WTF is Bruce Boudreau's problem?

So, let me understand this. Bruce Boudreau (above, right ... or is it left), the coach of the Washington Capitals, goes on a DC radio station after losing Game 3 of the Caps' first-round playoff series with the Rangers, and instead of talking about what his team has to do to right the ship and avoid losing yet another series after taking a 2-0 lead, proceeds to ... rip Madison Square Garden and Rangers fans?

By now, the quotes have been all over the place in New York, but as a public service, I'll relay them along in case you haven't seen them.

"Well, the one thing, its reputation is far better than the actual building," Boudreau told 105.9 The Edge in Washington Monday. "I mean, it's nothing. The locker rooms are horrible. The benches are horrible. There's no room for anything. But the reputation of being in Madison Square Garden is what makes it famous. Also, our building's a lot louder, too. So I mean, they can say what they want, but it's not that loud in there."

As someone who has covered many playoff games at the Garden -- watching both the Rangers and Knicks -- I can tell you Boudreau's elevator clearly is not reaching the top floor on this one. I can remember many times, seated in the lower press box, right above where the visiting team leaves the ice, I could actually feel the building vibrating from the noise.

I can understand a coach trying to deflect attention to take pressure off his team -- Rex Ryan holds the patent on that -- but it seems all Boudreau has accomplished here is to ensure the Garden will be completely off its rocker Wednesday night, when the teams meet for Game 4, the Caps holding a 2-1 lead. There's a reason the Garden is known as The World's Most Famous Arena. Give me my choice of any arena to play a home playoff game, and I'll take the Garden -- with the old Market Square Arena in Indianapolis (former home of the Pacers) a close second.

For their part, the Rangers refused to be baited into responding to Boudreau's puzzling rant.

"I don't know what their coach is saying and I'm not worried about that," Rangers center Brian Boyle told ESPN.com. "Our building was rocking (Sunday) and I had a great time. It was a blast."

ESPN Radio's Michael Kay did his best to get Rangers coach John Tortorella to go off in kind, but Tortorella took the high road.

"We haven't really thought too much about locker rooms, how loud it is," Tortorella told Kay. "I'm not even sure what he (Boudreau) is trying to say there. We're just concerned with trying to be the best we can be and play the right way."

Boudreau's reputation has flagged a bit anyway, as he was exposed to a large degree on HBO's "24/7." While Penguins coach Dan Bylsma looked to be a composed, confident leader of men, Boudreau appeared most effective at dropping the F-bomb.

Better he should find a way to keep the Caps from repeating their troubling trend of losing playoff series after taking 2-0 leads. Should the Rangers prevail in this opening-round meeting, it would mark the fifth time in their history the Caps would fail to advance after winning Games 1 and 2. Here's the first four:

First round, 1992, lost to Penguins in seven

First round, 1996, lost to Penguins in six

First round, 2003, lost to Lightning in six

Second round, 2009, lost to Penguins in seven

Should history repeat itself, Boudreau may well find the Caps dropping the F-bomb on him.

A Capital offense

Back on March 31, I wrote about the possibilities of first-round upsets in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, focusing on the matchups between first-seed and eighth-seed teams. The focus was on the chances of the Montreal Canadiens, who squeaked into the playoffs, taking out Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, who won the President's Trophy for the NHL's best regular-season record.

On paper, it was a complete mismatch. But as the legendary King Clancy used to say, "Hockey's a slippery game -- it's played on ice." And so it was for the Caps, who have slid into the abyss of summer after being eliminated by the upstart Habs.

It was truly a monumental collapse; not only did the Caps become only the ninth 1-seed to be upset by an 8-seed in 34 series under the current NHL playoff format (26.5 percent), but became the first 1-seed in league history to lose a first-round matchup after holding a 3-1 series lead, as the Canadiens stormed back to win the final three games.

The Caps also became the fifth President's Trophy winner to succumb in the first round since the NHL moved to its current playoff system in 1994. That, after scoring a league-leading 318 goals during the regular season (Vancouver was a distant second with 272 goals) and netting a league-high 79 power-play goals.

In their seven-game loss to the Canadiens, the Caps were a woeful 1-for-33 on the power play (3.0 percent) and scored only one goal in each of the last three games of the series, all won by Montreal.

The series was clearly divided into two parts; through the first four games, when Washington took a 3-1 series lead, they averaged 4.75 goals, as Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak had a pedestrian .880 save percentage (139 saves in 158 shots). But in Games 5 through 7, Halak was a hero as he stood on his head for a .978 save percentage and allowed only three goals in 134 shots.

There will be much finger-pointing in the nation's capital, most in the direction of Ovechkin, who has yet to translate his pulsating, exhilarating talent and style of play into postseason success, and has failed to make a dent into the territory firmly held by Sidney Crosby.

"There wasn't much I could tell them," Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said in the interview room. "I told them I feel exactly like they did. I thought we had a good chance to win the Stanley Cup this year. I would have bet my house that they wouldn't have beaten us three games in a row. We all feel as low as we can possibly feel, and we'll meet in a day and we'll discuss the shoulda beens, the coulda beens at that time."

Perhaps Washington forward Jason Chimera said it best.

"If someone came to your work and stepped on your desk or punched you in the head, that's how I feel," Chimera told ESPN.com. "You come for a long playoff run, and it doesn't happen. It's tough. Right now, it's weird."