For an immeasurably welcome change, there’s shock, desperation and utter dread in mid-April for the NHL team that resides on the other side of Breezewood, Pa. Certainly the Washington Capitals’ postseason still could end in a first-round disappointment and second-guessing for a franchise that once seemed assured of an annual assault on the Stanley Cup.
But the Pittsburgh Penguins, who finished the regular season with the fourth-best record in the league and an enviable cast of stars befitting a prohibitive playoff favorite, may be swept by hated in-state rival Philadelphia and appear to be unraveling spectacularly at every seam.
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Bad blood is intrinsic between the Penguins and the Flyers, but the chippiness and ugliness — and the downright atrocious netminding by Marc-Andre Fleury — have distracted Pittsburgh from the efficiency and superior talent that normally make it so fearsome.
The Caps haven’t yet had Tomas Vokoun or Michal Neuvirth at their disposal. Fleury, known as a clutch goalie, has allowed 17 of Philadelphia’s record 20 goals in three games.
Meanwhile, NHL leading scorer Evgeni Malkin, who had 109 points in the regular season, doesn’t have a goal, and the Penguins have resorted to getting behind unusually angry Sidney Crosby. He is a rallying point, but losing top defenseman Kris Letang to a fighting major and game misconduct in the first period of Game 3 was just sloppy, and that’s before disciplinary hearings Tuesday for James Neal, who pummeled Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux, and Arron Asham, who took out Brayden Schenn with an ugly cross-check.
All of a sudden, the Caps getting overwhelmed by Tampa Bay in last year’s 4-0 conference semifinal series defeat seems tame in comparison. (Vancouver’s current meltdown against Los Angeles hasn’t yet registered.)
Pittsburgh faces the same long odds heading into Wednesday’s Game 4 that Washington did last year in Florida: Only three teams in NHL history have come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a seven-game series. The Penguins don’t appear to have the kind of mettle to pull off such a miracle, having allowed themselves to be lured into just the kind of series they never wanted to play.
That’s just fine in D.C.
– Craig Stouffer
