Caps 4, Pittsburgh Penguins 3 (shootout)
Make it three wins for the Caps against their nemesis with one left to go in Pittsburgh. Maybe it means something. Probably it doesn’t. But it still feels good for a team that’s now just three points from clinching the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference – maybe even before any other NHL team secures a playoff spot. Plenty of highlights from Wednesday’s 4-3 shootout win over the Penguins. It was still an entertaining brand of hockey – even without Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin (foot injury). Caps forward Brooks Laich was on the shelf, too, thanks to his freak injury at practice on Tuesday. He was seen gallivanting about the Verizon Center press box in a suit and tie sporting a nasty cut under his left eye. Been a while since he last did that – 257 games in a row, to be exact.
So Mike Knuble scored his first career shootout goal despite not realizing he’d even be tabbed by Bruce Boudreau. Jose Theodore stopped 39 of 42 shots, including five in overtime and another two key ones in the shootout to solidify his hold on the starting spot when the Stanley Cup playoffs start. Boudreau even hinted before the game that Theodore could play in back-to-back games for the first time when Washington heads back to Carolina Thursday night. He still held out the option of playing rookie Semyon Varlamov, though.
Both teams showed some spirit, even if the game turned sloppy at times. Goals by Max Talbot and Bill Guerin – that one off a sublime power-play pass from Sidney Crosby – put the Penguins up 2-1. But give credit to Alex Semin for his shorthanded beauty at 5:36 of the second period. He knocked down a power-play pass in mid air, settled the puck and took off down the ice before unleashing a wrister past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Just great stuff and exactly why Boudreau has Semin out there so often on the penalty kill. It was a momentum changer, for sure. Just 1:56 later, Eric Fehr notched goal No. 21, tipping home a blast from defenseman Mike Green. Fehr now has goals in four of his last five games. It took a Jordan Staal goal with 3:06 left to mute the crowd and delay the Caps’ celebration. Let’s give some credit to Staal for his second-period hit on Semin, too. The Penguins had 30 on the night and that was the best one by far.
Washington is now 6-0-1 in its last six regular-season games against the Penguins. This is also the second straight won in extra time. The Caps have outscored Pittsburgh 17-1 in the third period during that stretch. Yikes! That stat stretches to 16-2 over the last two seasons in the third period. For this exercise we’re going to pretend that pesky second-round playoff series last year never happened.
Game Notes
» Caps are 7-0-1 when their opponent top 40 shots on goal. Seems like a risky way to make a living, but whatever.
» Alex Ovechkin’s +44 rating is the best in Caps history and 33% better than the NHL’s best non-Caps player this season. He also had a secondary assist on Knuble’s goal and with 53 assists is one shy of his career high. He still leads the NHL in points with 98.
» Nicklas Backstrom’s 60 assists – he had the primary on Knuble’s goal in the second period – puts him in a tie for sixth in Caps history. He’s also just six shy of his career high from last season.
» Hard hat goes to Shaone Morrisonn. I’ve long stopped trying to figure NHL stats on a game-to-game basis. But his nine hits actually seemed about right. No one else was even close and that’s the second-most by a Caps player this year. Ovechkin had 10 in a game at Detroit. Morrisonn did finish a -1 in 20:18 of ice time.
» Washington is now 49-14-10 with 108 points. That matches their total from last season. The Penguins are 42-25-7 with 91 points and remain in first place in the Atlantic Division. Second-place New Jersey is 43-25-4 with 90 points, but has played two fewer games than Pittsburgh.
» Knuble’s goal was his 26th of the season. He has 20 goals in his last 34 games. Included in that total are three goals against the Penguins, including the overtime winner on Feb. 7.
» Mike Green is now two points shy of his career high. His assist on Fehr’s goal puts him at 71 overall – tops among NHL defensemen.
Notable Quotable
Caps coach Bruce Boudreau on not giving up down 2-0 in the shootout:
“It’s never say die. I don’t know how often you go down 2-0 in the shootout and you come back. It’s not the scoring. It’s the thinking ‘Oh, no, we’re done. No way.’ And I don’t think we ever think that. We’re down going into the third and I knew we thought we could win and we get the lead. We give one up…bad goal and all. There are lots of reasons to get down. They have five power plays to our one, but I think that’s the kind of group we have.”
Boudreau on the Capitals’ five penalties:
“Five penalties is too many. That’s 10 minutes in the box. That means the lines get all skewed and you’re sitting guys that you don’t want to sit for 10 minutes. That’s two games in a row and it’s stick penalties so that’s something we have to cure.”
Penguins coach Dan Bylsma on the up-and-down third period:
“One of the things we need to get better at is controlling our emotions in the game, the ups and downs, and then sticking with our game plan. Things didn’t go our way in the third [period]. We came out with a lead and gave it up, but our guys even when Washington was playing some tight defense for four or five minutes where we didn’t get anything going, we kept at it and got back to the offensive zone and scored that big goal from [Jordan] Staal.”
