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Suboptimal start: Penguins beat Capitals 4-0 in season opener

By Peter Hassett

 4 Comments

October 13, 2023 10:13 pm

The Washington Capitals carefully descended into the brackish, murky waters of the 2023-24 season with a definitive, home-ice loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.

It was Evgeni Malkin who scored first, taking advantage of a tasty turnover from Ovechkin. The Pens got two power plays in the second period, both resulting in goals by Sidney Crosby. Come the third period, the Caps didn’t have much fight in them; Reilly Smith had an open lane to make it 4-0

Caps lose.

  • If you’re still gearing up for the season, Chris prepared a really helpful primer on all the changes and important updates leading up to today. Read that first.
  • In a perverse way that I would never admit in public but I’m fine sharing it with you here, secretly: I’m kind of relieved the Caps got smoked tonight. I feel like it let me think less about how the game was getting decided and more about how this new version of the team looks. The scoreboard stings, sure, but I think I saw some good stuff out there and I want to talk about it with you.
  • I know we’ve been talking about it all preseason, but I want to do it again: Nicklas Backstrom looks much better than he did last season. Back in the spring he always looked to me like he couldn’t accelerate. I can’t say he is back to where he was in 2020 or 2017 or anything like that, but I think it’s safe to say he looks better. Backstrom’s line (with Ovechkin and Oshie) was Washington’s best, which is wild to say in October of 2023.
  • Alex Ovechkin did an Eldritch Blast into Erik Karlsson.

  • Connor McMichael didn’t have the puck a ton, but he created plays when he did. I wonder how much the player has evolved since I last got a real good look at him, which, jesus, was like March-April of 2022. Is he going to be a setup guy on the wing for someone else (Wilson?), or will he be the individual volume shooter like he was way back when? He had five attempts through two periods in this one, so I suspect it’s still the latter, but this is something I’ll be following. In any case, his line had a tremendous, heavy shift early in the game but mostly sputtered without the puck otherwise.
  • The big doubt in some heads is about Washington’s defensive roster. Rasmus Sandin didn’t relieve those doubts. He had a funky turnover to give Malkin a scoring chance in the first, then he slashed Eller to give the Penguins their second power play (and second power-play goal) of the night. Those re two unfortunate plays that I don’t think reflect his otherwise solid play on the night.
  • I want more time before I have to talk about how the Capitals are playing through neutral, but I think Sonny Milano is well suited to it – whatever it is. Maybe it’s just that he’s a model of how I want the team to play – quicker and with a bit more finesse.
  • With Darcy Kuemper out celebrating his baby, Charlie Lindgren got the unexpected start in net.  I thought he was okay. Giving up skill goals to Malkin and Crosby isn’t something that only scrubs do.
  • Seems like there’s an awful lot of new to get used to this season. New coach, new faces, new TV network. The game pages on NHL.com are different, so it’s not easy to get to the reports I like. The way I used to use Twitter isn’t possible anymore, so I don’t know how to riff with you goblins anymore. But in all the upheaval, one thing remains consistent: Evgeny Kuznetsov is gonna do whatever he wants out there. He’s freelancing during five-on-five, and I don’t know what his assignments are supposed to be on the penalty kill. Does he?
  • Washington’s fourth line (Malenstyn, Dowd, and Mantha) most often stacked up against Sidney Crosby’s line (and consequently Erik Karlsson). The result was as expected, so I don’t think I learned much about those three guys tonight. It must be a big adjustment for Nic Dowd in what he could expect from his linemates one year ago (Hathaway in particular) compared to now.
  • In the final minute, Tom Wilson punched Marcus Pettersson a bunch in the head.
  • Nothing good on the power play, which went 0 for three. I can’t tell what the plan is for gaining the offensive zone.
  • Nothing good to say about the third period, so I’ll say nothing about it at all.

Joe B suit of the pregame

Not the best start – shut out by your arch-nemesis on home ice. But the hockey season is a long march. We’ve hardly even started. The stats are too paltry to worry about. All you’ve got is vibes, and even those are too gloopy to grip for long. All we know is that we don’t know nothing yet, so let’s stay chill until there’s good reason not to.

Headline photo: Pennybacker

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