Tim Benz: Star players help stars align in latest edition of Penguins-Capitals

Bryan Rust saved the game.

The other star players saved the storyline.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Thursday night’s Pittsburgh Penguins versus Capitals matchup had all the makings of a showdown jam-packed with celebration and sentiment.

Capitals legend Alex Ovechkin had the potential to score his 900th goal in Pittsburgh while playing fellow future Hall of Famer Sidney Crosby for the 99th time.

Then Ovechkin went out and ruined that by, well, you know … scoring. He got goal No. 900 a night too early against the St. Louis Blues.

What a jerk! Hey, Ovi, about 890 of those goals were scored against the Penguins, weren’t they? You couldn’t wait one more night for us to watch the big show as a thank you?!

Then the Penguins decided to call up but not play hotshot rookie goalie prospect Sergei Murashov in what would’ve been his NHL debut on a national ESPN stage against Ovechkin and the Capitals.

The team decided to keep him on the bench so as to keep the rhythm of their goalie rotation between Artūrs Šilovs and (the now injured) Tristan Jarry.

Yippee! Long live continuity. Nothing a crowd loves more than a consistent goalie rotation.

(Yawn)

Thankfully, the veteran players on both benches had a better sense for the moment than the Penguins’ coaching staff and management did.

Crosby stepped up with two first-period goals.

Things you love to see: Sidney Crosby scoring against the Capitals ???? pic.twitter.com/LmfUiXdmSb

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 7, 2025

38 years young and out here leading the league in goals ???? pic.twitter.com/ue9p4kalYQ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 7, 2025

Ovechkin had two assists and laid out six hits at 40 years old. As he always does in Pittsburgh, Tom Wilson played the role of villain — this time by scoring instead of trying to kill someone.

Then Evgeni Malkin set up Rust’s game-winning goal with a gorgeous pass in the third period.

TRUSTY RUSTY ????

... AND WE GET 1/2 OFF RUSTY'S SHAKE AT THE @MShakeFactory TOMORROW! pic.twitter.com/9QQla3OiAJ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 7, 2025

It was classic Penguins-Capitals.

The Penguins scored three in a row to build a 3-0 lead. The Caps stormed back to tie it. The Penguins scored two late.

The Capitals had a goal disallowed along the way. The fans were screaming at the officials. Wilson got booed. There were eight power plays. The Penguins scored three times with the extra man and killed all three Washington attempts.

It was rewind-the-tape, old-school Penguins-Capitals kinda stuff.

“It definitely felt like that a little bit,” Rust admitted. “We’ve had some really crazy games with them over the years. There was an 8-7 (Jan. 17, 2017) game. There was the ‘two hat trick game’ (Crosby and Ovechkin in the 2009 playoffs) in the past. That’s a really good team over there. They came back and pushed really hard. For us to find a way was huge. Our fans were awesome too.”

Rust has been a part of authoring many of those chapters in Penguins-Capital history. Promising Pittsburgh rookie Ben Kindel was just scribbling on Page 1 for himself last night.

But it was everything he expected the rivalry to be.

“It’s what you grew up watching,” the 18-year-old said after his two-point effort in the win. “Back and forth hockey. Really exciting to play. I think it was exciting for people watching it. It was like the old Caps-Pens rivalry.”

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Crosby spoke about the night on ESPN after the game through the lens of his history with Ovechkin.

“To come in at the same time with the expectations that we had to build, to be still on the same team after all these years, it’s still a rivalry,” Crosby said. “There’s still a lot that goes into these games, and they’re built up, even to this day.”

Much like last week when the Penguins and Flyers had a turn back the clock, nasty, dirty affair in Philadelphia, the Penguins and Caps pulled us back in time to their 2009-era roller coaster rides.

With Crosby and Ovechkin in the lead car.

“With Ovi getting 900 last game, it’s a lot of fun to be a part of. It’s so unique and so special,” Crosby continued. “There’s definitely a ton of respect there. In a lot of ways, we can relate to what we’ve gone through over the course of our careers. It’s fun to compete and to still be doing it.”

And it was fun to watch last night.

It would’ve been even more fun with Murashov in net (no, I’m not letting that go), but fun nonetheless.

At the start of the season, we all knew that the Penguins were leaning on nostalgia to sell tickets. Continuing to re-create it on the ice during the games is the best possible way of accomplishing that task.

Here’s to hoping they keep it up, and here’s to hoping we get a few more editions of Penguins-Capitals like that when they rematch later in the year.