I spoke yesterday of the high drama that has been this Eastern Conference Semifinal series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals. Of how this matchup has been a tale deserving of the NHL's best-seller list thusfar, to be sure.
Game 4 last night at Mellon Arena certainly deserves its own chapter.
The Penguins tied the series at two games each with goals from 5 different players on their way to a 5-3 victory, leaving Washington goaltender Simeon Varlamov not knowing whether to cry or wind his watch -- at least according to one famous Pittsburgh radio announcer.
But while the Penguins now clearly go into tonight's game 5 back in Washington with an emotional edge, but without an extra day of rest, perhaps the biggest storyline to come from last night's game lies not in the result, but in the controversial knee-on-knee hit that Capitals' star Alexander Ovechkin laid on Pens' defenseman Sergei Gonchar with about 5 minutes left in the first period, knocking him out of the game, and perhaps the series or entire playoffs with a right knee injury.
First, see the hit here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsIfl9HpPyI&feature=player_embedded
Ovechkin did receive a penalty on the play, but only a 2-minute call, and for tripping no less. Despite the obvious knee-on-knee contact between the two, there was no 5-minute kneeing penalty and corresponding game misconduct.
And that was only the first of many, MANY missed calls by the zebras last night.
But my name isn't Bruce Boudreau here, so I'm not going to belabor that.
Not surprisingly, the views of the 2 teams on the play were mixed.
Ovechkin and Boudreau both claimed after the game that the play was an accident, and that #8 was trying to lead with his shoulder.
Penguins' coach Dan Bylsma and Sidney Crosby, both of whom addressed the media at the NHL-sanctioned post-game press conference, said it was knee on knee and that, essentially, they expect the league to review the matter.
Defenseman Brooks Orpik was probably the most outspoken about the incident after the game, indicating that Ovechkin has been taking "runs" at guys like that for 3 games in a row, including towards him.
Orpik also said -- correctly, in this author's opinion -- that Ovechkin often leaves his feet and always takes several strides to hit a player. He believes Ovechkin is hitting to injure players.
LW Ruslan Fedotenko spoke of the potential for retribution, while LW Matt Cooke made it very plain that if he had delivered a hit like that, he wouldn't be on the ice for the next game:
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Playoffs/2009/05/08/9401441-sun.html
What the league does with this will be very interesting. Do they suspend Ovechkin? Fine him? Do nothing? This is one of the league's marquee players. Will there be a double standard? There's no doubt that NHL disciplinarian Colin Campbell is probably sitting in an office right now trying to figure out what the hell to do with this situation.
If the NHL is going to hold a disciplinary hearing, they typically convene them promptly -- before the next game -- and I don't expect the fact that game 5 in this series is tonight without a day off in between games to change that.
My opinion?
In the game, I think it was at least worthy of a 5-minute major and game misconduct.
Outside the game, I think it deserves a one-game suspension.
Now, I've seen worse knee-on-knee hits, and there is some evidence that Ovechkin did put his shoulder out there to try and get a piece of Gonchar.
But that's not all he did. He also stuck out his leg somewhat, and even though he may not have intended to hurt Gonchar, that shouldn't carry the day when it comes to what the NHL does about it. Hits like that end the seasons of players and, while we don't know whether that will be the case with #55, you can't allow even a fraction of that type of play to be a part of the game.
As far as the actual injury is concerned, there isn't any news on that thusfar. Speculation has ranged from a torn ACL, to a fractured fibula, to a torn MCL.
I've seen these hits leave a player without meaningful injury where they play the next game, despite the way it looked. I've also seen them cost players 12 months.
Obviously, any type of major injury will deprive the Penguins of Sarge's services for the remainder of this post-season, so let's just hope for a minor injury that will only force the Penguins to do without him for days or weeks, rather than months. For now, all they can do is look to capitalize on last night's victory.
Despite their win, the Penguins got off to an auspicious start to game 4.
Less than a minute in, Nicklas Backstrom beat Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury from about 45 feet on a shot that deflected off defenseman Kris Letang and went in.
The Penguins tied it about 3 minutes later when Gonchar skated into the Washington zone and drilled a slapshot past Varlamov between the legs.
In the next 5 minutes, Caps' forward Sergei Federov could have changed the dynamic of the game drastically, but he hit the post behind Fleury on one chance, and then was robbed by #29 with the glove hand a few minutes later.
That save gave Pittsburgh some momentum, which they took advantage of on a Washington turnover on the near boards just a minute later.
The Caps' failed to get the puck out of the zone past RW Bill Guerin, who whacked at it just to keep it in. The puck then went to LW Chris Kunitz about 5 feet away. 2 Washington players went to him and left linemate Sidney Crosby, who had been in the corner before the Capitals got the puck, all alone behind them. Kunitz flipped the puck to #87 who caught it with his glove and was quickly in all alone on Varlamov from 5 feet away.
Crosby went to the backhand from in tight but didn't get a real good shot off. Varlamov rejected that attempt -- and the rebound -- but was on his stomach at the time and couldn't corral the puck. Guerin beat his man to the net and deposited the loose biscuit upstairs to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.
The Ovechkin on Gonchar hit happened a few minutes later and, while the Penguins struggled a bit in stretches for the remainder of that period without him, they didn't waste time upping their lead, when Fedotenko took a puck into the Washington zone about 30 seconds later and wristed a relatively simple shot that handcuffed Varlamov, went off his glove and in to give Pittsburgh the first 2-goal lead either team has had in the entire series.
Going into the intermission leading 3-1, the Penguins were in a good position, but they clearly were missing their leader on defense, and it showed in their play for a fair portion of the second period, when they went about 14 minutes without registering a shot.
The Capitals took advantage of the lull in the Penguins' play with about 5 minutes to go in the second frame when defenseman Mike Green took a pass just inside the Pittsburgh blueline, went around 2 Penguins and wristing one that hit the post behind Fleury, but sat on the goal line for LW Chris Clark to clean up and make it 3-2 going into the second intermission.
About 4 minutes into the 3rd period, the tide turned again. The Capitals got caught pinching a little in the Penguins zone with 4 of their guys on 1 side of the ice. The Penguins were able to chip the puck past all of them to spring RW Miro Satan and Crosby on a 2-on-1 against Washington defenseman John Erskine, who was back in the lineup after missing games 2 and 3 with an injury.
Satan carried the puck down the near boards before sending a seeing-eye pass through Erskine's legs and right on Crosby's tape for an easy tap in and a 4-2 lead.
A few minutes later, Washington winger Matt Bradley got away with about 83 penalties on one shift, first knocking over Letang on the far boards away from the puck, then crashing Pens' defenseman Brooks Oprik into the goal away from the play, before the puck got the point for a shot by Caps' defenseman Milan Jurcina, who somehow managed to get it by Fleury -- who had been jockying to get around Orpik climbing out of the goal -- and Oprik, too, for that matter, on the near side to again bring Washington within 1.
After the play, Orpik was livid. He broke his stick and shoved the net off the morings while giving the officials an earful.
Washington got no closer, however, and Max Talbot sealed it with about 5 minutes to go, taking a lead pass, skating up the left wing and whipping a wrister past Varlamov short side to give the Penguins a 5-3 victory.
And all the momentum as the series shifts to Washington for a pivotal game 5 tonight.
Once again, the Penguins had the better of the play in this one. They skated better, forced Washington into turnovers, and limited the Capitals' ability to generate offense off the rush. Ovehckin had only 2 shots in the game.
Perhaps more importantly, they finally exposed Capitals' rookie Varlamov somewhat. Pittsburgh put 5 pucks behind him in outshooting Washington 28-22 and, as described above, more than one was soft on his part.
While Capitals' goalie coach Dave Prior actually denied that Varlamov had a "poor performance" in game 5, his team's head coach disagreed. Boudreau said that Varlamov "struggled".
Here's a piece on that:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050804427.html
Varlamov has now let up 11 goals in 3 games.
He probably will get the call in net again tonight, despite some concerns in Washington circles about his ability to recover after games. It will be the first time in his NHL career he has played on back-to-back nights, so while he probably deserves a second chance given how well he's played in the post-season so far, there's certainly a question as to how he'll hold up physically and, certainly, given how the Penguins lit him up in game 4, how he'll hold up mentally.
All that said, the Penguins have to continue to bring the thunder tonight in game 5. They have to assume that Varlamov will bounce back and that the Capitals will have some energy -- with or without Ovechkin, depending on what the league may do today -- from their home crowd.
But based on the way things are trending in this series, Pittsburgh probably feels pretty good about their game, and rightly so. They've played the better hockey in this series and everyone knows it. Even the Washington writers know it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050804263.html
If the Penguins continue doing what they're doing and don't sit on their laurels, and get a strong performance from Fleury tonight, they'll stand a great chance of taking their first lead of the series and then have a chance to close things out at home in game 6 on Monday.
I'll have a recap of game 5 tomorrow and, if there's word in the interim of any league action taken against Ovechkin, I'll try to get it up here.
Let's Go Pens!
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