Oh, it's living up to the hype, all right.
And then some.
After last night's game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals, NHL and sports fans world-wide are only asking themselves one question:
What's next?
Hopefully for the Penguins, some home cooking.
Because after falling 4-3 to Alexander Ovechkin and the Capitals in the Verizon Center last night to go down 2-0 in this series, the Penguins' are staring hard at a quick and sudden exit to their 2009 post-season if they don't turn things around fast.
Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby undoubtedly stole the show last night, with each tallying three goals.
It's only the 4th time in the history of the National Hockey League that two players from opposing teams have scored hat tricks in the same game, and the first time in the last 13 post-seasons that has occurred.
The problem for the Penguins is that nobody else with a number besides #87 on their back can seem to score.
The Penguins have 5 goals in this series so far. Crosby has 4 of them.
#87 got things going for Pittsburgh again last night, staking them to a 1-0 lead for the second straight game about 7 minutes into the first period after burying a rebound of a point shot from defenseman Sergei Gonchar.
Crosby's tally was a power play marker, no less -- the Penguins' first such goal since game 3 of their opening round Eastern Conference Quarterfinal against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Pittsburgh had a huge chance to add to their lead late in the first period when they went on a 2-man advantage, but were stoned on several good chances -- 1 by Crosby to the side of the goal, and another by Gonchar from about 35/40 feet -- by Washington rookie netminder Simeon Varlamov.
Varlamov just got a toe on a Crosby shot after sliding across the crease and then barely got a piece of a Gonchar bullet that came off the rebound and was ticketed high, top corner -- just not enough.
In the second period, the Penguins were again victim to what happened to them in game 1, losing track of their coverages on a Washington rush as the Capitals broke in on a 3-on-3. The Penguins appeared to have it covered, but Evgeni Malkin -- trailing the play ahead of the onrushing 3rd Capitals player, Victor Kozlov -- made the decision not to stick with him and let his defensemen handle the 2 other Capitals' forwards, but veer towards the puck carrier, Sergei Federov, instead.
Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, Malkin went to Federov at the same time Hal Gill did.
Federov deftly slid the puck to an onrushing Kozlov, who then found himself in a quick 2-on-1 with #8. Kozlov dished the puck to Ovechkin and, always in a shooting position, Ovechkin buried it short side past Penguins' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the score.
Not to be outdone, Crosby scored again later in the second, whacking in a rebound from a Bill Guerin shot while standing right on the doorstep to give the Penguins the lead, 2-1.
Later in the second period, with about 4 minutes left, fast-developing Penguin killer David Steckel, standing to the left of the Penguins goal, got a break when a point shot deflected off something and went right to him. He made no mistake and put it in before Fleury could get over there.
Steckel was again good in this game, winning 10 of 13 faceoffs. Crosby hasn't had an answer for him in the circle thusfar.
In the third period, with the score tied at 2, the Penguins went on the power play with about 9 minutes to go, and had a chance to really take control of the game.
Instead, their power play reverted to its meek and miserable ways and didn't seriously threaten.
Worse, they basically handed momentum back to Washington on a silver platter.
Seconds after their man-advantage expired, Malkin got called for tripping in the offensive zone and the Capitals' showed why they, unlike the Penguins, are a threat every time they go on the power play.
On the ensuing faceoff, won by Washington center Nicklas Backstrom back to defenseman Mike Green, Green quickly slid the puck to Ovechkin at the left point. Ovechkin had an open shot thanks to a clear and obvious trip in the faceoff circle on the guy who was trying to get to Ovechkin, Penguins' LW Matt Cooke. A blown call by the official in plain sight for certain. Nevertheless, #8 took advantage of having the clear shot, quickly one-timing it and blowing it by Fleury from about 50 feet to give the Capitals the lead, 3-2.
It's true that Cooke wasn't likely to get to Ovechkin fast enough to keep him from shooting, but if the call was properly made, the play would have blown dead.
Minutes later, capitalizing on their momentum, Ovechkin took the puck into the Penguins' zone, 1-on-1 with Gonchar and sent a hard wrister across his body in the opposite direction from about 50 feet that deflected off Gonchar's stick and sailed over Fleury's glove to complete the hat trick.
It took about 5 minutes to clear the ice of the rain of hats which followed.
After several minutes, the hat-throwing slowed. Then, when it picked up again, Crosby actually went to the official during that time and asked if an announcement could be made to stop throwing hats on the ice so play could resume.
Good luck with that.
He obviously had something in mind, though, because he added his own hat trick with approximately 35 seconds to go, batting his 3rd tally in out of the air on his fourth crack at trying to get the puck on Varlamov.
That goal was also a power play tally, where the Penguins went 2-for-5 for the night.
Alas, it was too little, too late for the Penguins, though. They got no closer.
So now the Penguins have to dig themselves out of a hole they haven't seen that often recently. Pittsburgh was down 2-0 to Detroit in the Stanley Cup Finals last year, and did win game 3 on home ice, but we all know how that series went in the end.
The Penguins have also come back on two occasions from 2-0 deficits against Washington in their post-season history, so it certainly can be done.
They simply have to hold serve at home, as Washington did, and it's something they are very capable of doing.
The fact is Pittsburgh has played decent hockey in Washington in both games 1 and 2. Either game could have gone in their favor. The Capitals' are just getting that extra half-step when they need it.
Still, the Penguins are going to run into trouble if Malkin continues to no-show like he has in the last 5 games. Malkin is a better player at home, and the Penguins undoubtedly need him to step up and step up quickly. Crosby can't continue to carry the team.
And Malkin isn't the only one that needs to start producing. Crosby's linemates, Guerin and Kuntiz, both had strong games in game 2, but the Penguins need goals from those guys -- not just strong play.
Another guy who really needs to get on the board for the Penguins is center Jordan Staal. His line had good stretches in games 1 and 2 but hasn't been as strong overall as it was in the Philadelphia series. And now that it isn't contributing as much, Staal's failure to score in the playoffs thusfar is starting to stand out more. That's hurting Pittsburgh.
Crosby is playing some of the greatest hockey of his career right now. With 8 goals in 8 games so far, he's on a pace to easily set an NHL record for most goals in one playoff season. That figure is 19, a number reached by both former Edmonton Oiler Jari Kurri and former Philadelphia Flyer Reggie Leach.
And this from a guy who isn't recognized by most as a goal-scorer.
Of course, that record will be unreachable if the Penguins can't come back to win this series against Washinton, and Crosby needs help if Pittsburgh is going to do anything in this series but join the Flyers on the golf course before the end of the week.
Crosby and Ovechkin are putting the NHL in the headlines with their play, and that's great for the league. When you lead off the Sportscenter nightly highlight package and have their guys gushing over the on-ice product, you know you're doing something right.
Here's a few more articles about the hype this series is not just meeting, but exceeding (including one from a writer with the Washington Post comparing Oveckin and Crosby who I don't entirely disagree with, but ...):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050500022.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050403893.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4139139
There's no doubt that the pressure is on Pittsburgh now. Game 3 is a must-win for them because a 3-0 hole might as well be like suicide. They should have energy from their home crowd, so that will work in their favor. And if they win game 3, they'll head into game 4 with the series in a 2-1 posture that it would be in pretty much regardless of which team was on the 2 side of the ledger and which team was on the 1 side.
But as I mentioned, they need other guys on their team to step up. Ovechkin and company aren't going to roll over. The Penguins need to generally keep playing the way they are, but add more to the mix.
Sounds like the same thing I said after game 1.
If the same script plays out in game 3, I'll be saying something a lot more mortal.
More tomorrow.
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