Empty Thoughts: Capitals 5, Penguins 2

Observations from the Penguins’ 5-2 loss to the Capitals.

Saturday’s game offered a lot of promise as a showdown of two of the Eastern Conference’s deeper teams.

And sure enough, there were plenty of secondary contributions all over the ice.

They just happened to be exclusive to the road team.

The Capitals got three goals from players off of their fourth line, including a short-handed goal while the Penguins’ offense was limited to top-tier players.

“From the top all the way down, everyone had the same effort tonight,” said Capitals forward T.J. Oshie. “(Forward Nick Dowd’s) line, (Lars Ellers’) line, they bring that effort every night. When we get the top two working that same way, we’re going to have success and we’ll be hard to be beat.”

That’s a good way to describe the Penguins from a few months ago when they were dealing with considerable injuries and had to fill the lineup with handfuls of recalls from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. They relied on structure and discipline during those trying times and more often than not, succeeded.

Today, they’re not completely healthy. All-Star forward Jake Guentzel is a considerable absence (to say nothing of contributing forwards Anthony Angello, Zach Aston-Reese and Dominik Simon).

But the Penguins are largely healthy and, as suggested by forward Evgeni Malkin, they have abandoned the ways which made them successful when so many others were missing.

“When a couple guys are injured, everyone steps up,” Malkin said. “We understand we need to play better. But when everyone is back, everyone is healthy, we think, ‘Oh it’s so much much skill right now.’ And an easy game, we score every shift. It’s not. We need to step up. It doesn’t matter who is in (the lineup.) When five or six guys are injured, we play so much better. It’s a little bit hard to understand right now.

What happened

Poor defense by the Penguins allowed the Capitals to claim the first lead only 1:52 into regulation. A pass by Capitals defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler from his own zone missed the mark and skipped in on net. Murray steered the bouncing puck to the left corner where it was recovered by forechecking Capitals forward Richard Panik who rimmed the puck around the end boards to linemate Garnet Hathaway behind the cage. As Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin approached, Hathaway fed a pass to the slot for Dowd, virtually accounted for between the hashmarks. Leaning down, Dowd whipped a one-timer past Murray’s blocker for his sixth goal of the season. Assists went to Hathaway and Panik.

An extended five-on-three offered the Penguins a chance to tie the game but they could only muster on shot on net by forward Evgeni Malkin during the sequence which lasted 1:25.

The Capitals doubled their lead with a goal off a two-on-one rush at 16:15 of the first period. As Penguins defenseman Kris Letang pinched up to the right point of the offensive zone, Capitals forward T.J. Oshie snapped off a cross-ice pass to linemate Jakub Vrana who gained the Penguins’ zone on the right wing. Creating an odd-man rush with forward Nicklas Backstrom against Dumoulin, Vrana slipped a pass from the right circle past Dumoulin’s right leg to the slot for Backstrom who lifted a wrister past Murray’s glove hand for his 12th goal. Vrana and Oshie netted assists.

It became a 3-0 game at 18:38 of the first period, this time due to a three-on-two rush by the Capitals. Pushing the puck up the left wing, Dowd gained the offensive zone and from the left circle, backhanded a pass to the high slot for defenseman Nick Jensen. As Penguins defenseman Jack Johnson leaned down for a potential block, Jensen slid a pass to Panik, positioned to the right of the crease. As Murray sprawled to his left, Panik easily slid a forehand shot under the goaltender’s glove for his ninth goal. Assists went to Jensen and Dowd.

Penguins forward Jared McCann was granted a penalty shot at 18:48 of the second period but his wrister was rejected by Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby.

The Capitals began to pour it on with a short-handed goal a mere 34 seconds into the third period. Chipping a puck from his own right circle towards the blue line zone, former Penguins forward Carl Hagelin created a two-on-one with Dowd against Letang. Hagelin dished a pass to Dowd rushing up the right wing. Down then fed it back to Hagelin, allowing him to gain the offensive zone. Faking a shot and drawing in Letang, Hagelin moved it back to Dowd in the left circle and Dowd snapped off a wrister past Murray’s glove on the near side. The only assist went to Hagelin.

The Penguins finally got on the scoreboard at 5:09 of the third period. Corralling a puck in his own left corner, Capitals defenseman Brenden Dillon had a pass intercepted behind the cage by Penguins forward Conor Sheary. Skating towards the right corner, Sheary fed a pass to the left of the crease where forward Sidney Crosby deflected it past Holtby’s blocker for his 16th goal. Sheary netted the lone assist.

A power-play goal by Malkin at 12:16 of the third pulled the Penguins within two. Taking a pass above the left circle, Malkin lifted a wrister which was blocked by Capitals forward Lars Eller. Malkin reclaimed the puck in the high slot and fired a wrister past Holtby’s glove hand for his 22nd goal. Assists went to forward Jason Zucker and Crosby.

A goal by Oshie at 13:12 snuffed out any hopes of a comeback. Controlling a puck on the end boards, Backstrom fed a pass through Dumoulin’s skates to the slot for Oshie who ripped a wrister past Murray’s glove for his 26th goal. The only assist went to Backstrom.

Statistically speaking

• Shots were even, 28-28.

• Malkin led the game with five shots.

• Dowd and Hathaway each led the Capitals with four shots.

• Letang led the game with 26:19 of ice time on 29 shifts.

• Defenseman John Carlson led the capitals with 24:36 of ice time on 29 shifts.

• The Penguins had a 29-26 (53 percent) edge in faceoffs.

• Crosby was 16 for 25 (64 percent).

• Dowd was 7 for 14 (50 percent).

• Dumoulin and Jensen each led the game with four blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• The Penguins’ last penalty shot against the Capitals came in a 3-2 shootout road win Dec. 23, 2010. Malkin was denied by goaltender Michael Neuvirth.

• The Penguins held Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin without a shot for the first time ever in a regular season game.

Randomly speaking

• Zucker has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 13 games with the Penguins.

• Sam Lafferty returned to the lineup while Evan Rodrigues was scratched.

• Letang had a particularly rough game. He just was out of place on a lot of sequences which led to opposing chances.

• The Penguins went 1 for 5 on the power play.

• The Penguins have given up short-handed goals in two consecutive games. Before this stretch, they had allowed three short-handed goals all season.

• It’s fair to expect Murray to steal a goal or two in this game. But frankly, the goaltending position wasn’t the issue int his contest.

• McCann has gone 20 games without a goal.

Publicly speaking

• Coach Mike Sullivan on his team giving up odd-man rushes as of late:

“It just boils down to discipline and details and making sure that we pay attention, we have an awareness on the ice, we make better decisions and we support one another. It’s definitely an area of our game where we’ve got to improve and get better. When we do that, we limit the chances off the rush. I thought we gave a up a few too man tonight and it certainly affected the outcome of the game.”

• Crosby on the poor first period:

“We just kind of chased a mistake with another one. You get down early in a game. Our (effort) was there. It just (that) we made some bad reads. A team like that, that’s pretty opportunistic, they’re not going to make mistakes with those two-on-ones and things like that. We gave them too good of chances there.”

• The Penguins largely felt their decision-making and not their effort was to blame for this one. Defenseman Marcus Pettersson:

They’re going to look for to get odd-man rushes. Play a little bit smarter. When you let in a couple of goals, sometimes you try to do too much. You try to get to the puck too quick instead of communicating with each other. There were a couple of pinches that made it a couple of two-on-ones. Got to play smarter.”

• Forward Patric Hornqvist on the Penguins’ effort:

“Obviously, our start was not the best. They got some momentum off their goals. We gave them too many odd-man rushes. That’s something we can control. Our work ethic was there today. We have to control those type of things, pinching and reloading and playing as five guys together out there.”

• Sullivan on Malkin’s comments that the team doesn’t play as well when it’s mostly healthy:

“The challenge for us, as we get healthy, is to make sure we maintain a clear understanding of how we’ve had success and the identity that we’ve built here. It’s rooted in simplicity. It’s rooted in a straight-ahead game where we can leverage our footspeed and it gives our talent an opportunity to be the difference in my opinion. There are times where we mismanage the puck or we’re trying to make the extra pass. We fall victim to that every once in a while, more often than we would like. That’s something we’re trying to remind the guys moving forward. But I think it’s more about just understanding how we have to play in order for us to be at our best. One of the key attributes of this team this year is the simplicity in which we approach the game. It’s an important aspect.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

Penguins-Capitals

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