Washington Capitals Recap -- Capitals at Penguins, Game 6: Penguins 4 - Capitals 3 (OT)

The 2015-2016 season came to an end for the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night as they fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime, 4-3, in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

The end came, as these things do in overtime, suddenly, with Nick Bonino, a heretofore unremarkable player, being the Cap-killer he was throughout this series by teasing in a rebound past the right pad of goalie Braden Holtby 6:32 into overtime.

Until that moment, the Caps looked like a team of destiny. Spotting the Penguins a 3-0 lead in the first 27:38 of the game, two of the goals by the silent until that point Phil Kessel, the Caps mounted a furious comeback, scoring three goals in a 15-minute span across the end of the second period and the start of the third.

T.J. Oshie got the Caps started on their comeback on a power play, taking a pass from Nicklas Backstrom out of the corner and one-timing a shot past the blocker of goalie Matt Murray from the right wing faceoff circle as he tumbled to the ice. The Caps had life just 90 seconds before the second intermission.

The visitors made it more interesting in the eighth minute of the third period, Justin Williams making a patient veteran play. It started with Backstrom working the puck down along the right wing wall and around the corner to Williams. From behind the Penguins net, Williams backed out and around the far post. Instead of trying to tuck the puck inside the post, Williams waited and bought himself time and space to snap a shot over Murray’s glove and into the far side of the net to make it 3-2, 7:23 into the period.

The Caps got all the way back on a 5-on-3 power play late in the period. John Carlson skated the puck across the top of the zone and fed Alex Ovechkin crossing behind him. Ovechkin carried the puck to the right side, then fed Carlson for a one-timer from the left wing faceoff circle that beat Murray to make it 3-3 at the 13:01 mark.

That set up overtime. In the seventh minute of the extra session, the Penguins worked the puck in deep where Phil Kessel ended up with it in the corner to the right of Holtby. Kessel fed the puck in front to Carl Hagelin, whose shot was stopped by Holtby’s right pad. The puck lay free for an instant, and it was Bonino first to it, nudging it softly past the extended pad of Holtby and over the goal line to send the Penguins into the conference final and the Capitals to another disappointing all-too-early off-season.

Other stuff…

-- Perhaps more than any playoff game in any postseason in this franchise’s history, this one is full of “what ifs.” What if Karl Alzner doesn’t take a stick to the boot from Sidney Crosby and miss the last 37 minutes of the game? Alzner, who was second on the team in shorthanded ice time per game, was out when the Penguins scored two power play goals 33 seconds apart in the second period.

-- What if Brooks Orpik, back after serving a three-game suspension, doesn’t take a double-minor for high-sticking that led to those two power play goals?

-- What if the Caps, who until this game killed 35 of 37 shorthanded situations, don’t allow those two power play goals in 33 seconds, going just 1-for-3 in penalty killing for the game?

-- What if the Caps, who had their own power play opportunity with a 5-on-3 advantage in the third period, didn’t fail to convert the back half of that 5-on-3 chance, where a goal on the 5-on-4 portion of it would have given them a lead?

-- What if Alex Ovechkin’s shot off the post with 32 seconds left in the first period goes in instead of out to tie the game late in the period?

-- What if Nicklas Backstrom gets the blade of his stick on that pass from Phil Kessel out of the corner to Carl Hagelin to start the game’s final scoring play instead of it just sliding under it?

-- The Caps did everything they had to do to keep the big guns for the Penguins – Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin – from doing damage.  Those two were held off the score sheet once more and finished the series with one goal (Malkin) and three assists (two for Crosby, one for Malkin).

-- The next tier of forwards was the difference in this game and the series.  Carl Hagelin (1-2-3) and Phil Kessel (2-1-3) combined for almost a third (13) of the Penguins’ shots on goal (42).  Meanwhile, Evgeny Kuznetsov was blanked on six shots (he was 0-for-19 in the series), and Andre Burakovsky was denied on his two shots on goal (1-for-10 in the series).

-- Sisyphus is a character in Greek mythology condemned to an eternity of repeatedly rolling a boulder uphill, only to watch it roll back down again.  It is no myth for Alex Ovechkin.  Six shots on goal, 14 shot attempts, four hits, and two assists in 27 minutes and change.  He had a hand in almost half of the 15 goals in this series for the Caps (2-5-7).  He had more than 16 percent of the 202 shots on goal the team had in the series (33 of 202).  Still, there are those who seem to think this a personal failing for Ovechkin.  Consider Scott Burnside of ESPN who, in his “rapid reaction” to this game wrote…

“87 vs. 8: Crosby moves on to the fourth conference finals of his career. Ovechkin will likely be headed to the World Championships. Enough said.”

Well, just one more thing.  In this series, Ovechkin rowed harder than any Capital, Crosby was along for the ride with his Penguins.

-- For Braden Holtby it might be a particularly disappointing result.  This is a club against which he has had some difficulty (5-7-1, 2.79, .914 in his regular season career) and had a chance to reverse that in this series.  His numbers were slightly better in his first career playoff series against the Penguins (2.57, .923), but not quite up to the level of performance he displayed over much of the season.

-- John Carlson leaves the stage in this postseason as the only Capital defenseman in franchise history to play in at least ten playoff games and average at least a point per game.  His game-tying goal in the third period gave him 12 points in 12 games. 

In the end…

It was the second straight season in which the Capitals season ended in overtime on the road, the second straight season a team celebrated along the glass with their cheering fans as goalie Braden Holtby – a rock last season and this – lay in his crease in disappointment, the second straight season of needing just one break, one bounce, one nod from the hockey gods.  One might say that coming as it did against the Penguins, it stings more, but frankly, it would feel just as bad if it came against the Ottawa Senators or the Florida Panthers because this season was supposed to be different.  And while much of it certainly was, in the end… it wasn’t.

Photo: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

For the Washington Capitals and Their Fans, the Signs Are There

Signs.  They are everywhere, if you choose to read them…

• On this date in 1893, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled unanimously in Nix v. Hedden that the tomato is a “vegetable,” not a “fruit.”  Sign…”sometimes strange things happen in the face of logic.”
  
• On this date in 1954, Bill Haley and the Comets released “Rock Around the Clock,” the first rock and roll record to reach the number one spot on the Billboard charts.  Sign… It’s a day to “rock,” and only one hockey team “rocks.”
  
• On this date in 1962, Marvel Comics published the first issue of “The Incredible Hulk.”  Sign… the Caps have a power forward who is a rather “incredible hulk” himself.
  
• On this date in 1966, Cleveland recorded a low temperature of 25 degrees, the lowest ever recorded in that city in May.  Sign… hell froze over on this date, so the Caps will find a way, against any and all odds, and in spite of the history of these teams in the postseason, to take this series to a Game 7.

Don’t say there weren’t signs.

Washington Capitals: On the Importance of Star Power and the Wisdom of Trading a Star

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away… ok, Washington, D.C.,… there lived a sportswriter.  Talented with word and phrase, he was among the best in the nation at his craft.  He was a reporter and a storyteller, equal parts thoughtful and provocative.  He was one of the few columnists in his profession – not limited to sports – who could have been honestly referred to as a “must-read.”

Then, perhaps tempted by the lure of television, he sold his soul to the devil.  He became a television commentator.  And in a blindingly short time, he lost all vestiges of thoughtfulness and became little more than a provocateur.  We could say he became sports’ answer to the “grumpy old man,” but it turned out that he merely sat across from the “grumpy old man” as part of a daily schtick of “can you top this” comments that would rarely fail to provoke but, sadly, rarely succeeded to inform.

He had become “The Man with Attitude,” who perhaps fancied himself as “The Man of All (Sports) Seasons.”  Stripped of the bluster, though, he seems to be painfully uninformed with respect to sports like hockey.

On Friday, The Man with Attitude turned his attention to the Washington Capitals and star Alex Ovechkin.  As noted by Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post…

“…Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon were asked to consider a hypothetical: If the Caps lose to the Penguins in five games, Alex Ovechkin should be [blanked]. What is the proper word?”

The Man with Attitude went right for the clicks…

“Traded...if the Caps lose to the Penguins in five games, Ovechkin should be traded.”

The comment displays a surprising ignorance (or at least a blithe attitude) toward how hockey is played and the limited contributions even a high-powered star might have to the success of his team, especially in the postseason. Such talent and performance is a necessary but, and here is the important part, insufficient ingredient in postseason success. 

Let’s put this in way.  What symbol of postseason success on an individual level -- of rising when the light shines the brightest -- is more obvious than winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs?  A perusal of the list of Smythe Trophy winners in the Ovechkin era yields the following:

You will find some fine players on that list, even some potential hall of famers.  But none of them can be considered on the shortest of short lists as best players of the era, not Evgeni Malkin, who has been injured too much without the outsized production to offset it; not Patrick Kane, who hasn’t been doing it long enough at high enough a level.

Even as players emerge to take their place on the short list of best players, only to recede in favor of other emergent players, two names – and really, two names alone – have persistently maintained a firm grasp on their place among the best players in hockey.  Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby is really as long as that list gets.

Which brings us to the underlying theme in those comments proposing to trade Ovechkin had the Caps come up short in Game 5.  Crosby has a Stanley Cup, Ovechkin does not.  Crosby has an Olympic gold medal (two in fact), Ovechkin does not.  We will leave out that Ovechkin has three world championships on his resume.

On an individual level, in the post-2004-2005 lockout era of the NHL, Ovechkin ranks ninth in total postseason goals scored, despite playing at least 23 fewer games than the eight players ahead of him on that list.  No one has a higher goals-per-game average.  Only three players – Crosby, Malkin, and Kane (all centers or with center experience with more playmaking responsibilities that add to assist totals) – have a higher postseason points-per-game average.  There are 11 players with more game-winning goals than the six Ovechkin has, but the only one to have played in fewer playoff games than Ovechkin (83) on that list is Teemu Selanne (81).

We could dip into the underlying numbers, touching on the fancy stats to which folks pay attention these days (and where Ovechkin’s Corsi-for at 5-on-5 of 54.5 percent in the current era is better than Crosby’s 53.2 percent; numbers from war-on-ice.com), but it would be a temptation that distracts us from the principal point to be made here.  Hockey is a team game.  Eighteen skaters participate in each and every game.  Some more than others, to be sure, but no one gets a night off on the bench.  And frankly, Crosby’s teams, whether they were in Pittsburgh or representing Canada, were simply better top to bottom.  Ask yourself, in 2009, when these two teams last met in the NHL postseason, if you took Crosby and Ovechkin off of their respective clubs, which one would you have picked in a seven-game series?  Would that series have even gone seven games (as it did in 2009)?

Remember, too, that in 2009, that Penguins team won the Stanley Cup in a Game 7 against the Detroit Red Wings with Crosby missing the last 9:53 of a 2-1 game, albeit due to injury.  And in the end, it was teammate Evgeni Malkin skating off with the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason’s most valuable player.  Crosby was arguably the best player in the world that season (although Ovechkin won the Hart Trophy as most valuable player), but not in its postseason.

Since that 2009 Stanley Cup, Crosby has appeared in 61 postseason games, Ovechkin in 62.  Crosby’s Penguins have a record of 31-30 in those 61 games, Ovechkin’s Capitals have a record of 30-32.  Crosby has 22 goals in his 61 games, Ovechkin has 26 goals in his 62 games.  Crosby has more assists (43 to 24), but that is as much a product of the position he plays as anything else.  Ovechkin’s Capitals have won four playoff series since then, Crosby’s Penguins have won five.  Crosby’s Penguins have gone to a conference final, where Ovechkin’s Capitals have not, but both players have been on postseason teams that were eliminated in the first round twice in six postseasons leading to this one.  There is little difference to be found here.

The Man with Attitude opined that if the Capitals had been eliminated in Game 5, that Alex Ovechkin should be “traded.”  Turn that around.  If the Penguins were to blow a 3-1 lead in games, and Crosby does little or no better than the two points he has in this series (both assists), would the answer to the hypothetical “If the Penguins lose to the Capitals in seven games after holding a 3-1 lead, Sidney Crosby should be [blanked]” be “traded?”

Of course not.  The answer is silly on its face, just as the same answer to the question posed to The Man with Attitude is silly on its face.  Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby are two of the most productive players of this or any era in NHL history.  Over the last seven years, their postseason records have been remarkably similar, individually and in the context of the performance of their respective teams.  But that seems to be an entirely too nuanced an opinion for those such as The Man with Attitude.  For Ovechkin, he went right for the message board fan’s remedy – “trade him.”  Pity.  Once upon a time, he was capable of so much more.

Capitals vs. Penguins: Takeaways and Throwaways from Game 5

Game 5… Over the course of the history of the Washington Capitals, it has often been a curse, a demon mocking the club over early playoff series success that would melt into disappointment in the end.  Against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Saturday night, the Caps tried to write a new chapter in their postseason history.  It was a Game with its own takeaways and throwaways.

Takeaways…

Game 5 was the 13^th time in Capitals history that they won a playoff series Game 5.  In the 12 previous instances, the Caps won nine of the series (in three of those series wins, the Game 5 win was the series clincher).

This was T.J. Oshie’s third multi-point game of the postseason, the third time in which the Caps won.

Alex Ovechkin’s playoff reputation has taken its hits over the years, but with the goal he scored in this game, he ranks first in goals scored per playoff game (0.49) among 162 skaters appearing in at least 50 postseason games since the 2008 playoffs.

Penguin goalie Matt Murray was pulled off the ice with 3:15 left in the game.  The Caps allowed one shot on goal in that time, a 61-footer (officially) by Kris Letang with 2:43 left.

This was the 35^th playoff game in his career in which Alex Ovechkin scored a goal.  The Caps are 21-14 in those games, perhaps not as dominating as one might think they would be.  It emphasizes the need for secondary scoring, which the Caps got in this game, from Oshie and Justin Williams… the two players the Caps got last summer with this in mind.

Throwaways…

Nicklas Backstrom had an odd game.  He missed on all four of his shot attempts, but he did finish with two hits, two takeaways, a blocked shot, and ten wins in 18 faceoffs taken, along with an assist on the Ovechkin goal.

One would have thought coming into this series that the pace and less physical nature the Penguins present (compared to that of the Philadelphia Flyers) would have been more to the liking of Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky.  Both were held without a point in this game, and they have combined for just one goal (Burakovsky) and one assist (Kuznetsov) in this series.

The Caps allowed a power play goal for the first time since Game 4 of the first round series against the Flyers.  It broke a streak of 24 straight power plays killed by the Caps.

Daniel Winnik had a curious night in terms of ice time. He had one more shift (13) than Tom Wilson (12) and just one fewer than Mike Richards (14), but his 5:36 was by far the lowest on the team (Wilson had 7:20).  The noteworthy part of it was that four of Winnik’s 13 shifts were less than ten seconds.

Barry Trotz has a tight leash on the defensemen as far as ice time.  Of 92 defensemen appearing in at least five games in the post season, Dmitry Orlov (13:16), Nate Schmidt (12:30), and Taylor Chorney (11:58) rank 84^th, 86^th, and 88^th in average ice time, respectively.  In Game 5, Orlov skated 15:42, but Chorney was at 11:27, and Schmidt was at 9:01.

In the end…

This was the ninth time that the Capitals and Penguins played each other in a Game 5.  In the previous eight, the Caps lost at home, they lost in Pittsburgh.  They lost by multi-goal margins, they lost in overtime.  The common thread was, they lost.  Eight games, eight losses.  Until Saturday night.

Photo:  Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Washington Capitals Recap -- Penguins at Capitals, Game 5: Capitals 3 - Penguins 1

If it was the last game for the Washington Capitals at Verizon Center this season, they made it count. The Capitals crawled back into their series with the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-1 win in Game 6 on Saturday night.  It was a well-executed formula of getting a lead, sustaining effort, and clamping down with a lead in the third period.

Washington started the scoring early in the first period after Bryan Rust took a hooking penalty.  It started with a faceoff win in the Penguins’ end.  Off the faceoff win, a John Carlson drive was blocked by Ian Cole in the slot.  T.J. Oshie kept the puck alive by diving over Cole and sliding it to Nicklas Backstrom in the right wing faceoff circle.  Backstrom snapped a pass across the ice to Alex Ovechkin in his left-wing circle office, and Ovechkin one-timed the puck over goalie Matt Murray’s glove for a 1-0 lead 4:04 into the period.

Pittsburgh tied the game three minutes later on a power play of their own.  With Backstrom in the penalty box on an interference call, Sidney Crosby slid a pass to Phil Kessel in the slot.  Kessel’s one-timer was stopped by goalie Braden Holtby, but Chris Kunitz put back the short rebound to tie the game at the 7:08 mark.

The teams went to the first intermission tied, but the Caps solved that problem early in the second period, thanks to another power play.  With Cole in the box for a slashing penalty, Backstrom and Marcus Johansson played catch with the puck on the right side of the offensive formation.  Then Backstrom moved the puck out to Carlson at the top of the zone.  Carlson worked the puck over to Ovechkin for a one-timer that was stopped by Murray.  Oshie was johnny-on-the-spot, though, putting back the rebound to give the Caps the lead 4:00 into the period.

Just under six minutes later, the Caps bought some insurance, taking advantage of a Penguin turnover.  A lead pass to Jason Chimera skating toward the Penguin blue line was too far in front and banked off the left wing wall.  Brian Dumoulin tried to collect the puck and curl the other way, but his attempt to clear the puck was not cleanly played, thanks to Chimera’s pestering him from behind.  As a result, Dumoulin’s attempted clear ended up on the blade of Justin Williams’ stick in the high slot, and he fired a shot that snuck between Murray’s pads and trickled over the line to make it 3-1, 9:58 into the period.

At that point, the Caps turned the game over to Holtby, and he was up to the challenge, turning aside 18 of 18 shots after the Williams goal to seal the 3-1 win and send the series back to Pittsburgh for Game 6 on Tuesday night.

Other stuff…

-- The Caps opened the game with a significant change at the top of the lineup.  The starting forward trio was Nicklas Backstrom centering Andre Burakovsky and Marcus Johansson.  The next trip to hop on the ice was Evgeny Kuznetsov centering Alex Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie.  It was that second group on its second shift that drew the penalty that led to the Caps’ first power play and first goal. 

-- If there is a future for the Caps in this postseason, one might look back to a 4-on-2 rush the Penguins had late in the second period.  At the end of it, Matt Cullen found Justin Schultz alone to the left of Braden Holtby.  Lunging across to his left in a desperation move, Holtby got his glove up just in time to flag down Schultz’ shot and cover it up.  A goal there, and the third period might have unfolded a lot more unpleasantly for the Caps.

-- The power play came alive just in time.  The two goals scored with the man advantage was the first time the Caps recorded a multiple power play goal game since they went 5-for-9 against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 3 of their first round series.

-- Justin Williams might be the “X-Factor” for the Caps late in this series.  His goal made it three straight games with a point.

-- This game might have been over early but for the Caps’ inability to put the puck on net.  They had seven missed shots in the first 8:23 of the game.  They finished with 23 missed shots overall.

-- Speaking of missed shots, the Caps had more players with missed shots (13) than those with shots on goal (11).

-- Ovechkin had almost a third of the team’s shots on goal, six of 19.  No other Capital had more than two.

-- The Caps dialed back the aggressiveness, at least in terms of credited hits.  They finished the game with 26, two fewer than the Penguins.

-- If Braden Holtby did not “steal” this game, he did take the last donut out from under the Penguins’ reach.  It was his best game of the series, the first time he allowed fewer than two goals on more than ten shots faced since Game 3 of the Flyer series.

-- “Corsi” might not tell the story in this game.  One thing the Caps have been guilty of in this series is piling up shot attempts, but not getting scoring chances in proportion to those attempts.  Not so in this game.  Pittsburgh out-attempted the Caps at 5-on-5, 50-44, but the Caps had a narrow edge in scoring chances (24-23).  In high-danger scoring chances, the Caps had a more substantial 13-6 edge (numbers from war-on-ice.com).

In the end…

The patient has a pulse.  The Caps gave themselves a chance when they could have gone quietly into the off-season.  It was not a perfect game, by any means.  There were too many missed shots, a bit too much time spent watching the Penguins skate.  But the Caps managed to grind out a win, and there isn’t anything more important at this point.

The pressure shifts some at this point.  The Caps were the team bearing the weight of it up to this point in the series as the Presidents Trophy winner.  Now, the Penguins, once holders of a 3-1 lead, bear the pressure of trying to close out a team to avoid a Game 7 on the road.  A subtle difference at this point is that the Caps got some space between themselves and the Penguins in this game, the first in the series not decided by one goal.  Having the power play click was an important part of that.

It is cliché, but it really is “best-of-one” for the Caps now.  Win one.  Give yourselves the chance to do something after that.  But just win one.

For the Washington Capitals -- Know What is Needed and Know What Isn't

Being able to distinguish between these two words and to apply the correct one could be the difference between the start of a comeback and the start of the off-season...

Capitals vs. Penguins: Takeaways and Throwaways from Game 4

Game 4 was as disheartening a loss as Capitals Nation has endured in some time.  In fact, this series has been among the most confounding, discombobulating, frustrating series to unfold in recent franchise history.  One hopes that there is a big payback coming for all the years of grief and the last week of despair suffered by Capitals Nation.  But before that happens, there are some takeaways and throwaways from Game 4 between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins.

Takeaways…

• You have to think that at some point, the shots will start going in, if only by chance or by hitting something to change direction.  Alex Ovechkin has 21 shots on goal in this series.  Evgeny Kuznetsov has 11.  Jason Chimera has eight.  Nicklas Backstrom has seven.  They have one goal among them in this series (Ovechkin).  They have to start finding the back of the net soon or even sooner…right?
   
• The Caps are having one of the franchise’s best offensive performances by a defenseman in franchise history.  John Carlson scored his fourth goal of the postseason in Game 4.  He is just the third defenseman in franchise history to record at least four goals and at least 10 points in a single postseason (Carlson is 4-6-10).  Kevin Hatcher was 5-7-12 in 14 games in the 1988 playoffs, and Sergei Gonchar was 7-4-11 in 21 games in 21 games in the Caps’ march to the Stanley Cup final in 1998.  Carlson has done it in just ten games.  Let’s hope it isn’t being wasted.
   
• Carlson had just two shots on goal in Game 4, but he now has 45 for the postseason overall.  That is more than any other skater – not just defenseman, but skater – overall, save one.  Alex Ovechkin has 50.
   
• When pucks aren’t going in, you have to contribute in other ways.  Evgeny Kuznetsov (no points) won 12 of 18 faceoffs.  Mike Richards (no points) had six credited hits in nine minutes of ice time.  Dmitry Orlov (no points) had four credited hits.
   
• Justin Williams might be having a somewhat disappointing series, but he’s not going down without a fight.  He had five shots on goal and seven shot attempts in Game 4 (both second on the club to Ovechkin).  He has eight shots on goal (one goal) in his last two games after posting just three shots on goal and no points in Games 1 and 2.

Throwaways…

• Jay Beagle scored a goal.  That was significant.  Why?  The Caps were 4-1 in postseason games when Jay Beagle scored a goal in his postseason career.  Yeah…
   
• Jay Beagle’s goal was the first goal of the game.  That was significant.  Why?  The Caps were 38-4 this season when scoring first.  Uh-huh…
   
• Washington won the Corsi battle at 5-on-5, finishing the game 52.8 percent to the good.  They are 59.6 percent for the two games in Pittsburgh (numbers from war-on-ice.com).  Goal differential?...minus-1 in Game 4, mius-3 for the two games in Pittsburgh.  The Caps have a minus-5 goal differential at 5-on-5 over their last three games of this series, all losses.
   
• The thinnest cracks have appeared in Braden Holtby’s performance over the last two games.  Not every goal is the goalie’s fault, but his save percentage of .892 in the last two games has to be better.  What has been missing is that game that a goalie “steals” for his club.  He has not yet had that in this series.
   
• This is the ninth time in franchise history that the Caps have fallen behind by a 3-1 margin in games.  Their record in Games 5 of those series is 4-4, but their series record is 2-6.

In the end…

The t-shirt says “Entitled to Nothing.”  What the Caps are entitled to right now is an opportunity to win one game.  That’s all.  And it is not quite as hopeless as it sounds.  In fact, what comes to mind here is an offering by the character of Crash Davis in the movie, “Bull Durham”…

“You know what the difference is between hitting .250 and hitting.300? I got it figured out.  Twenty-five hits a year in 500 at bats is 50 points. Okay? There's six months in a season, that's about 25 weeks -- you get one extra flare a week -- just one -- a gork, a ground ball with eyes, a dying quail -- just one more dying quail a week and you're in Yankee Stadium!”

Think about it.  Think about the game-winning goals in this series so far.  T.J. Oshie gets a puck to crawl across the goal line in overtime.  Eric Fehr redirects a pass off the post and in.  Carl Hagelin stuck his stick between the skates of Nate Schmidt to bump in a loose puck.  Patric Hornqvist got a gift from Mike Weber trying to do the right thing.  There are a fair number of “gorks” in there.  If the Caps can get a gork, a puck with eyes, a knuckleball that floats past Murray in Game 5 in Washington, it could turn the series, because it isn’t as if the Penguins are dominating play.  But the Caps have to make sure the effort is there to take advantage of those odd plays, just as the Pens have in the last three games.  Because if they don’t, the movie analogy won’t be “Bull Durham,” it will be “Groundhog Day.”

And you know where the setting for that film was.

Photo: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Washington Capitals Recap -- Capitals at Penguins, Game 4: Penguins 3 - Capitals 2 (OT)

The Washington Capitals were pushed to the brink of elimination by the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, as the Pens skated off with a 3-2 overtime win to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

The Caps carried the momentum they had late in Game 3 into the early portion of this contest, as Jay Beagle scored in the game’s third minute to give the Caps the first lead. Tom Wilson sent the puck on a long cross-ice journey from the center red line into the corner to the right of goalie Matt Murray. Beagle was first to the puck and wasted no time throwing a backhand shot at the net that seemed to surprise Murray. The puck sailed over Murray’s right shoulder, behind his head, and off the far post into the net to make it 1-0 just 2:58 into the game.

The Penguins tied the game mid-way through the period on a shot by Trevor Daley off a pass from Patric Hornqvist that appeared to hit two Capitals on its way to the net and bounce past goalie Braden Holtby at the 9:16 mark.

Pittsburgh took their first lead early in the second period off a center ice faceoff. It was a strange play right from that draw as the players who started the play figured in how it ended. Matt Cullen won the draw from Nicklas Backstrom back to Brian Dumoulin, who tried to feed Tom Kuhnhackl at the left wing boards. The puck eluded Kuhnhackl and bounced off the side boards. The puck skittered into the Caps’ end, where Cullen had snuck behind Nicklas Backstrom. Cullen collected the puck, skated in, and beat Holtby between the pads to make it 2-1, 3:07 into the period.

Washington tied it late in the period when Justin Williams stole the puck from Derrick Pouliot in the corner to the right of Murray and circled into the faceoff circle. From there he fed the puck across to John Carlson who ripped a shot over Murray’s glove to tie the game at the 16:19 mark.

Murray and Holtby kept the nets empty in the third period, and the game went to overtime. In the extra frame, Trevor Daley did a good job to keep a sliding puck in the offensive zone and fed the puck to Conor Sheary at the left point. Sheary’s shot was muffled in front, and the puck was free in the slot. Mike Weber tried to sweep the puck to the side boards out of danger, but managed only to put the puck on the stick of Hornqvist. His shot beat a sliding Holtby between the legs, and the Penguins had the 3-2 win and a stranglehold on the series.

Other stuff…

-- Justin Williams had an assist, giving him points in consecutive games for the first time in the postseason.

-- Alex Ovechkin went 0-for-7 shooting in Game 4, making him 1-for-21 in this series (4.8 percent) in this series and 1-for-37 in his last seven postseason games (2.7 percent).

-- Every Capital was credited with a hit in this game, the team recording 41 in all, six by Mike Richards to lead the Caps.

-- Andre Burakovsky was the only forward without a shot on goal recorded. He has just six shots on goal in four games in this series and just 12 in ten games in the postseason.

-- Taylor Chorney recorded an assist on the goal by Jay Beagle, his first career playoff point.

-- Sidney Crosby recorded the second assist on the goal by Trevor Daley, his first point in this series.

-- Jay Beagle recorded his third goal of the postseason for the Caps. Only John Carlson, Alex Ovechkin, and T.J. Oshie have more (four apiece).

-- The loss was the first suffered by the Caps in the postseason when scoring first.  They were the 29^th team to lose their first game when taking the first lead.  Only Detroit, who scored first in just one game of their opening round series, is without a loss when scoring first.

-- Should the Caps lose this series, a bright light will be shined on the power play as a reason.  Going 0-for-2 in this game and recording just one shot on goal against a depleted Penguin defense, the Caps are now 1-for-22 with the man advantage in their last seven games (4.5 percent).  Conversely, the penalty killing remains magnificent.  Shutting out the Pens on four opportunities, the Caps are 37-for-38 in the postseason (97.4 percent).

-- The Caps won the possession battle narrowly, out-attempting the Penguins at 5-on-5 by a 57-51 margin and dominating the third period by a 21-11 margin (scoring chances were 8-1 for the Caps in the third period, and high-danger scoring chances were 3-0; numbers from war-on-ice.com).

In the end…

It seems that every bounce or signal moment in this series has favored the Penguins.  In this game it was Mike Weber, trying to do the right thing by sweeping the puck out of a high-danger area and putting it right on the tape of Patric Hornqvist’s stick.  It was a “pass” of which Sidney Crosby would have been proud.  But it should not have come to that.  The Caps were presented an opportunity on a platter with the Penguins’ best defenseman – Kris Letang – serving a one-game suspension.  And what did they do with it?  The first line – no points.  The second line – an assist on a goal by a defenseman.  Praises will be sung about the play of Penguin goalie Matt Murray, and he has played well, but the Caps really haven’t found that next level of performance in this series that would allow them to generate their own lucky bounces.  The Caps had better find that level soon, or the only plans that will be made for next week will involve tee times.

Capitals vs. Penguins: Takeaways and Throwaways from Game 3

The Washington Capitals find themselves in something of an unfamiliar place after Game 3 of their second round playoff series with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and we will get to that.  But at the moment, that place is down two games to one in their best-of-seven series.  It is the first time in this postseason that the Caps find themselves behind in games, a situation they will want to rectify on Wednesday night. But for now, we have takeaways and throwaways to discuss.

Takeaways…

• The Caps recorded 49 shots on goal in Game 3.  And, it was not so much the “how many” as the “who.”  Alex Ovechkin had seven shots on goal.  John Carlson had eight shots.  Evgeny Kuznetsov and Marcus Johansson had six apiece.  These are players the Caps want getting shooting opportunities.
  
• The shot attempts at 5-on-5 favored the Caps, and it was not really (or at least entirely) a score-effect phenomenon.  They out-attempted the Penguins by an 18-12 margin in the first period (12-5 in scoring chances), 19-9 in the second period (7-5 in scoring chances), and 27-10 in the third period (9-3 in scoring chances.
  
• Justin Williams broke out of his doldrums in Game 3 with a goal and three shots on goal after going without a point on just three total shots on goal in Games 1 and 2.
  
• John Carlson had an assist and eight shots on goal in Game 3.  He is second among defensemen in playoff scoring (nine points, second to Brent Burns’ 11), and he has a whopping 43-25 lead on Burns in shots on goal to lead the league in the postseason.
  
• Matt Niskanen was credited with three more hits in Game 3.  He is one of three defensemen still playing in the postseason that is averaging more than three hits per game (3.3) and more than two blocked shots per game (2.3).  Johnny Boychuk and Roman Polak are the others.

Throwaways…

• The 49 shots on goal for the Capitals tied for the second-highest total of shots on goal for a playoff game settled in regulation time in franchise history (April 23, 1990, a 7-1 win in Game 3 of their series with the New York Rangers).  The Caps recorded 54 shots on goal in a 4-1 Game 6 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on April 26, 2010.  Guess we’ll be hearing the choruses of “hot goalie” now.
  
• As to the unfamiliar place in which the Caps find themselves, this is the seventh time in franchise history that the Caps lost Game 3 on the road after splitting their first two games at home.  They are 2-4 in their previous six series in this situation, but if there is good news, they won the last series in which they found themselves in this situation, a seven-game win over the New York Islanders last season.
  
• The Caps could really use Mike Richards getting something of a scoring touch back.  Coming into this postseason he had 87 points in 124 career postseason games (26-61-87), but he is without a point in nine postseason games so far for the Caps.
  
• The Caps were 67.4 percent to the good in shot attempts in Game 3.  A lot of good it has done, so far.  Washington is 2-3 in the post season when over 50 percent, 3-1 when they are under 50 percent (numbers from war-on-ice.com).
  
• Caps fans will be of a mind that the hit on Marcus Johansson late in the first period by Kris Letang is the very definition of violation of Rule 48 (Illegal Check to the Head).  They will have a point (although Letang was penalized for interferennce, which happens to be the same violation for which Brooks Orpik was called for his hit on Olli Maatta that resulted in a three-game suspension).  Let’s break this down.  First, the play in question…

Now, for the rule.  Rule 48 states as follows:

Illegal Check to the Head – A hit resulting in contact with an opponent’s head where the head was the main point of contact and such contact to the head was avoidable is not permitted.

In determining whether contact with an opponent's head was avoidable, the circumstances of the hit including the following shall be considered:

 (i) Whether the player attempted to hit squarely through the opponent’s body and the head was not "picked" as a result of poor timing, poor angle of approach, or unnecessary extension of the body upward or outward.
(ii) Whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full body check unavoidable.
(iii) Whether the opponent materially changed the position of his body or head immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit in a way that significantly contributed to the head contact.

Was the head the main point of contact?  It is apparently so, as it is Johansson’s head that is hit hard enough to twist it sideways…

Was the hit “avoidable” in the context of the three criteria?  First, was the player attempting to hit the opponent squarely, or did he “pick” the head exclusive of timing, angle, or unnecessary extension of the body upward or outward?...It appears that Letang left his feet to make this hit…

Did the player put himself in a vulnerable position?  There was commentary during the replay of this that Johansson had his head down.  That is not quite true.  In the full clip above, watch from the 22-second mark until Johansson is hit.  He gets his arm locked up with Evgeni Malkin and does have his head down, but he disengages and is almost upright when Letang, who left his feet, strikes him.

Did the opponent (Johansson) “materially” change his body position so as to contribute to head contact.  That “materiality” threshold is a significant one.  It is one thing for a player to turn his body to the boards just before contact, but in this case Johansson is skating what looks like a steady path.  The position of his body does not change in a “material” sense.

Then there is the lurking history here.  Letang got off without a penalty for a two-handed slash of the Rangers’ Viktor Stalberg in the first round that cost Stalberg three of his teeth.  It is not the sort of “prior bad act” that the league would formally take into consideration of fine or suspension (Letang has one suspension in his career, that in 2011 for two games), but it is there in full living color…

The league has a curious logic when it comes to things like this.  Johansson returned to the game.  That, in and of itself, suggests that Letang will avoid punishment altogether or perhaps get a nominal fine.  But if the league really is intent on getting head shots out of the game, or at least being consistent that players will be held accountable for such plays that involve head contact, Letang will be receiving notice from the Department of Player Safety that such plays are not tolerated.  We will not hold our breath.

In the end…

The Caps did everything but win Game 3, but then again, winning is the point of the exercise.  Still, they showed no quit when they fell behind, were not distracted when Marcus Johansson was smacked down by Kris Letang, did not let up until the horn went off.  But they cannot waste efforts like this, even if the Penguins were aided by a bit of luck in their scoring.  Game 4 is not a “must win” game, but going down 3-1 to the Penguins is not something Capitals Nation will want to contemplate between now and Wednesday night.  The real takeaway is that this series remains closer than two commuters on the Blue Line at evening rush hour.  It is still anyone’s series.

Photo: Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Screen Capture: NBC, Hockey Night in Canada

Washington Capitals Recap -- Capitals at Penguins, Game 3: Penguins 3 - Capitals 2

For six months we have seen ways in which the Washington Capitals differed from previous editions of the club – an ability to win one-goal games, an ability to hold a lead and come back from a deficit, a resistance to losing streaks.  Now, with the Caps falling behind the Pittsburgh Penguins, two games to one in their playoff series, after the Penguins’ 3-2 win on Monday night, Caps fans will get to see what might be the ultimate test of this team’s differences with those in the past – and ability to stare adversity in the face, in the form of trailing in a postseason series to a bitter rival, and overcoming it.

Pittsburgh put the Caps in a hole early in this game with a pair of goals 60 seconds apart in the first period.  Patric Hornqvist got the home team off and running by setting up in the high slot, in perfect position to tip a drive from Trevor Daley out of the air, the bouncing puck eluding goalie Braden Holtby at the 6:37 mark to make it 1-0.

A minute later, Tom Kuhnhackl double the Penguin lead.  It was a bit of an unfortunate bounce for the Caps, even as the Pens entered the offensive zone with speed.  Matt Cullen darted down the left side through the faceoff circle when he tried to slide the puck across to Kuhnhackl on his right.  The puck slid up the stick of Nicklas Backstrom, popped into the air, and deflected off the numbers on the back of Kuhnhackl’s jersey past Holtby to make it 2-0 7:37 into the period.

Pittsburgh went out to what looked like an insurmountable 3-0 lead late in the second period on a Carl Hagelin goal.  An attempted clear out of the defensive zone by Nate Schmidt ended up on the stick of Phil Kessel, who took advantage of the Caps flying out of the zone by sending the puck to Nick Bonino all alone in the low slot.  Boninio tried to sork the puck around Holtby’s left pad, but Holtby had that path cut off.  The puck slid out from under Holtby, and Hagelin managed to get his stick between Schmidt’s legs to poke the puck in to make it 3-0 with just under five minutes to go in the period.

Pittsburgh has not lost a game this season when leading after two period, but the Caps tested that record in the third period.  It started with Alex Ovechkin getting his first goal of the series, taking a drop pass from T.J. Oshie at the top of the left wing and rifling a shot past the left ear of goalie Matt Murray to make it a 3-1 game 8:02 into the period.

Despite withering pressure, the Caps could not solve Murray again until the last minute.  A one-timer by Alex Ovechkin hit the far post and ricocheted behind Murray to Justin Williams at the near post.  Williams had nothing but open net to shoot at, and he did not miss, getting the Caps to within 3-2 with 53.9 seconds left in regulation.

It would be as close as the Caps would get, though.  There just was not enough time for them to complete the comeback, and the Pens took their first lead in the series with the 3-2 win.

Other stuff…

-- The Caps are being bled to death by the rank-and-file for the Pens.  Nick Bonino, with an assist in this game, has figured in four of the Penguins’ eight goals (1-3-4).  Ditto for Carl Hagelin (2-2-4).

-- Meanwhile…Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky have combined for two points in this series (a goal by Burakovsky, an assist by Kuznetsov), neither of them marking the score sheet in this game.

-- Alex Ovechkin was a monster in this game.  A goal, an assist, seven shots on goal, 18 shot attempts, nine hits, a takeaway, and a blocked shot in 24 minutes.

-- Less dominant was the third line.  Mike Richards, Jason Chimera, and Burakovsky combined for six shots on goal, no points.  The fourth line was even more quiet.  Jay Beagle, Tom Wilson, and Daniel Winnik combined for two shots on goal (three shot attempts, none by Winnik) and no points.

-- A sign that the end is nigh…Marcus Johansson was credited with nine, count ‘em, nine hits.  He also had six shots on goal, the most he had in a game since December 30^th against Buffalo and the most he had ever had in a playoff game.

-- The power play continues its drought after the hot start in Games 1-3 against Philadelphia in the first round.  Going 0-for-4 in this game, the Caps are now 1-for-10 in the series and 1-for-20 in their last six games.

-- On the other hand, the penalty killers continued their amazing run. Killing all three Penguin power plays, the Caps are now 33-for-34 in the postseason (97.0 percent), tops in the league.

-- Every Capital except Justin Williams was credited with at least one hit.  Nine Caps had at leat three hits in piling up a 58-25 edge in that column.

-- Three goals allowed by Braden Holtby seems like an off night, but none could be considered “soft,” and two of them might have been a case of the hockey gods being kinder to the home team than the visitor.  The Kuhnhackl goal will be a snipe from the low slot in the retelling of the tale 20 years from now, but a puck hitting him in the “3” on the “34” on the back of his jersey qualifies as good fortune.  The Hagelin goal was just a matter of the puck having eyes to sneak through to his stick three feet from the goal line.

-- The Caps had a whopping 64-31 edge in shot attempts at 5-on-5, a 28-13 edge in scoring chances, and a 7-4 advantage in high-danger scoring chances.  Their plus-33 Corsi-differential at 5-on-5 was the fifth-highest for a Caps team in the postseason in the post-2004-2005 lockout era (numbers from war-on-ice.com).  Ominously, two of the games in which the Caps had a larger differential came in the 2010 postseason series against the Montreal Canadiens that the Caps lost in seven games.

In the end…

The Caps did everything right…almost.  They outshot, outhit, and outworked the Penguins almost without interruption.  They had balance of effort in terms of pressure from the scoring lines.  Even when falling behind, they stayed to the script and made life difficult for the Penguins.  But two things that crept into their play from time to time have had a bright light cast upon them – slow starts and lack of production down the roster.  It is not enough to get chances, the Caps have to finish them.  There is no trophy for “Corsi.”  As for the down-roster problem, this is the difference in the series so far.  The Penguins have had production from their “no-names.”  The Caps are still waiting.  If they wait much longer, we might be waiting until October for an end to the drought.

Capitals vs. Penguins: Takeaways and Throwaways from Game 2

It was never going to be easy, and the Washington Capitals found that out in Game 2 of their playoff series against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.  It was not the relatively open-offense contest of Game 1, but it was another one-goal game settled by the thinnest of margins.  The low score did not mean the game lacked for takeaways and throwaways.

Takeaways…

• The penalty killers were superb, from the goaltender out.  The Penguins were awarded five power plays and managed nine shots in the ten minutes they skated with the man advantage.  Braden Holtby turned all of them away, making the Caps 30-for-31 on the penalty kill in the post season, best in the league (96.8 percent).
• Matt Niskanen has been a gritty beast in the first two games.  In Game 2 he had three shots on goal, five hits, and two blocked shots, giving him four shots on goal, eight hits, and six blocked shots in the two games.
• Nicklas Backstom was 18-for-20 in faceoffs in Game 2.  The only two draws he lost were the opening faceoff in the second period to Sidney Crosby and a defensive zone draw to Nick Bonino 12 minutes into the third period.
• Not sure which side to put this on, but because he scored the Caps’ only goal, we’ll put it here.  Marcus Johansson gets the Whitman’s Sampler score sheet award for all the “1’s” on it – one goal, one point, minus-1, one shot on goal, one missed shot, one shot blocked, one hit, one giveaway, one takeaway.
• Braden Holtby was outstanding once more, stopping 33 of 35 shots (75 of 80 for the series).  He leads all goalies in goals against average (1.24) and save percentage (.957) in the postseason (minimum: 200 minutes).

Throwaways…

• The Caps split their two games on home ice.  In the post-2004-2005 lockout era, they are 1-2 in series when splitting their first two games at home, losing to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the New York Rangers in 2015, beating the New York Islanders last season.
• Jay Beagle had an uncharacteristically tough time in the circle in Game 2, winning only six of 18 draws (only three of 12 against Crosby).
• Five power plays allowed are too many to allow, even if you do have a Vezina-caliber goaltender backing things up.  It was the fourth time in the postseason that the Penguins had five or more power plays and the first time they failed to score at least one power play goal.  It is a proposition the Caps do not want to test frequently.
• John Carlson had one of those “on the one hand…on the other hand” games.  He had five shots on goal, five hits, and a pair of blocked shots, but he got lost in a no-man’s land tracking Nick Bonino as the latter carried the puck along the wall behind the Caps’ net.  Carl Hagelin filled in to the space Carlson vacated and took a pass from Bonino for a point-blank shot that gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead.  Then, in the third period he was just a split second late getting in Evgeni Malkin’s face at the right wing wall, giving Malkin just enough of an opening to throw the puck in front where Eric Fehr finished the play on a redirect for the game-winning goal.
• Andre Burakovsky might not get as little as 9:59 in ice time again in this series, but he is going to have to do better with the ice time he gets.  His score sheet was almost blank, a shot on goal and a giveaway the only marks on it.

In the end…

The curious part of the series so far is how little impact the big stars have had.  Sidney Crosby is without a point in two games and is a minus-3.  Alex Ovechkin has an assist, but he has been blanked on seven shots on goal.  It has been T.J. Oshie (a hat trick in Game 1) versus the foot soldiers for the Penguins (Fehr and Hagelin in Game 2).  Pittsburgh has been closer to imposing its will on the Caps than the Caps have on the Penguins (Pittsburgh has a Corsi-for of 54.7 percent; numbers from war-on-ice.com), and that is something the Caps are going to have to solve as the teams head to Pittsburgh for Games 3 and 4.

Photo: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

Capitals vs. Penguins: Takeaways and Throwaways from Game 1

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins is in the books.  And what a game it was.  You really don’t want to throw any of it away; you just want to watch it a few times to get some richer context and more nuances with each viewing.  But this is the space in which we do have those takeaways and throwaways, so let’s get to them.

Takeaways…

• When the Caps scored first in this game, it was a good sign.  Recall that the Caps had the best winning percentage in the league when scoring first in games during the regular season (.895/34-2-2).  They came into Game 1 with a 3-0-0 record in playoff games this season when scoring first.  Winning their fourth such game was a healthy sign, if for no other reason that the business-like approach in the regular season has (at least for one game into the second round) carried over into the postseason.
• Andre Burakovsky recorded his first point of this postseason, his first playoff point since recording a pair of goals in Game 4 of last season’s second round series against the New York Rangers.  Breaking the nine-game streak without a point is, Caps fans hope, a turning point.  Pittsburgh does not pose the physically punishing obstacles that Philadelphia did in Round 1, and if Burakovsky finds this pace and style more to his liking, it should give some depth to the Caps’ offense.
• Hits are something of an arbitrary statistic.  It is defined as an instance in which a player initiates contact with an opponent so as to result in the puck carrier losing possession of the puck (it does not require a change in possession).  It sounds simple, but it’s like the strike zone in baseball.  Every umpire has a different one, and every official scorer sees “hits” with different sets of eyes.  All that nonsense aside, the 43-29 edge the Caps had in hits does reflect what appears to be part of the plan, to use their superior size to burden the Penguins physically.  Of the 18 skaters for Pittsburgh, 15 of them absorbed at least one hit (Chris Kunitz, Nick Bonino, and Sidney Crosby were spared).  Of the 43 hits, 21 were inflicted on defensemen, Kris Letang taking the most of that group and of the team as well (six).  This probably had little influence on the results of Game 1, but the accumulation of hits in Games 2, 3, and so on, could have an effect.
• Jason Chimera recorded an assist, but perhaps as important, he had four shots on goal.  Remember that he failed to register a single shot on goal over the last four games of the first round series against the Flyers and had only two shots in all (both in Game 2, in which he scored his only goal of the postseason).  Getting him into the scoring mix is something that the Caps enjoyed in the regular season, and they need to see him doing the same in this round.
• Braden Holtby has spent a lot of his postseason career tending goal in some bad luck.  Oh sure, he is now the career leader in playoff game wins for the Caps (21, passing Olaf Kolzig last night), but consider this.  Last night was the first time in 20 postseason games played at the Verizon Center in which Holtby allowed more than two goals in a game and won.  That’s right.  It was the sixth time in his postseason career in which Holtby allowed three or more goals and the first time he won.  And he did it matching the second-highest number shots he ever faced in a home playoff game (45).  Only in the triple-overtime 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers in Game 3 of the 2012 Eastern Conference semi-finals did he face more (49).

Throwaways…

• Andre Burakovsky was moved off the second line in favor of Marcus Johansson again, but it didn’t cure whatever it is that ails that second line.  Johansson, Justin Williams, and Evgeny Kuznetsov combined for three shots on goal (all by Williams), six shot attempts (four by Williams, two by Johansson), won just five of 14 faceoffs (all of them taken by Kuznetsov), and all of them had a Corsi-differential at 5-on-5 of minus-10 or worse.
• We like the physical edge Tom Wilson brings to the game, but he is getting right up against that edge where it can be a liability.  He did manage to pull Evgeni Malkin off the ice with him on coincidental minor penalties in the second period, which is an exchange the Caps would happily take.  But the hit on Conor Sheary was, depending on which team’s colors you wear, a hockey play gone bad (if you wear red) or dirty (if you wear black and Vegas gold).  It’s not so much the hit on Sheary, per se, as much as it is an indication that Wilson is getting outside of his game somewhat.  It is a fine line between getting under a team’s skin and just running around.  It is something he is still learning.
• Dmitry Orlov is in a bad place right now with decision-making.  It’s got to be hard on the coaches to know what to do with him, because he is a talented young defenseman.  But his almost getting it right in defending Nick Bonino on a rush (right up until he tried to poke the puck away from Bonino, allowing the Penguin to walk around him when Orlov missed) is the sort of mistake that can be catastrophic in close or low scoring games.  That the Penguins scored on that play – neither Caps defenseman being near the scoring play because Orlov and Nate Schmidt got tangled up – might have been overshadowed by the T.J. Oshie hat trick and the win, but it cannot be ignored.
• The 45 shots on goal recorded by Pittsburgh is the second highest number of shots on goal by the Pens against the Caps in the postseason history of this rivalry, topped only by the 65 shots on goal Pittsburgh recorded in Game 4 of their series in 1996 when the Pens won, 3-2, in the fourth overtime.  That is way too many shots allowed, even if you want to argue Braden Holtby had good looks at most of them.  It tied the highest number of shots on goal recorded by a Pens team this year, set back on December 14^th…against the Caps (a 4-1 Washington win).
• We said in the prognosto that the Caps do not want to get into a track meet with this team.  Well, they did, and it might have been lucky they were not burned in Game 1.  The Caps allowed 66 shot attempts by the Penguins at 5-on-5, the most allowed by the Caps in any game this season.  That they had 63 of their own (tied for seventh most this season) mitigates this to a point, but matching Pittsburgh attempt for attempt, especially at high volumes, might not be the way to beat this team over a seven game series.

In the end…

The only thing that matters now is winning.  Whether is it pounding the puck and winning the Corsi battle, getting a wink from the hockey gods, or sunspots, winning is the bottom line on a one line balance sheet.  And the Caps have one win.  Trouble is, winning the first one is hardly new to the Caps over the history of this postseason rivalry, and the Pens are neither very successful in Game 1’s or in playoff overtimes in their recent history.  It suggest that the Caps are going to have to find a higher level of performance to get to “four” before the Penguins in this series.  There were some good signs on that score in Game 1, but there are some serious issues (second line, third defensive pair) that need to be addressed and improved as the teams go to Game 2.

Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images

Washington Capitals Win in Overtime...It Sure Looked Like a Goal

How close do two teams have to play to go to overtime tied, then have the game settled on a goal on which the puck crawled (or not, depending on your point of view) over the goal line?  Looking at the NHL Situation Room video on the overtime goal scored by T.J. Oshie on goalie Matt Murray, it sure looked as if it was a good goal...

Look at where the puck is resting at what appears to be the deepest point at which it entered the goal (it is partially obscured by the shaft of Murray's stick, near the post)...

Not conclusive enough?...How about this (with the goal line enhanced)?...

It sure looks as if the entire puck has crossed the entire line.  But hey, your eyes might tell you something else.

And this was just Game 1.  Hang on tight.  It's going to be a crazy ride.

Washington Capitals Recap -- Penguins at Capitals, Game 1: Capitals 4 - Penguins 3 (OT)

If Game 1 of the playoff series between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins is an indicator of what the rest of the series will be like, it will be one for the ages. The Caps took a lead then fell behind, dominated then were dominated. But in the end, they prevailed in overtime, taking Game 1 in the first extra session, 4-3.

T.J. Oshie was the hero for the Caps, recording a hat trick, including the game-winner in overtime. It was Andre Burakovsky who got the Caps started, however. He started the play by muffling a pass from Evgeni Malkin in the Caps’ zone and starting the puck the other way. Taking a pass from Jason Chimera to start the ensuing rush, he carried the puck down the right side into the Penguins’ zone. At the top of the right wing circle he fed Chimera skating down the middle. Chimera’s shot was stopped by goalie Matt Murray, but Burakovsky followed up and batted the loose puck into the empty net past Murray at the 10:13 mark.

That goal held up until mid-way in the second period when the Pens struck twice in short order. Ben Lovejoy followed up a shot by Nick Bonino, sneaking it past the right pad of goalie Braden Holtby at the 10:40 mark to tie the game. Then, Evgeni Malkin struck just 57 seconds later on a superb backhand shot that he lifted over the right shoulder of Holtby to make it 2-1, Penguins, 11:37 into the period.

The Penguin lead lasted just 33 seconds, though. T.J. Oshie gladly accepted a giveaway by defenseman Olli Maatta just inside the Caps’ blue line and headed the other way. Skating in on Murray, Oshie snapped a shot over the goalie’s left shoulder and under the crossbar to tie the game 12:10 into the period.

Oshie gave the Caps the lead early in the third period, the product of another turnover by the Pens at the Caps’ blue line. This time it was Alex Ovechkin collecting the loose puck and racing down the left side. His shot from the left wing circle was blocked by defenseman Trevor Daley, but the puck came back to Ovechkin. He spied Oshie cutting down the middle and fed him for a backhand shot that slid under the right pad of Murray to make it 3-2, 3:23 into the third period.

Pittsburgh tied the game mid-way through the period, taking advantage of some misfortune on the Caps’ part. The Penguins moved the puck around the wall from Phil Kessel to Carl Hagelin behind the Caps’ net. Hagelin fed Nick Bonino cutting to the net. Bonino one-timed the puck, the shot ticking off the stick of defenseman Nate Schmidt and past Braden Holtby to make it 3-3 at the 8:42 mark.

That would be all the scoring in regulation. Overtime was hardly a passive affair, the teams exchanging a healthy volume of shots. It was the Caps’ eighth shot of the extra period that would decide the contest, and not without some controversy. Trevor Daley tried to backhand the puck up the wall at the players bench, but had his attempt intercepted by Oshie in the neutral zone. Oshie skated into the Penguin zone diagonally across the ice, then circled around the Pittsburgh net. His wrap-around shot appeared to beat Murray’s right pad to the post and sneak over the line, and it was signaled thus by the referee as a good goal. The play went to video review, where it was upheld, Oshie’s hat trick goal being the game-winner at the 9:33 mark, giving the Caps the 4-3 win and a 1-0 lead in the series.

Other stuff…

-- Team defense was occasionally an adventure for the Caps in this game. The goal scored by Ben Lovejoy might have been the most obvious example. With Nick Bonino entering the Caps’ zone with the puck at the start of the play, Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Orlov bumped into one another, allowing Bonino to step around them and take an unimpeded path to the net. His initial shot was stopped by Braden Holtby, but Lovejoy was there for the follow-up with neither defenseman in sight.

-- This is the eighth time in nine meetings against the Penguins in Caps franchise history that the Caps won Game 1 of the series.  They are 1-7 in their previous eight series in which they won Game 1, their only win coming in their only series win against the Pens in franchise history, beating Pittsburgh, four games to two, in 1994.

-- Jay Beagle was a force of nature in this game, in a figurative sense.  He exhibited an uncommon force of gravity with respect to sticks, getting one caught in his visor (giving him the look of a unicorn drawn by Salvador Dali) and another caught in his skate.  He still managed to record six hits, block two shots, and win 12 of 19 faceoffs.

-- Speaking of hits, Tom Wilson had six, but the long term effects of his effort might not be reflected in that column of the score sheet.  He endeared himself to Penguin fans for his on-the-edge takedown of Conor Sheary (that Pens fans, no doubt, will consider a kneeing penalty that wasn’t called) and goading Evgeni Malkin into an embellishment penalty.  Wilson took a coincidental cross-checking penalty on the play, but that is an exchange the Caps will take.

-- In the “game within a game,” strength versus strength favored the Caps in this contest.  The top line for the Caps (Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and T.J. Oshie) were on-ice for three goals for, while the top line for Pittsburgh (Sheary, Sidney Crosby, and Patric Hornqvist) was on ice for the same three goals against.

-- In the “game within a game, part two,” Crosby was held without a point, had one shot on goal, but did win 19 of 28 faceoffs.  Ovechkin recorded an assist, had four shots on goals, and was credited with seven hits.

-- Every one of the 18 Pittsburgh skaters, except for Olli Maatta, recorded at least one shot on goal.

-- Braden Holtby allowed more than two goals in a game for the first time since he allowed four on 28 shots in a 4-3 Game 6 loss to the New York Rangers in last year’s Eastern Conference semifinal.  In the next seven playoff games he played leading up to last night, he was 4-3, 0.98, .964, with two shutouts.  Only in that context could a .933 save percentage (42 saves on 45 shots) last night even hint at an “off” night.

-- Brooks Orpik returned to action last night and logged 25:58 in ice time.  He was one of four defensemen to get more than 25 minutes on the night.  Why?  Nate Schmidt finished with 12:13 in ice time, and Dmitry Orlov finished with a total of 5:44, getting only one shift after the second period, none in the last 27:25 of the game.

-- The Penguins edged the Caps in 5-on-5 shots attempts, 66-63 (51.2 percent Corsi-for).  They also had the edge in total scoring chances (29-24) and in high-danger scoring chances (10-9).  It was fueled largely by a dominant second period in which the Pens out-attempted the Caps at 5-on-5, 27-13.  The scoring chances were also heavily tilted to the Pens, 16-4 overall and 6-0 in high-danger scoring chances (numbers from war-on-ice.com).

In the end…

Don’t get cocky, Caps fans (as if you could, given this team’s history).  The Penguins have a bad recent history in Game 1’s and in playoff overtime.  The loss was Pittsburgh’s eighth straight loss in overtime of a playoff game.  The last time they won one, it was Brooks Orpik delivering the game-winner to eliminate the New York Islanders in 2013.  It was also the seventh straight time the Penguins lost Game 1 when playing on the road.  And we won’t linger on the matter of the Pens and Capitals and Game 1’s and their utter lack of influence on the final series results.

Still, the Caps played well.  One could argue that they could play better, two of the goals coming from breakdowns that allowed Penguins far too much open space in the middle of the ice to dart to the net.  Then again, another goal was off a Capital, but that’s hockey. 

The Caps got what they so sorely lacked in previous playoff games, especially against this opponent – someone to have a big game who is not named “Ovechkin.”  T.J. Oshie stepped up in a big way in this game, scoring in a variety of styles – off the rush, in close, using speed around the net.  It is that next dimension of skill that makes this Caps team as formidable as it is.   But that is hardly a collection of slugs and shrinking violets they are facing, too.  Game 1 is done.  Put it away, and get ready for Game 2.  Count on the Pens being ready.