Sometimes hockey is a really weird sport. For example, in football teams are given a bye week during the regular season. In hockey the Penguins get a bye week in the regular season and the second round of the playoffs.
Jokes aside, it will be the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals yet again. Washington will look to do something they have only done one out of ten tries, beat the Penguins in the playoffs. Pittsburgh will look to stay alive in their quest for a third championship. This matchup is no doubt one of the driving forces for this playoff format. The league wants this matchup even if the results have been one-sided.
Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin enter the series playing great hockey. Sidney Crosby leads the playoffs with six goals and also leads with 13 points. Alex Ovechkin also has six goals while putting up 11 points. He scored twice in Game 6 against the Blue Jackets to put them away. Speaking of the Blue Jackets it is yet another year where they couldn’t win more than two playoff games. They have never won a series. Sergei Bobrovsky did his playoff narrative no favors this postseason and he can’t blame the Penguins. He had a .900 save percentage which isn’t good enough given his pedigree. At some point the two-time Vezina winner has to step up in a playoff setting. In 24 playoff games he has an .891 save percentage.
In the bracket I created before the playoffs I had the Penguins beating the Capitals. I’m not backing away from that prediction. However, stranger things have happened like when the Capitals lost to the Penguins last year despite severely outplaying the Penguins. Goaltending remains the ultimate x-factor in small sample sizes like playoff rounds. The Capitals have returned to Braden Holtby after beginning the playoffs with Philipp Grubauer. Holtby has a .932 save percentage in his five games. Matt Murray is at .911 in six games against the Flyers.
Evgeni Malkin’s health is the biggest issue for the Penguins this series. You can’t replace him. While the Capitals might not be as strong as they were last year they are still a good team that has the offensive fire power to beat the Penguins. The speculation surrounding Evgeni Malkin is that he has an MCL injury. In college I had a grade 2 MCL sprain and I missed three weeks. You could play, but there is a lot of pain and not a lot of strength in your strides. It would be impossible to be as effective prior to the injury.
Neither Evgeni Malkin nor Carl Hagelin participated in practice today. The series could potentially start Thursday night and go head to head with the NFL draft. It could also start Saturday due to a Wizards game on Friday. A Saturday start would be beneficial to the Penguins.
Thanks for reading!
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