Photo by Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Capitals pull away in the second period and soundly defeat the Penguins by a 8-3 final score
Pregame
The Penguins honor Mike Lange with a pre-game video tribute.
Pittsburgh gets Evgeni Malkin back, Sidney Crosby is giving it a go but Bryan Rust is sick and unable to play.
The visiting Washington Capitals have this lineup.
First period
The game starts and ABC is...in a commercial break following their previous DET/MIN game ending late in overtime. Great job guys.
The Pens play sloppy too, turning the puck over to make Matt’s Grzelcyk’s change bad timing. The Caps come up the ice, Erik Karlsson is just standing there. Alex Nedeljkovic slides almost completely into the corner for unknown reasons and Ethen Frank kicks a goal in past impromptu goalie Kris Letang. Good gracious what a mess.
The refs review the play and deem Frank’s kick to be legal.
A little later Vincent Desharnais and Pierre-Luc Dubois get tangled up behind the play and go to the box. Nothing comes of it.
Penguin pressure forces Lars Eller to take a hooking penalty, lots of zone time and shot attempts but they can’t score. Kevin Hayes slams a shot from right in front solidly off the post in the closest chance.
Malkin gets grabbed by Jakub Chychrun to earn another Pittsburgh power play. The first group spins their wheels but the second unit strikes when Malkin makes a great pass for Kris Letang to hammer home. 1-1 game.
The Pens end the period with the last 20 shot attempts, aided by having the two power plays. Pretty good start aside from the atrocious rush that led to the goal against. Total shots are 9-4 PIT, score tied at one a piece.
Second period
It’s a nightmare of a five-goal against period for the Pens.
It starts with Martin Fehervery on a rush. Letang pushes up to force something not there, P.O. Joseph lets the pass go through him, Nedeljkovic gets beat short-side low. 2-1 Caps.
The rare moment of sun comes when Rickard Rakell one touches a pass up for Crosby to get in alone. In classic fashion, Crosby uncorks a backhander that beats goaltender Logan Thompson like a rented mule. 2-2 game.
It doesn’t last long, the Caps pull ahead when Chychrun turns Desharnais inside out and fires one by Nedeljkovic. 3-2.
Washington gets another one, traffic in front allows Chychrun the opportunity for his second of the game and 16th of the season. 4-2.
The wheels are officially off when the Caps strike just eight seconds after that goal with another. The Pens’ defense parts very easily and Alaksei Protas zooms in and ends Nedeljkovic’s night early.
Joel Blomqvist is in the game, he doesn’t fare much better giving up a goal a few minutes later when Grzelcyk just stands and watches Tom Wilson tip a shot from in front. 6-2.
Well that was a shame. The Pens were doing so well early, the stronger of the two teams for a while. But when it gets bad, it gets really bad.
Third period
Pittsburgh gets into penalty trouble, Desharnais goes back to the box and then Kris Letang joins him on a double-minor for high-sticking. That gives a seemingly endless amount of power play time for the Caps to setup a shooting gallery. Alex Ovechkin was almost invisible in the first two periods but steps up to fire a bunch of shots. Blomqvist stops all that Noel Acciari doesn’t, with some help from a post once. Somehow, Pittsburgh survives without yielding another goal.
A while later Malkin goes to the box and the Caps keep their foot to the gas with the big dogs on the ice. Desharnais fails to clear the puck when he has the chance and a few passes later it’s Dylan Strome’s turn to tack one on the board. 7-2
The Pens get a garbage time goal, Caps with a poor change leaves Philip Tomasino with some space. He makes the most of it with a nice shot, Thompson kicks a rebound out to where Danton Heinen can return to sender with his first goal back as a Penguin. 7-3.
Washington gets one more for the road, Brandon Duhaime races down the ice to catch up to a puck that trickles in just slow enough where Blomqvist is handcuffed. Duhaime pounces on it and fires it in. 8-3.
Luckily the clock runs out before any more damage can be done.
Some thoughts
- The Penguins didn’t deserve to get bailed out from Frank’s early goal with how sloppy that every player was out there, but boy that kicking motion not being over-turned was an unexpected decision. Rickard Rakell didn’t get the same grace recently, but that call on the ice was no-goal. The burden to reverse a call is and should be high but it’s just as much of a gray area call where one never knows what the refs might see or enforce on any given play.
- The list of players with a bad game was a long one, perhaps no one making mistakes ending up in the back of the net more frequently than Desharnais today. Showed some of his limitations with his skating and puck moving ability and at this level a good team is going to expose and pick on those vulnerabilities.
- Malkin was the best Penguin player in this game, which isn’t much but it’s something. Back for his first game in almost a month since getting hurt on January 25th, Geno had a lot of jump in his skating.
- More an observation than a critique but even without the services of Bryan Rust today the Pens chose to have Hayes on the top power play, not Malkin.
- For a few games the Pens had gotten away with not really missing Marcus Pettersson. The absence was felt big time today, the team finally looked like they sent their one capable defensive defenseman away for a first round pick on this day.
- Nice to see Crosby willing to compete and play in this game, less than 100% and about 36 hours after the 4 Nations ended. He deserved to get rewarded with a goal, and points in six-straight games (which isn’t an official streak since he missed two of the team’s games before the break).
- Rakell is up to a six-game point streak though. Very nice look for him to keep it going.
- Teams are always hesitant to pull when there’s another game the next day, but Sullivan didn’t have a choice but to lift Nedeljkovic after giving up five goals on 14 shots. Nedeljkovic was 5-2-1 with a .934 save% in his last eight games entering today but he came back to Earth in a major way.
- We can put a helicopter on another planet but can’t generate a consistently working microphone for NHL referees to announce penalties on the ice.
- Eight Washington goals but no points for the Great 8. Very quiet game for him outside of the power plays in the third period. But that’s about the only aspect that wasn’t going the Caps’ way today.
Well, that’s over. The Pens are right back at it tomorrow afternoon against the Rangers.
