The Capitals are a team that regularly dresses Chandler Stephenson, Devonte Smith-Pelly, Jay Beagle and Alex Chiasson due to the staggering incompetence of their general manager.
The problem is that these guys shouldn't' be anywhere near anything other than a fourth line in the NHL (if that) and with Andre Burakovsky and Tom Wilson out of the lineup, their lack of depth at forward really hurts them.
Contrast that with the Penguins who have a "third" line that would do as most teams first lines.
Also, the Penguins are a great team, this has been a pretty good series and for it to be tied after four games should not surprise anyone.
Now it's time for a best of three with two games in Washington. This is where the Penguins season long bad luck really screws them, because if you spend any time looking at their stats at all, it becomes clear that they were the NHL's best team this year, but that their record was hurt by their low shooting and save percentages. The fact that they don't have home-ice advantage is a bit of a joke, on the part of luck.
For them to have even made the playoffs though - It's actually pretty impressive.
The Pens were 29th in save percentage and 24th in shooting percentage. That is the kind of bad luck that would force virtually any team to miss the playoffs.
The Penguins had the third lowest PDO in the NHL, and only one other team in the bottom ten (the Sharks) also made the Playoffs. Only 3 of the top 16 PDO teams missed the playoffs. (The Devils were the third low PDO team to make the playoffs, if you're wondering).
When this series started, I said that if the Caps wanted to win, they'd have to get extremely good goaltending from Holtby. So far, that seems to hold true.
The Capitals are giving a great effort, all things considered. But this isn't like last year when the Capitals were far and away the superior team.
This year, it's reversed. The Capitals are up against the League's best, and they're holding their own, but if they want to advance, they're going to need a little luck and a lot of Holtby.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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