With a 3-2 loss to the Penguins, the Washington Capitals are now one defeat away from elimination. The team’s last, best chance for a championship sits on a knife’s edge.
The Penguins started early. Patric Hornqvist scored on a rush against Brooks Orpik and Karl Alzner. At the dawn of the second period, Dmitry Orlov kicked a puck into his own net, sending the Caps reeling into a 2-0 deficit. They clawed out with goals by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nate Schmidt, but Justin Schultz’s power-play goal restored Pittsburgh’s lead heading into the third. The Caps racked up attempts in the third but could not beat Marc-Andre Halak, shit, I mean Marc-Andre Fleury.
Penguins beat Caps 3-2. Penguins lead the series 3-1. The Caps could be eliminated on Saturday.
- Out of the gates in the biggest game of their season to date, the Caps sucked. They recorded just two shot attempts through five minutes, by which point they were already down one goal. They got their act together after that, but those opening minutes were costly and tone-setting.
- Barry Trotz, in his infinite wisdom, played his two slowest defenders against Carl Hagelin’s line. Brooks Orpik and Karl Alzner played 63 minutes together during the regular season and got dominated. Their performance against Pittsburgh’s fastest skaters was predictable: they got carved by Patric Hornqvist. After that, Orpik suffered a shortened bench, but Alzner somehow got more minutes than Nate Schmidt.
- I don’t know if I’m angry at Dmitry Orlov or if I pity him. I don’t know how that puck went off his skate and into the net, and I don’t know if a player has any real control over such a thing. Orlov’s been at the heart of a lot of Big Mistakes in the past, and I think he’s been unfairly blamed for them. But this was the dooziest.
- Why does Pierre call Kris Letang Kristopher, but he calls Tom Wilson Tommy? Why not Thomas? There’s no internal consistency to the man, but I’m convinced he mails stolen player hair samples to 23andme during the offseason.
- Nate Schmidt has been playing terrific hockey since he got the tap on his shoulder in the first round. Finally, with his second period goal he was rewarded for all that hard work. It was Schmidt’s first postseason goal, and I could not be happier for him.
- We really needed Braden Holtby to make a big save on Schultz’s goal, but he did not.We really needed him to make a big save on Phil Kessel’s power move on Dmitry Orlov, and he did. Funny that.
- Justin Williams got high sticked late in the second period, spilling blood to give Washington a four-minute power play. They squandered it, fizzling the back half with an Alex Ovechkin penalty, which, by the way…
- The Capitals committed six penalties — and all of them were 100 feet from their own net. Alex Ovechkin had two, and Tom Wilson had two, but both of his came with a matching minor by a Penguin. TJ Oshie’s high stick with under two minutes to go was the dagger.
- I predicted that Andre Burakovsky would score, finally converting on one of his many chances. I was wrong. The Caps’ vaunted forward depth has not delivered in these playoffs, and it’s been devastating.
Roger Sterling throwing up of the night
On Saturday night the Caps will play for more than their season. This is the team’s last chance at a championship before losing some players to free agency and watching others leave their peak years. But more than just their window for a championship, the Capitals will be playing for the very soul of their franchise.
The pathology of the playoff Capitals looms large. I don’t know what the team will do, but I do know that legions of fans are already braced for defeat. History vindicates that decision. The only ones who can belie it will be wearing red in Chinatown on Saturday night. I’ll watch.
