The Washington Capitals made the trip up to Pittsburgh on Saturday night to take on everyone’s favorite Penguins. And by everyone’s favorite we of course mean the opposite. Those guys will forever suck.
Ryan Poehling opened the scoring for the Pens on a semi-breakaway. Chad Ruhwedel doubled that lead. Jake Guentzel made it three. Tom Wilson got the Caps on the board in the third. An Alex Ovechkin one-timer and a Dylan Strome dirty goal tied the game. Anthony Mantha basically gifted Evgeni Malkin the winner.
Penguins beat Caps 4-3.
- Before the game started a pretty huge Russian report dropped which laid out that Evgeny Kuznetsov has apparently requested a trade and first did so two years ago. You should read our post on it.
- I felt like the Pens had the clear, far better scoring chances in the first period. The Caps were having a really tough time moving the puck out of their zone and then when they did it was a lot of one-and-done stuff in the offensive zone. Casey DeSmith was far too comfortable in his net.
- Pittsburgh defends Alex Ovechkin with the Caps set up on a power play different than I think every other team in the NHL. They don’t fully commit to the man-marking we’ve seen other teams do as they sorta set up in more of a diamond shape which messes with the usual passing lanes without taking a penalty killer fully out of the play. I’m not 100 percent sure about its effectiveness but it’s an interesting thing to watch Ovi try and solve.
- I don’t like seeing Sonny Milano out of the lineup but it’s nice to see Aliaksei Protas given a shot in the top six. Hopefully, we see a little more of it while Milano is on the shelf. I think he has untapped offensive potential that will never be met if he spends his entire career grinding it out on fourth lines.
https://t.co/4HTrQdHkAX pic.twitter.com/ZfyABtRn1l
— salute emoji addict (@OVECHKlN) March 24, 2023
- Goodness me was DeSmith playing out of his mind in this game at certain stages or what? The Pens were nowhere near the Caps for the vast majority of the second period but they apparently summoned the second coming of 2010 Jaroslav Halak.
- Rasmus Sandin was on the ice for two more goals. I’m not sure he was directly responsible for either but still. He also got into a fight and it didn’t go well. I don’t love Josh Archibald taking advantage of the situation there like that. You know he isn’t answering the bell if he gets asked by Tom Wilson to do the same.
- Alex Ovechkin grabbed his 42nd goal of the season and the 822nd of his career. As you all know by now, that’s a win right there. The Pens honored him in the arena for passing Gordie Howe on the all-time goals list.
- The comeback was legitimately fun but unfortunately, this one did not end great because Anthony Mantha forgot how to hockey. At least the Hershey Bears won and clinched a spot in the AHL playoffs.
The Caps will be off on Sunday and then won’t play again until Wednesday at home against the New York Islanders. The final stretch is here.
Headline photo courtesy of @mood_jude/Twitter
