There was an obvious common denominator in every puck the Washington Capitals managed to get past Matt Murray on Sunday afternoon, every shot that sent the crowd at Capital One Arena into an absolute tizzy during a Game 2 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. It’s a meeting of two top teams, both of which are among the most popular in the league, and just as everyone expected entering the series, one of the major storylines through two games of an already excellent Round 2 tilt is the battle between Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.
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Ovechkin, who had his tongue out when he scored in Game 1, didn’t do that here, but he may as well have. Sullivan said Malkin did not experience a setback and could return for Game 3 in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Nashville was the most-penalized team in the league during the regular season but hasn’t taken one its past two games.
There may have been some fear and trepidation on the Washington bench, but this time head coach Barry Trotz’s team would hold on to the lead and even added an empty-net goal.
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Holtby stood tall all game making 32 of 33 saves and surviving the no-goal controversy in the third with Hornqvist. Washington has gotten off to a very nice start. Offensively, his game’s come a long ways, but his physical play is, he’s trying to walk the line of being a real physical player, but play clean, keeping his elbows down, feet on the ice. Defensively, the Washington Capitals are allowing 2.9 goals per game and are killing 80.3 percent of their opponents power plays. Through two games against Washington, Pittsburgh has been unable to convert once, despite five opportunities. The Capitals must focus on getting pucks on net early and often against the Penguins, as they’ve proven they’re vulnerable to early goals against. Teams playing in front of their fans are just 25-25 so far in the postseason. Even so, Sullivan said his team won’t let them linger. Meanwhile, Washington was able to kill all three of their own penalties. Everyone who saw the replay knew it was a goal, so the Capitals really caught a break. This happened after Pens forward Patric Hornqvist and Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov each got sent off for roughing. “Given his history and things like that, I’m sure they’ll take a good look at it”. A recipe that needs to not continue if the Penguins want to be successful in advancing past this series. The Penguins have plenty to look forward to; not only will they have home-ice advantage after stealing Game 1 with a third period flurry Thursday night, they also potentially will have star center Evgeni Malkin back in the fold after he missed the first two games of the series with a lower-body injury. One has to wonder if the Penguins were down one-game-to-none coming in, if Malkin would have sped up the process to get back. Holtby was the difference maker in a bad way in Game 1. Nashville avoided heading to Canada in an 0-2 hole with a thrilling double-overtime escape in Game 2.
