The Pittsburgh Penguins’s very stoppable force (2-6-2 in their last ten games) collided with the Washington Capitals’ very movable object ($40 million of injuries) on Wednesday night. One was way better than the other, plus their goalie wasn’t leaky.
After a scoreless period, Jason Zucker got lucky as Darcy Kuemper kicked in his casual shot. Brock McGinn’s shorthanded goal made it 2-0, and Jeff Petry’s blue-line shot made it 3-0.
Marcus Johansson caught a below-the-goal-line pass from Sonny Milano to give Washington their only goal of the night. Pittsburgh got the empty-netter.
Caps lose.
- I really liked Washington’s first two shifts. Pittsburgh fed them turnovers, and they buzzed the net early. The rest of Washington’s good play happened while chasing the lead.
- Sidney Crosby sure likes to pick on Martin Fehervary. Crosby mayyyyyy have gotten away with a few penalties there.
- Darcy Kuemper had a very bad night. He kicked one in, he got deked in another, and he somehow didn’t track a third. It’s fun and easy to characterize which goals are “bad” or “soft”, which is why I do it, but it’s also lazy, which is also why I do it. Bottom line: Kuemper allowed three goals through two periods. The line just above that bottom line: The Caps allowed Pittsburgh to generate 2.53 expected goals in that same span. (By the end of the game, Kuemper was only around 0.15 below expected.) Anyway, the team was going to lose this game with anything less than a superhuman goalie performance, and DK didn’t come anywhere near that.
Hey, we'll take it! pic.twitter.com/7QMO5uYorg
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 10, 2022
- The Caps kept Kuemper in net for the third. I think that was a wise call. This game was lost way ahead of his crease.
okay here’s that bad typography pic.twitter.com/WiU6OmozCj
— good tweet pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) November 10, 2022
- Here’s the part of the recap where we rag on the national broadcast. Rag is also what it’s called when your vertical margins look ragged and bad. Some of the numbers have two digits, some have three, one is in thousands of dollars but the others are in millions. They’re all center-aligned, so they start and end in different horizontal places. Whoever built that graphic out hates you. You, specifically. I’m more upset over this graphic than I am over the hockey game. Please see my suggested edits and circle back with any questions on the deliverable before COB.
- Peter Laviolette tried Alex Ovechkin out on some shifts with Strome and Milano. Interesting idea, though it was very unsuccessful. Sonny Milano got that great pass to Marcus in the third though, so don’t feel too bad for him. I don’t think he’s going back to Hershey.
- The Penguins lost three defenders to injury, at least for a minute. Jan Rutta got hurt from (or shortly after) this big, clean hit by Alex Ovechkin. Pierre-Olivier Joseph got hurt at some point I didn’t noticed, and Jeff Petry looked awkward in the third but stayed in the game.
now this is more like it — strong suit game @Tarik_ElBashir pic.twitter.com/4yvkiWqygo
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) November 10, 2022
A blowout loss to a struggling division rival stings, but I’m not gonna make any grand statements. I’m just gonna tap the sign.
I just hope they don’t float themselves out of playoff contention. Two games against Tampa will tell us more.
Headline photo: @Eckleysoprano
