Capitals Deal Penguins Another Regular Season Heartbreak

Last year, the Pittsburgh Penguins squared off against the Washington Capitals in 4 regular season contests.

And lost every single one of them.

Sometimes looking bad doing it, too.

In the playoffs, after beating the Capitals like a drum in game 7 in their own building to finish them off in the 2nd round of the post-season and give their rivals an early date on the golf course, the Penguins proved that those regular season defeats earlier in the year weren't quite a predictor of playoff success.

Pittsburgh can only hope the same story bears out this year because Washington again proved last night that they must be a bunch of astrology experts, having all the stars line up for them in a 4-3 shootout victory over the Pens at The Verizon Center -- which I happened to take in personally -- and which lifted their record to 3-0 against Pittsburgh this year.

That constellation began to form for Washington even before the game when they learned that not only would they not have to contend with Pens' center Evgeni Malkin -- who it was revealed, not only wouldn't play, but wasn't even with the team, having flown back to Pittsburgh after the Pens' loss Monday night in Detroit due to continuing symptoms from that brused foot -- but also would not surprisingly have to deal with the Pens' best backliner and power play quarterback, Sergei Gonchar.

Gonchar was an unexpected scratch due to illness.

Despite those absences, the Penguins came out with guns blazing against the Caps', taking it to them in a first period that ended up scoreless, but with Pittsburgh having a significant 17-9 shot advantage.

Early in the second period, Washington squashed that when they got a strange goal that occured with Caps' forward Mike Knuble basically tumbling right over Penguins' goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury in the crease and somehow knocking the puck in behind him with no penalty.

Fortunately for the Penguins, though, the invisible man -- Max Talbot -- showed up about a minute later and deflected a Brooks Oprik shot past Caps' netminder Jose Theodore.

Then, Bill Guerin padded Pittsburgh's advantage on a power play with about 5 minutes left in the second frame when he took a pass from Sidney Crosby and deposited the biscuit into a virtual empty net to Theodore's right, thanks to Crosby's stickhandling wizardry heading into the zone on the rush.

By the way, that power play opportunity was one of 5 the Pens had on the night, compared to only 1 for Washington, and that pretty much was a fair representation of how the play overall was carried.

Except -- speaking of those power plays -- for the shorthanded goal Washington got on one of them from Alexander Semin 5 minutes into the third when the game began to turn into an up-and-down affair not unlike a Six Flags visit.

The Pens' "D" backed up too easily on Semin's goal, because hecarried the puck from his own end across the Penguins blue line before cutting across the slot without being contested -- something I thought was particularly inexcuseable since Semin didn't have anyone to pass the puck to.

While Semin managed to wire that one into the top corner over Fleury's glove hand, he'll miss the net on the next 20 of those he takes.

Anyway, capitalizing on that momentum, Washington forward Eric Fehr scored on a deflection 2 minutes or so later to put the Penguins back in the hole.

That 3-2 advantage held until Jordan Staal -- who the Pens' needed a big game from with Malkin out -- tied it with about 3 minutes to go in regulation by picking up a loose puck in the right circle and wristing it high to the far side past Theodore.

After a scoreless overtime, Washington chose to defer the first attempt in the shootout, and maybe regretted that when Pittsburgh blueliner Kris Letang beat Theodore to open up the scoring, Fleury stopped Caps' forward Nicklas Backstrom, and then Crosby abused Theodore badly on the next shot to give the Pens' a nearly insurmountable 2-0 shootout advantage half way through.

Notice I said "nearly" insurmountable.

The Penguins had 3 chances to prevail in the shootout at that point and get a much welcomed additional point, but Alexander Ovechkin kept the Caps in it by beating Fleury on the next attempt, then Pens' RW Bill Guerin layed out a meek attempt that Theodore stopped before Semin evened things up by beating Fleury easily on the 3rd attempt.

After Blysma sent out Chris Kunitz to also meekly put a shot on Theodore -- that he stopped --Caps' bouncy ball bench boss Bruce Boudreau sent out Mike Knuble for the Caps' 4th shot.

Knuble had never scored a shootout goal in his career prior to that point but his star shone the brightest in that constellation I was talking about, because he changed that by beating Fleury relatively easily to give Washington a thrilling victory and the Penguins an agonizing defeat, despite the extra point they earned from going to OT.

There was some consolation in the Penguins' locker room after the game on the part of Crosby, Head Coach Dan Bylsma and others about how well the Penguins played for 60 minutes (especially without Malkin and Gonchar), about how they outshot Washington 42-32, and about how they can build on that game down the remaining stretch of their season.

I see that.

Of course, it's only as good as the Penguins' next performance, so time will tell, but I see it.

However, I also see the viewpoint felt by Orpik, who voiced frustration after the game about the team making the same mistakes over and over, not learning from them, and not being focused enough.

The Penguins would be eliminated in the first round if they play in the postseason they way they are now, according to Orpik.

It's hard to disagree with him. Let's face it, we're about past the stage where style points are important. The post-season starts in 3 weeks. Sure, it's important that Penguins get to their game and get on a little bit of a roll for the post-season, but consolation prizes are like being the second tallest midget in the room.

It's all about the "W".

With the Devils losing in a shootout tonight to the New York Rangers, they moved into a tie with the Penguins for 2nd in the Atlantic Division with 91 points, but technically have the #2 seed, since they have one more win (let alone one game in hand, still).

Worse, the Buffalo Sabres now have 90 points, and if they keep playing well, the race for the Atlantic Title could result in the division winner getting the #3 -- not the #2 -- seed.

Pittsburgh next begins a 5 game home stand by welcoming another rival, the struggling Philadelphia Flyers, on Saturday afternoon at Mellon Arena (1:00 PM).

So, while the Penguins can rely on the karma of having beat Washington and winning the Stanley Cup in last year's post-season even though they lost every regular season game to the Capitals, what they can't liken to their act from last year is the way they were playing down the stretch.

Last year -- almost unstoppable.

(Same with the 2 years prior to that, actually).

This year, not so much.

That's what going 2-5 in your last seven games provides.

A lot to think about.

Not worry necessarily.

(Not yet, anyway).

Just to think about.

But if you look up into the sky, you might see that worrysome contellation coming together very quickly.