Penguins 3, Caps 2 (shootout)
Round 1 goes to the Penguins. This game felt a little too familiar. The Caps couldn’t handle power-play prosperity early and found themselves in a tight game that ended in a shootout loss. That makes three overtime or shootout losses in the last six home games at Verizon Center. Washington began the year 5-0 in overtime or shootout games and has now dropped five of its last six in extra time. Read the major details in our game story here.
You come into any game hoping to stop Penguins star center Sidney Crosby. That didn’t quite go as planned. Crosby had a world-class tip-in during the first period that no goalie on earth is going to stop. Crosby added an assist in the third period as his point streak reached a career-high 23 games. That’s tied for the longest by any NHL player since the season after the lockout ended in 2005-06.
“Certainly not surprised that we leave the game and [Crosby] got a goal and an assist,” said Penguins coach Dan Bylsma. “He leads the scoring off and then we needed a big play. Washington had those power plays in the second period and they got back into it. With a goal right from the drop of the puck at the start of the third we get that goal from [Crosby] and his line.”
Mike Green ended a 14-game drought without a goal and looked beyond relieved when he finally blasted one past Marc-Andre Fleury. It was one of Green’s best games of the season and you can see some of his old instincts starting to return – when to jump into the play, when to hold back and make the right defensive play. It’s always a fine balance for Green. But when he gets it right he’s absolutely one of the best defenseman in the NHL.
Tonight he was on his game. But he played even more minutes than normal (season-high 34:03 minutes of ice time) thanks to defenseman Tom Poti catching a stick to the head in the first period. That left Washington with just five defensemen for the duration and that eventually took its toll.
Washington’s penalty kill was a successful 5-for-5, including three big kills in the third period to keep the game tied. Despite their struggles this month, the penalty kill hasn’t been a big part of their issues. The Caps have killed 44 of their last 52 short-handed situations (84.6%) dating to Nov. 26 (14 games). Against the Penguins, at least, Washington is a little sensitive about special teams. In recent history Pittsburgh tends to get more power plays in a given game.
“We did a good job on the PK. We knew we were going to get them,” said Washington coach Bruce Boudreau. “I think we had one more power play than them, which would have been the first time in 16 games that we had more power plays than they did. But we knew [Pittsburgh was] going to get penalties called against us because there was never going to be that big a discrepancy when we’re playing them.”
But it was still a mixed reaction in the locker room afterwards. Some players saw this loss as part of the same-old scenario – losing a tight game they should have won. Put Brooks Laich in that camp.
“Yeah – but we’ve been in positions to win hockey games. We were in position to win against Anaheim and didn’t do it,” Laich said. “It’s getting tiring coming out on the losing end. We’ve got to win hockey games. We can’t pat ourselves on the back because we try hard. It’s not acceptable in this business.”
Let’s end on a semi-positive note. I’m guessing by the end of the two-day Christmas break Laich will be in a better frame of mind as the Caps travel to Raleigh to take on the Hurricanes on Sunday. Washington is, after all, 2-1-2 in its last five games so things are looking better – for now.
“We’re back. We’re back to the style of hockey we can play,” said Caps defenseman Karl Alzner. “And that was one of the questions that was going around. Hopefully, we silenced a few of them. We had a low-scoring game and we played solid for 60 minutes. It was a Grade-A effort from our team and that’s what we like to see.”
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