The Capitals may have started the year off poorly by their standards, but last night’s victory over the Penguins has them gaining ground in the standings. Washington has a game in hand and now only remains one point behind the Penguins.
Goaltending was really good for both teams with Braden Holtby ultimately getting the upper hand by the end of this one. Both Matt Murray and Holtby were victimized by some nice deflections with Murray being on the wrong end more often.
The Washington power play remains one of my favorite in hockey. Their personnel are asked to do things that maximize their talent. It doesn’t matter if everybody knows that Ovechkin is their number one option because the other guys on the power play don’t aimlessly force it to him. Don’t get me wrong there are still moments where they force it over, but overall you have guys like John Carlson up top who are not afraid to shoot at all. Because of this assertive decision making it does open up Ovie for more looks that are clear. I can remember at least one of these situations where Ovechkin missed a wide open net on a pass from Kuznetsov. When Pittsburgh tries to take Ovie away Carlson just lets it go. The result last night was two goals. Here are the examples:
Both goals involved deflections, but you can’t have a deflection if there is no shot. The second power play goal was a backbreaker because it came with one second left on a four minute double minor. Pittsburgh had done a nice job up to that point. Not many nights will you come away unscathed when Washington has six power play opportunities.
Phil Kessel added another goal as a result of his attempted back door pass to Evgeni Malkin. It conveniently deflected in off of the Washington defender. Pittsburgh had a lot of good looks in the game, but as mentioned above Hotlby had a great game.
I’d say that last night was the last time these two teams will play in Washington until round 2 of the playoffs, but I’m not confident both teams will be there this year.
Tonight the Penguins will visit the Nashville Predators. These Predators aren’t the same ones the Penguins saw last spring. Ryan Johansen was injured and unable to compete in the Stanley Cup Final which was a huge blow to the Predators. Kyle Turris was added to the roster this past week in the Matt Duchene trade. Nick Bonino might not play tonight because of injury, but going Johansen-Turris-Bonino down the middle is a huge upgrade over what they had at that position. The big part of the Turris trade is that the Predators didn’t have to gut their current roster to get Turris. They gave up a couple of potentially good prospects. They are a win now team that got better. Won’t be an easy night for the Penguins.
Thanks for reading!
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