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Pittsburgh pounding: Penguins beat Caps 7-4

By Chris Cerullo

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February 2, 2018 10:42 pm

As you may know, the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins are very familiar with one another. The match up is one that has brought a lot of sadness to Caps fans for decades now, but it’s also a match up that always features some pretty insane star power.

Which Metropolitan Division rival would break the 1-1 season series deadlock?

Phil Kessel had a slam dunk to open the scoring, Christian Djoos gifted another to Carl Hagelin, but Alex Ovechkin would grab one himself before the end of the first.

Patric Hornqvist opened the second with a quick power play salvo. Dmitry Orlov responded with one of his own at even strength. Evgeny Kuznetsov completed the Russian scoring trifecta moments later.

Evgeni Malkin opened the third with a goal and then seconds later Ovechkin would tally his second of the game. Bryan Rust restored the Pittsburgh lead on a power play, Kessel then would add to said lead, as would Malkin.

Penguins beat Caps 7-4.

  • A game involving talent like Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Braden Holtby, Phil Kessel, Nicklas Backstrom, etc. all on the ice at the same time is a rare sight. That is of course if you forget that the Olympics were once kind of a big deal. I’m sure the NHL would prefer you do that.
  • No one let me know that Ryan Reaves still plays hockey. That’s a shame. I guess “plays hockey” could be argued though.

  • That Christian Djoos turnover was pretty atrocious, no doubt about that. I just hope it doesn’t lead to one of those trademark “pull the same rope, feed the same wolf” scratches from Barry Trotz. Give the rook a break, mainly because Taylor Chorney is not good and Djoos is.
  • The PPG Paints color of the year is called “black flame”. Sure as hell looks like blue to me.
  • Braden Holtby was quite the busy boy, and a lot of that business was pulling pucks out of the back of his net. I don’t really know specifically what’s up with the Caps man-to-man team defense this year, but it sure seems like it’s pretty easily broken down far too often. Whatever it is, the problem also seems to be exacerbated by fast teams and Pittsburgh is like Sonic fast. Also doesn’t help that Holtby would probably like a few of those back.
  • If you’re Russian and played in this game, you scored tonight. If you’re Russian and didn’t even play in this game just go ahead and also give yourself a goal.
  • Speaking of Russians and scoring goals, Ovi straight up burnt Kris Letang for his marker in the first. His 31st tally was some “vintage Ovi” stuff, and by vintage Ovi we’re talking MVP caliber. His 32nd tally was pretty cool too.

  • They gave Tom Wilson and Ovechkin assists on Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s goal which kinda means the hand pass should have been called, but hey the NHL doesn’t really ever seem to follow or know their own rules anyway.
  • Dmitry Orlov needs to shoot more. Every time he scores, I feel like we say this. Alan May and Pat Holden agree.
  • Name a more iconic duo than the Penguins and odd man rushes. It feels like for the last three years, every fifth rush they have is with a one or two man advantage.

  • The Pens power play is ridiculous and the Caps penalty kill is still mediocre at best. That combination resulted in some fireworks for the home team. The Caps have now given up three power play goals to the Pens in two of their three match ups.
  • “Yinz” is the worst colloquialism of all time.

Joe B suit of the night

Next up for the Caps is a Sunday matinee at Capital One Arena against the “not a real expansion team”, Vegas Golden Knights

Full Coverage of Caps at Penguins

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