Washington Capitals vs Pittsburgh Penguins Live Stream Game

by Barry Svrluga April 25 at 5:22 PM Email the author

It’s impossible to think about the impending series between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins and not delve into the larger themes, into Sid vs. Ovi and who has what the other wants, into the dark history of the Capitals’ 1-for-10 record against the Penguins in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Those issues hang over the series and color it — a deep, dark gray for Washington. For the Capitals to advance to a place this group has never been, they will have to tackle those narratives and drag them to the ground. They’re ever-present.

But Alex Ovechkin’s Capitals have another issue that has dragged them to the ground too often as April has turned to May over the past decade. It has nothing to do with Ovechkin or his chief nemesis, Sidney Crosby of Pittsburgh. Yet it’s exactly the kind of element that could put Capital One Arena on edge early in Thursday night’s Game 1.

Watch and then listen if Penguins goalie Matt Murray makes an exceptional save on Ovechkin or any of his Washington teammates. Mark my words: The building will get tense and tight. That kind of play in net, particularly in the playoffs, “It allows you to play free,” according to Washington Coach Barry Trotz.

[‘We’re actually quite excited about it’: Caps want their Cup quest to go through Pens]

In the Ovechkin era, the Capitals have not often been afforded to “play free” over the entirety of a series. Those Capitals have played 16 playoff series dating from 2008, including the just-completed comeback against Columbus.

Name one that the Washington goaltender stole from an opponent.

Still thinking? Maybe — maybe — I would grant you the first-round series against Boston in 2012. The man who stole that series had just 18 NHL starts to his credit before the playoffs began yet posted a .940 save percentage and four times limited the Bruins to one goal. The goalie who stole a seven-game matchup with Boston was Braden Holtby.

“Obviously,” Holtby said Wednesday, “it was a pretty memorable series.”

Now it’s up to Holtby to do that again. The Ovechkin-era Caps have turned to Cristobal Huet and Jose Theodore, to Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth, to Jaroslav Halak (and we’ll get back to him) and, eventually, to Philipp Grubauer to start this playoff run. Yet it is Holtby who has been the best of that bunch, Holtby who once brought stability to an inherently unstable position in Washington, Holtby who is back in net and Holtby who must steal this series against Pittsburgh.

That last part, maybe it’s an exaggeration. The Penguins will arrive here a banged-up bunch, with key cogs Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin out for at least Game 1. Get equal goaltending, and it’s possible the Caps could beat the Penguins, straight-up. Not that this Washington team is better than last year’s or 2016’s, both teams that went down to Pittsburgh.

But what was the central reason the Capitals couldn’t beat the Penguins in 2017? It wasn’t problems on the power play or the penalty kill. It was that Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury outplayed Holtby. He stopped 67 of 71 shots in the Penguins’ victories in Washington in Games 1 and 2. He shut out the Capitals in Game 7. He was the difference.