As If This Series Needed More High Drama

The thought of a playoff series with the 3 greatest players in the game sharing the same ice is pretty compelling.

Then they started playing the games in this Eastern Conference Semifinal between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals.

Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin have lived up to the hype and more after the first three contests between these two clubs.

Then you factor in the matter of each game thusfar being decided by one goal, including the Penguins' game 3 overtime win, and the drama factor goes up some more.

In fact, 14 of the last 17 playoff games between the Penguins and Capitals have been decided by just one goal, and this series is the only one of the remaining 4 to not have either team even take a 2-goal lead at any point during the action.

How's that for theater?

Can anything else possibly increase the tension?

Oh sure.

How about a death threat?

That surfaced yesterday, when the National Hockey League, the FBI, and the Pennsylvania State Police were alerted to one posted on a Penguins message board before game 3 by a 17-year old boy from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (about 35 miles southwest of Harrisburg, PA, the Pennsylvania state Capital).

According to reports, the post said, "I'm killing Ovechkin. I'm going to jail. I don't care anymore".

The Police traced the post to the boy's computer, which they have confiscated. At this point, they have questioned the boy but not arrested him and, while everyone involved seems to have taken the matter seriously enough, the threat doesn't appear to have been one which posed a real risk to Ovechkin. The boy did not attend game 3 and was apparently not going to attend game 4.

Now, I hate Ovechkin and the Capitals as much as anyone, but if that threat was real, it's obviously taking things way too far.

Like many others, I can't help but wonder if it was just a boy talking trash. These are message boards, after all. On the other hand, the last thing anyone wants to do is blow off something like that and then have something bad happen. Just like internet threats made in school-shooting cases, authorities don't have any choice but to take those seriously.

As far as the ACTUAL SERIES between these two clubs is concerned, both are getting ready for a key game 4 tonight at Mellon Arena, with the backdrop of the way this series is trending and with more complaints about officiating.

From the Capitals, of course.

Washington coach Bruce Boudreau was at it again yesterday, whining more about the treatment of his goaltender and the penalty he was assessed in game 3, among other things.

In frankness, I do think the call on Varlamov for slashing Malkin late in the 2nd period was a little lame, but Boudreau doesn't have any credibility with me because he whines constantly.

He even had the nerve to call the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) "classless" for briefly capturing footage of a dry erase board in the Washington dressing room before game 3 that had 6 "Keys to Victory" on it for the Capitals.

That footage was actually captured accidentally while the CBC cameras were getting a view of Ovechkin putting on his equipment, because the dry erase board was in the background.

Boudreau was probably less upset about capturing the contents of the dry erase board and more upset about what CBC did with that information, which was spend a few minutes focusing on it in their pre-game coverage, but give me a break. The things that were on it weren't state secrets. They were things like, "initiate, don't retaliate" and "get pucks deep". Standard stuff.

That's why Boudreau is a whiner.

Or, maybe he gets it from his general manager, George McPhee, who also leveled strong complaints toward the officials in the press yesterday, complaining about the disparity in power plays just like his coach did in the immediate aftermath of game 3.

If these guys focused more on what they did on the ice and less on distractions, their team might not be sitting here after 3 games outshot 114-82 (in the last game alone, the Penguins attempted 76 shots to the Capitals 43, with more than 30 of them being blocked or missing the goal) and fortunate to be up 2 games to 1.

As it is, the Penguins are feeling confident despite that series deficit. They recognize that they have outchanced the Capitals and feel good about their offensive game right now. Expect them to continue trying to dictate the offensive pace, keep Washington pinned deep in their own zone, and hope to generate penalties and good scoring chances.

The Penguins must continue to work hard for what they're doing, though. Pittsburgh head coach Dan Bylsma cautioned his team about this yesterday. He knows that it won't get easier, and there won't be an automatic flood of goals against Capitals' netminder Simeon Varlamov. He knows that his team has to bring lunch pails and go to work again. "Persistence" was his word to describe that.

Meanwhile, Bylsma deserves some credit for the adjustments he made in game 3.

Putting Max Talbot with Malkin gave his line a boost, and Talbot had a strong game. And having the defensemen stress a better job with their gap control -- not allowing Washington to do what it does best, and that's burst through the neutral zone into the Pens' zone on the rush -- also was effective in game 3.

Bylsma was also able to get Rob Scuderi out on the ice against Ovechkin a lot in an effort to slow him down, and that worked fairly well. Despite Ovechkin's goal -- which was a fluke -- he was limited to 5 shots and didn't have nearly the same number of scoring chances as he did in the first few games.

The Penguins will have to continue doing that tonight, and continue to be sure they are locking down on Alexander Semin and Mike Green, both of whom are key players for Washington, but neither of whom have had a big impact in this series so far.

Pittsburgh doesn't want to let that happen tonight. They need another strong performance to tie this series and then have all the momentum going into game 5 back in Washington tomorrow night, which is the 2nd end of a back-to-back set. They absolutely do NOT want to fall tonight and then have to head east with the Capitals having the momentum and the chance to close this series out early one day later.

For that reason alone, this game takes on even more importance.

I believe in the boys. They need to keep doing what they're doing. They feel confident. They feel good about their game right now.

And they're most dangerous that way.

Recap tomorrow morning.

Let's Go Pens.