The Caps did not play their best in Game Four. Without Tom Wilson and falling victim to their coach’s ignorant whims, the top line sputtered. The Penguins dictated play and certainly won the shot quality battle, which is sort of incidental to the scoreboard battle, which they also won.

The Penguins struck first; Guentzel scoring off a lucky rebound off Niskanen’s body. TJ Oshie scored a remarkable power-play goal assisted by Nick Backstrom, but Evgeni Malkin’s marker survived two kinds of challenges to put Pittsburgh in the lead after forty minutes. Guentzel got the empty-netter.

Penguins beat the Capitals 3-1. The series is tied 2-2.

• With Tom Wilson out for a hit that in hindsight was a despicable headshot well worth a three-game suspension, Barry Trotz iced Devante Smith-Pelly in Wison’s slot next to Kuznetsov and Ovechkin. It was a disaster. In addition to obliterating Ovechkin’s offense, the Caps spent those shifts in their own zone fending off Pittsburgh’s best attacks, including the Guentzel goal. Ovi had two shot attempts, both misses, one of which from center ice. The Penguins owned two-thirds of the play while he was on the ice. That was the entire margin of defeat right there.
• That’s not DSP’s fault. He’s a serviceable depth player on a fair contract. The fault lies with the coach for putting him out of his depth in spite of evidence so compelling that this result was tragically predictable. The fault also lies with Tom Wilson for his dumb-ass hit in Game Three and the hundred dumb-ass hits in the months prior that got his punishment increased by becoming a repeat offender.
• Jake Guentzel is everywhere. He scored two goal, his ninth and tenth of the postseason, and committed back-to-back penalties. He might be the G.O.A.T. and the Escape Goat all in one. Sometimes I have a hard to figuring out if the guys racking up points on a line with Crosby are good or just fortunate. Guentzel’s good. And fortunate too.
• Nick Backstrom’s pass to TJ Oshie was some cyborg taskmaster stuff.
• Evgeni Malkin scored a double-controversial goal. It was initially reviewed to confirm the puck crossed the goal line. It did, and we don’t even have to mention the word parallax (see the birds eye below). Then Barry Trotz challenged it for goalie interference, which was silly and not with discussing. It was a good goal, obviously, in hindsight.

• Something the Malkin and Guentzel goals had in common: Sidney Crosby, who still has been on ice for every Penguins goal this series. Ridiculous. He’s so good I hate him.

Joe B doing lacrosse in a suit of the night (Thanks, Susan S.)

Holtby played good with a very tough workload. Lars Eller and Jakub Vrana did some great work. Nick Backstrom’s pass to TJ Oshie was next level. That was all of the good stuff. Everything else was bad, and all of it should be laid at the feet of Barry Trotz, who failed to make an adjustment despite his top-line experiment being an obvious failure after just one period, and Tom Wilson, who took himself out of this series through sheer recklessness.

The Caps come home now. I hope they also come to their senses.

Full Coverage of Game Four

Headline photo: Joe Sargent