Washington was great and the Pittsburgh was not. The Capitals absolutely destroyed the Penguins on Wednesday night by a score of 7-1. There weren’t many positives to take away from the game. The Capitals saw 12 out of their 18 skaters register a point.
Let’s start from the beginning. Evgeni Malkin had a horrendous first period. He had a turnover that led to a Capitals goal, he had a goal disallowed, he got into a scrum by Matt Murray and ended up clobbering him in the head with his stick, and the penalty he took on that sequence led to a Capitals power play goal. Evgeni Malkin has now played in 645 career games and I would wager he’s played around 1,860 good periods and 75 bad ones. The first period last night falls in the latter category.
As a result of the stick to the head Matt Murray was removed from the game to enter concussion protocol. He did not return to the game but as it turns out that was a coach’s decision and not a medical one. Matt Murray should be good to go. In hindsight that stick to the head probably wasn’t as bad as staying in the game. Marc-Andre Fleury came in and allowed a goal immediately. He gave up five goals on 20 shots.
It certainly wasn’t the reason the Penguins lost last night, but Tom Sestito’s inclusion into the lineup continues to have no benefit. At least one of the following things are true:
1. Tom Sestito is terrible at his job 2. The job that Tom Sestito is employed to do is meaningless and the Penguins should stop pretending its a thing.
I assume the motivation for Sestito’s presence in the lineup was to “police… the Capitals Tom Wilson. Once again this did nothing to change the way that Wilson plays. Wilson literally broke his stick over Patric Hornqvist’s arm
Wilson breaks his stick on Hornqvist, no call. https://t.co/mCHCPFIbzO
— Evgeni Malkin's Ego (@EvgeniMaIkinEgo) November 17, 2016
Deterrent: A thing that discourages or is intended to discourage someone from doing something.
Enforcers don’t deter anything. They just respond to something that has already happened. Except Sestito didn’t even do that. So what’s the point in all of this? There isn’t one. This experiment can be ended. All evidence shows that the enforcer concept is a pointless circle jerk conducted by people who can’t let go of an era that is now over and will never be back. Anybody who says otherwise isn’t ‘watching the games’.
The Penguins didn’t handle adversity well
TJ Oshie had himself a great night. He factored in on every goal in the first period. What was unique about it was the fact he registered a point at even-strength, on the power play, and shorthanded.
The Penguins did score a lone goal. It was Phil Kessel. Perhaps he didn’t want to let down President Obama while in Washington.
Pittsburgh has a back to back coming up on Friday and Saturday which poses a certain set of challenges. They are however fortunate that it will come against the struggling New York Islanders and the Buffalo Sabres.
Thanks for reading!