps to winning the Eastern Conference regular-season title and facing the seventh-seeded Caps in the second round, beginning Saturday at the Garden.

The Rangers' seven-game series win over the Senators was as evenly matched as any of the first-round pairings. The Rangers won by doing plenty of their own grinding, a style they have come to embrace after it piled up 109 regular-season points and the Rangers' first playoff series win under Tortorella.

"It's how we got so successful during the season -- never getting too high or too low, keeping an even keel and just working our way through anything we faced," Ryan McDonagh said.

McDonagh and Dan Girardi normally would be prepping to hop the boards every time Alex Ovechkin takes the ice this series, and that certainly might happen. Ovechkin led the Capitals with five points in their seven-game upset of the Bruins in the first round, but the more dangerous line was the Marcus Johansson-Nicklas Backstrom-Alexander Semin trio.

Del Zotto played the last two months of his final Ontario League season for Hunter on the London Knights -- John Tavares and Caps defenseman John Carlson were teammates -- and the Rangers defenseman isn't surprised that Hunter has gotten the Caps to think defense-first despite all their weapons.

"Those of us who played for him, we know what he expects," Del Zotto said. "You know coming in, he was going to challenge their top guys."