He is aggressive, he’ll lay a big hit – as Sidney Crosby experienced on Saturday night – and he’ll join the rush to help the Capitals offense score loads of goals. He is especially important in a hard-hitting series like the Washington-Pittsburgh one.
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The NHL suspended Orpik three games for interference after a risky hit to the head on Maatta. After the hit, it was expected to be a major penalty, however the defenseman only received a penalty for interference.
Orpik and Maatta were teammates on the Penguins in 2013-14, and Orpik said he talked to Maatta after the game. Always a punishing hitter, Orpik is a key player for the Capitals.
The rest of the Penguins’ lineup will be a game time decision.
In the meantime, the Penguins are without Maatta for the foreseeable future. There is no official status yet on Maatta as he is still being evaluated. For years, teams have tried to offset Pittsburgh’s speed by trying to knock the Penguins around in an attempt to slow them down. Fehr found himself receiving a nice pass from Evgeni Malkin, which Fehr was able to re direct this pass and put it in the back of the net. “It’s going to be equal for every team”. Pittsburgh finished the game with a plus-11 differential in shots and plus-25 differential in shot attempts.
The Predators finally got on the board at the 12:56 mark of the third period when Mattias Ekholm tied the game at one. It will also be very interesting to see how Ovechkin responds to that pressure of the defense. “It didn’t look good”. The Capitals will likely have Nate Schmidt fill in Orpik’s spot on the top defensive pair alongside John Carlson, and then will reincorporate Orlov, who was benched for Game 2 in the series because of a miscue in the opener. He managed to have just three shots blocked or go wide this season, which is down from the 3.5 last season.
“We’ll leave that to him and me”, Orpik said. This didn’t happen in Game 2, as the Penguins completely shut down all three of them. The Capitals outhit the Penguins 43-29 in Game 1, though Pittsburgh took a small advantage in Game 2, the first time the Penguins have been credited with more hits than their opponent in the playoffs.
The Capitals are the far more physical team and saw forward Tom Wilson fined for a knee-on-knee collision with Conor Sheary in Game 1.
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This was a late hit to the head of a player that was in no position to be hit and resulted in an injury that is going to keep him out of at least one game, and perhaps even more.
