Last night, in front of 68,111 fans, the bright lights of Heinz Field, all the eyes of NBC and the sporting world in prime time during the NHL's 4th Winter Classic -- this time between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals -- it was easy to come up with one word to describe what would otherwise be a difficult event to summarize.
Wet.
After pushing back the game the day before from a 1 PM Saturday start to an 8 PM evening gig based on the threat of rain mostly only up to a certain point, the league got more soggy weather than they bargained for during, and even after, what ended up being a 3-1 Washington victory.
Oh sure, it rained during the day as predicted, although it probably stopped prior to the game a bit sooner than anticipated.
What wasn't forcast, however, was the amount of rain that started again during the second period and really picked up for 10 minutes into the 3rd.
Both teams had to play on a pretty soggy surface that was evident not only by just looking at the rink, but by watching the bouncing puck and the inability of either team -- especially the Penguins -- to get any flow to their game last night.
On an evening when Pittsburgh would have been well suited to dump the puck in and bang bodies, they couldn't do that because they couldn't rely on their normally-quick skaters to even get to the puck through poor ice conditions.
And it goes without saying that they weren't able to rely on their speed through the neutral zone to generate any offense either.
And so, it was up to the pluggers and muckers to do the job last night.
Unfortunately, on this one evening anyway, the Capitals got more from theirs than the Penguins' did.
After Pens' forward Evgeni Malkin scored an early 2nd period tally on a semi-breakaway by beating Washington netminder Simeon Varlamov through the legs, Mike Knuble tied it later that period on a scramble in front of the net, and Eric Fehr (ERIC FEHR?!?) added two third period tallies to win the game for the Caps' and send a lot of Penguin fans -- myself included -- home unhappy.
While there wasn't much beauty to the action last night, Fehr's third goal was a nice top-corner wrist shot as he broke in somewhat uncontested on Fleury and capitalized on a nice give-and-go with teammate Jason Chimera.
Interestingly, one of the factors that played into that goal was the teams switching sides a few minutes earlier at the 10 minute mark of that final frame. That's a specific rule for the Winter Classic so the weather conditions aren't more favorable to one team over the other, but the consequence last night was the Pens' again having the long change from their bench, and on Fehr's goal, that's exactly what kept Pascal Dupuis from catching Fehr on the backcheck after he snuck behind teammate Paul Martin.
Still, the bigger heartburn in the game was Washington's second goal early in the third period -- also by Fehr -- made possible when Fleury misplayed the puck on a dumparound behind the Pens' net and unforutnately, had the puck go right to a Capitals' player. That player was Caps' forward Marcus Johansson, and he wasted about as much time getting it to Fehr in front as Fehr did shooting it into the empty, vacated cage for a 2-1 Caps' lead.
When he scored later, that was all Washington needed for the win.
Curiously, the game involved two more plays where goals were waved off because of contact with the goalie -- but without a goaltender interference penalty being called. That was the same call that hurt the Penguins about a week and a half ago in a loss to the New York Rangers, but I suppose with one on each side last night, they washed each other out.
That, of course, was fitting irony.
To their credit, while the conditions clearly slowed them down, not one Penguin -- including their Captain, Sidney Crosby, who went pointless for the second straight game and, together with Washington star Captain Alexander Ovechkin, failed to hit the scoresheet in this one -- complained. At least publicly.
Despite adjusting his skate edges to account for the tough ice before the game, Crosby said afterwards that, "the conditions were all right." He later added -- in league-ambassador form -- that "it was a privilege" to be a part of the game.
Even Fleury said "the conditions weren't that bad."
The best you could get was from Pens' LW Chris Kunitz who summed up how difficult it was to corral the biscuit in the weather when he said, "it didn't seem like the puck would always sit in the proper area of your stick"
After misplaying the biscuit behind the goal, I'm sure that's something Fleury must agree with.
Frankly, I can't figure how the Pens' put up 33 shots to the Capitals' 32 in this one.
For their part, Washington was obviously exuberant after the game.
"What a wonderful hockey experience," said Caps' GM George McPhee.
"It's one of the best feelings of my life," said Ovechkin.
Still, it's undeniable that this game had more meaning and more value to a Washington franchise still trying to find their way after an 8-game losing streak in December.
Would it have been great for the Penguins to win it?
You betcha.
As it was, they'll have to settle for the privilege of just playing the host.
Wet host, that is.
Anybody have an umbrella?
NOTES:
I'll have more on the game tomorrow, including word on the ratings, the impact of the game on the league as a whole, what's next for the Penguins, and a note on the return of center Jordan Staal, who played for the first time all season.
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