Capitals Draw First Blood, Win Game One, 3-2

After game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals, one thing is clear.

The series may indeed live up to the hype.

The Capitals got a goal from LW Thomas Fleischmann early in the third period to break a 2-2 tie and that tally ended up as the game-winner in an intense, series-opening 3-2, game 1 victory for Washington.

Game 2 is Monday at the Verizon Center at 7 PM.

Sidney Crosby showed the world -- and Capitals' netminder Simeon Varlamov -- that he was ready to rock in this series when he opened the scoring just under 5 minutes into the opening frame, screaming down the right wing on a 2-on-2 before cutting to the slot and ripping a wrister past Varlamov on the left side to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

About 10 minutes later, Washington got a goal from its third line to tie the score at 1 when Matt Bradley tossed a bad angle shot at Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the right boards near the goal line. Fleury stopped the puck, but didn't have good rebound control. He kicked it right out into the slot onto the stick of Capitals's center David Steckel who banged it home for his first goal of the 2009 post-season.

Penguins' center Evegni Malkin also pulled up a little short on the backcheck on that play, otherwise Steckel would have been covered. But give Steckel credit. Malkin and Fleury both dropped the ball a little bit on that one, but Steckel drove to the net hard and got rewarded for it.

Rewarded was something the Penguins didn't get when they took 2 ill-advised penalties later in the first period to give the Capitals' potent power play a 2-man advantage.

Sergei Gonchar took the first penalty -- a delay of game infraction -- when he shot the puck over the glass from just inside his own blueline. LW Matt Cooke was then called for a stupid retaliatory penalty on Washington RW Alexander Ovechkin about 30 seconds later when #8 put a nice lick on him on the near boards, only to have Cooke chase him down at center ice and then put a hook on him when Ovechkin corraled the puck and started to go the other way.

Worse was Ovechkin making the Penguins pay about 1 minute later, taking a slick feed from defenseman Matt Green at the point and just one-timing one past Fleury from low inside the left circle.

Some may think the Penguins' should have been more aware of where Ovechkin was on that, but I disagree. Pittsburgh's mistake was going down by 2 men in the first place. You can't do that against Washington. Not once. They're too dangerous. You can't just slide your coverage to Ovechkin when you're down 2 men like you might normally.

So, despite an advantage in play and a big shot advantage for most of the period, the Penguins entered the 2nd intermission in a 2-1 hole.

That changed 12 minutes into the 2nd period, however, when Mark Eaton took a relatively harmless looking shot from the point that Varlamov had an unobscured view of, but just wiffed on, letting the Penguins tie the score.

The goal was Eaton's THIRD goal of the playoffs already, believe it or not. He's really thriving offensively in new coach Dan Blysma's system.

Varlamov made up for his gaffe in a big way later in the period, however, making a highlight-reel save on Crosby, who tried to finish a well-executed 2-on-1 with LW Chris Kunitz, only to have the open net staring at him slammed shut by a stick reach-back on Varlamov's part, keeping the score tied.

Crosby didn't get good wood on the shot. He was more just trying to redirect the puck into the goal, but that's not to take anything away from Varlamov. He made a fantastic save -- one of the best in the playoffs so far. Crosby didn't bear down enough, but there's no question the Penguins should have taken the lead there.

Word already is that it is the best save of the post-season but personally, I'm not ready to put it above Fleury's toe-save on Jeff Carter in game 2 of the Penguins/Philadelphia Flyers' opening round.

The score remained tied at 2 until Fleischmann's goal early in the 3rd -- a score made possible by a miscommunication on coverage between Penguins' LW Ruslan Fedotenko and D Brooks Orpik, who each made the same read -- briefly -- on what was a 3-on-3, but quickly turned into a 2-on-1 around the Pens' goal because of that mistake. Backstrom got the puck and made a nice play to wait just long enough for a sliding Gonchar to drift by so he could make a touch dish pass to Fleischmann to Fleury's left.

#29 got a piece of the shot with his shoudler, but it just squeezed in by the left post.

The Penguins threatened several times after that, but couldn't get one by Varlamov, and with that, Washington got an early lead in this series' race to 4.

Pittsburgh's biggest problem in this game wasn't the way they handled Ovechkin or the Capitals' offense, nor was it their inability to generate offense of their own. Indeed, they outshot Washington 36-26.

Their main failing was their struggling power play, which came up empty on 5 chances, including 2 in the third period. The Penguins looked good on their first man-advantage chance early in the game, but didn't convert and seemed to lose steam on the PP after that.

If they don't start scoring when they have the extra man, they're going to have trouble keeping up in this series. Washington's power play is too dangerous and the Penguins' have to cash in when they have those opportunities of their own.

Also, a lot is going to be made of Varlamov's play in this game. For example:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4128105

Varlamov did stop 34 of 36 shots, and made the spectacular save on Crosby, as described above. But I still think he's there for the taking. His goals against were weak. If the Penguins continue to get 35+ shots a game on him, I like their chances. They do need to get more traffic though. They aren't being as hungry or as physical around the goal as they have been in the neutral zone. Washington had 22 turnovers today (compared to the Penguins' 6), and gave up several odd-man rushes, so they're leaving Varlamov out there a little bit.

One guy in particular that needs to get going for Pittsburgh is Kunitz. He had a decent game today, finishing with an assist and would have had another if Varlamov not come up with a miracle to stop #87's virtual empty-net opportunity, but he passed up several opportunities to shoot when in the Capitals' zone. He, and Guerin too, need to give Sid some more scoring help.

The Penguins' other big gun, Malkin, didn't have a great impact in this game, nor did his surprise linemate, Petr Sykora, who was back in the lineup today for some reason. I heard that RW Miroslav Satan may have hurt his groin during the pre-game skate -- which he did take -- but I haven't been able to confirm that.

Overall, it's hard to be too disappointed in the Penguins' play. They had their off-moments, but they kept the Capitals' offense largely in check and I think they played well enough to win. Washington has the nod so far largely because their support players -- Steckel and Fleischmann -- got it done for them today. As I mentioned in previewing this series, that's likely to make the difference.

So, while the Penguins need to get guys like Kunitz and Malkin going in game 2, it's probably just as important that they get contributions from the Staal line. His unit was mostly quiet in game 1.

While the Capitals' are off to an early advantage in this series, it hardly means a lot. In the 7 previous Pittsburgh/Washington playoff series', the Capitals have won game 1 six times. In 5 of those, the Penguins have gone on to win the series.

The Penguins obviously need to come out a lot stronger in game 2. They aren't used to being down a game in a playoff series, this being only the 2nd time in the last 6 it has happened, but if they are able to win game 2, they'll come back to Pittsburgh for games 3 and 4 with a split and the home ice. Largely, that's what you want to do on the road.

More Monday.