The Washington Capitals are again looking to end a losing streak, and to hand Pittsburgh their first at-home loss of the season (4-0-0). This time it’s a three-game, season-high winless streak the Caps are hoping to halt. Washington has five losses in their last seven meetings with Pittsburgh, which includes the shootout and overtime loss the Caps suffered back in January.

Washington’s last game was a 7-4 regulation loss handed to them by the Philadelphia Flyers one week ago on Super Bowl Sunday. The Capitals had three games postponed since, including another against the Flyers and two versus the Sabres. TJ Oshie and Jakub Vrana did not dress for Washington, but Lars Eller returned to the lineup after missing four games. Philippe Maillet made his NHL debut and was the 4th player this season to do so. Sean Couturier took to the ice for Philadelphia for the first time since January 15th. Nick Jensen, who had been a healthy scratch before Justin Schultz was hurt, was oddly really good to start.

At the 10:48 mark of the first, the Flyers were called for too-many-men, and so the Capitals received their first power play of the afternoon. Not even 30 seconds into the man-advantage, Alex Ovechkin from his office, beat Carter Hart to make it 1-0 with his 4^th of the season. Hart would be the 144^th different goaltender Ovechkin has scored on in the NHL.

Then, just over five minutes later with less than four minutes left in the period, a slick curl-and-drag pass from Ovi to Nicklas Backtrom tipped to Tom Wilson ended up in the net to give Washington a 2-0 lead.

Unfortunately, just prior to the expiration of the first, Scott Laughton got his team on the board to cut the Caps’ lead in half. The 2nd period saw a combined five goals, including Laughton’s second of the afternoon (to tie 2-2), and another Alex Ovechkin goal to make it 3-2.

Robert Hagg, in a game of back and forth chances, scored on just the Flyers’ 12th shot of the game to make it 3-3. Then, Trevor van Riemsdyk’s brother James scored his 7th of the season to give the Flyer’s a one-goal 4-3 lead. Vitek Vanecek was then relieved of his duties, and Craig Anderson made his first appearance this season between the pipes.

With 57 seconds remaining in the middle frame, Nicklas Backstrom re-tied the game with a slip-through, spin-o-rama backhand to score his 6^th goal in 12 games.

Unfortunately, just 31 seconds into the final frame, Sean Couturier scored to give the Flyers back their lead, this time, 5-4. Zdeno Chara was then called for high-sticking and assessed a double minor, so the Flyers played with the man-advantage for four minutes. Though the Caps trailed by one, they killed off the penalty. With just two minutes left in the game, Laughton would score his 3rd of the game to tally his first career hat-trick. Washington would elect to pull Anderson for the extra-attacker, but Couturier potted an empty-net goal to extend their lead to three goals (7-4).

Prior to being pulled, Vitek Vanecek allowed four goals on 14 shots (.714 SV%). Anderson allowed two goals on eight shots (.750 SV%), and the loss was his to mark.

The Pittsburgh Penguins last played on Thursday, where they defeated the New York Islanders 4-3 in the shootout. Just five minutes and 39 seconds into the first period, Casey Cizikas scored whilst falling as goaltender Casey DeSmith allowed perhaps one of the slowest goals of his career to slip past him in net.

After recently agreeing to terms with their newest GM Ron Hextall and Hockey Ops president Brian Burke, allowing a soft goal like Cizikas’ was not a great way to start off. But Bryan Rust made it 1-1 just short of the 12-minute mark. Unfortunately, with Cody Ceci in the penalty box for delay of game, Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored on the power play to reinstate New York’s one-goal lead before the end of the opening frame.

Zach Aston-Reese, who played in just his first game of the season on Thursday, scored the game-tying goal at the 7:02 mark of the middle period. The Penguins received just one power play opportunity and failed to convert with the man-advantage (Eberle, illegal equipment). It’s no secret that Pittsburgh’s power play isn’t great, ranking at 24^th of 31 teams, or 7^th worst in the league. It certainly doesn’t help that they have formers Caps’ head-coach-of-just-two-seasons-once-again-assistant-coach Todd Reirden in charge of the power play, either. In fact, the Pens 13.5% power play efficiency rate would have put them in last place compared to last season’s PP rankings. It wasn’t until the 13:35 mark of the third period that the tie-breaking goal would be scored, but much to the dismay of Pens’ fans it wasn’t their team that scored it. Mat Barzal tallied his 5^th of the season to make it 3-2, Islanders. As the clock ran down, it seemed inevitable that Pittsburgh would lose to the Islanders once again (suffered a 4-3 loss 2/6). But with the net vacated for the extra-attacker, Evgeni Malkin tied the game 3-3 at the 19:42 mark, just 18 seconds before the final buzzer, to force overtime and guarantee at least a point for his Penguins.

Overtime was not enough to settle the score, so the Isles and Pens needed the shootout to determine a winner. Only Sidney Crosby would put up a successful shootout attempt and thus was deemed the ‘game-winning goal’ as DeSmith tallied his 4^th win of the season.

Notable Numbers

1. Heading into Sunday’s match against the Capitals, the Pens will have gone 23 days since they last scored a 5-on-4 goal. They have the worst expected goals for percentage with the man-advantage (76.52%).
2. Pittsburgh has the worst even-strength shot attempt percentage in the league (76.84%).
3. Despite putting up the 5^th fewest shots on goal per game, the Capitals boast the 3^rd best shot percentage in the league (12.6%).
4. Washington’s power play, which is operating at 37%, leads the league. However, the Capitals have scored just 10 PPG’s, and have the 2^nd fewest power play opportunities of all teams (27).
5. Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel lead PIT with four (4) goals each, Bryan Rust leads with seven (7) assists.

The extended time off gave the Capitals plenty of time for some injured skaters to return to the ice. TJ Oshie practiced on Wednesday and in his media availability, reported feeling “great”, and “back to normal”. On Tuesday evening, Jakub Vrana taken off COVID protocol list and has since also been practicing. Additionally, Justin Schultz donning a full face shield, has participated in full-contact practice. Also, on Wednesday, Michael Sgarbossa, Martin Fehervary and Pheonix Copley were reassigned from the taxi squad to Hershey Bears, and Daniel Carr from NHL roster to the taxi squad.

NBC will have exclusive coverage of Capitals vs Penguins, from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with puck drop coming shortly after 3:00pm EST.

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After dropping their first game of eight against the Pittsburgh Penguins in a shootout, the Washington Capitals are looking to add to their five of six possible points through three games as they take on Pittsburgh once again to close out their four-game road trip.

The Washington Capitals fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of 4-3 in the shootout on Sunday. It was the first time the Caps would face their former head coach in Todd Reirden, now assistant coach in Pittsburgh. It is Reirden’s second tour with the Penguins, however. It had been 316 days since the Caps and Pens played, since they did not meet in the post-season after both teams made early exits for a second straight year. Caps young netminder Ilya Samsonov got the start for the Capitals. Casey DeSmith started his first game of the season after ‘starter’ Tristan Jarry allowed nine goals in the last two games vs the Flyers. Conor Sheary did not dress, and Daniel Sprong took his place for the Caps. Cody Ceci and Mike Matheson were the healthy scratches for Pittsburgh, and Juuso Riikola and Chad Ruhwedel drew in.

Just 19 seconds into the first period, new acquisition Evan Rodrigues put his Penguins on the board with his first goal of the season. At the 4:57 mark of the first, Pittsburgh earned their first power play of the game as Nick Jensen went off for tripping, but just as they had done five times versus the Sabres on Friday, the Caps killed off the penalty. With just under eight minutes remaining, Nic Dowd narrowly tallied his first of the season to tie the game 1-1.

Initially, it was difficult to tell if the puck entirely crossed the goal line, but upon review, it was determined that Dowd’s tying goal was a good goal. Following Nic’s goal, momentum tilted dramatically in favor of the Capitals. After failing to score in his first two games, just beyond the 14-minute mark, a pass from Tom Wilson to Evgeny Kuznetsov to Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin allowed him to finally score to give the Caps a 2-1 lead.

The Capitals received their first power play prior to the expiration of the first period, but did not score (Dumoulin, holding). Despite leading to start the second period, Washington quickly allowed a second goal from Pittsburgh just over two minutes in, thus tying the game. A faulty misplay by Samsonov led to a goal from Colton Sceviour; a goal that would require an extensive review to determine if the puck actually went in, or if it rebounded off the cross bar and out.

Pittsburgh received another power play at the 5:20 mark, but again failed to convert (Dillon, cross-checking). The Capitals have taken far too many minor penalties to start the season, but at least the penalty kill is good, and they aren’t allowing goals immediately upon killing the penalty. Three minutes later, Jake Guentzel went off for interference, giving the Caps a power play, but just 15 seconds into the man-advantage, TJ Oshie was called for interference as well. Play resumed as 4-on-4 for 1:45, but then Sidney Crosby was called for hooking 30 seconds later, so the Capitals played 4-on-3 for 1:15. At the 10:09 mark, with the man-advantage, Nicklas Backstrom scored to reinstate Washington’s lead, 3-2.

Unfortunately, just under three minutes after Backstrom’s goal, Marcus Pettersson tied the game, 3-3. The Penguins received a late power play as Evgeny Kuznetsov went off for tripping with 20.7 seconds left, so the Caps would start the third with the score tied, and on the penalty kill.

The third period was score-less, but not without its opportunities. Carl Hagelin nearly scored shorthanded on the remainder of a late 2^nd period Caps penalty. Both teams received power plays in the final frame, but neither converted (Wilson, slashing)(BENCH, too-many-men). Ovechkin nearly scored a second goal, but his shot rang off both posts and stayed out.

With neither team scoring, the game would need extra hockey to determine a winner. Overtime was not enough, though it seemed as though the 3-on-3 five-minute period lasted forever. It took four rounds of the shootout for Jake Guentzel to solve Samsonov, who had played shakily since he allowed the Pens’ second goal. Despite the loss, the Capitals had earned points in each of their first three games, thus having yet to lose in regulation, and have tallied 11 goals.

Ilya Samsonov started his 2^nd game of the season against Pittsburgh, and gave up 3 goals on 24 shots to ultimately drop the game in the shootout. Samsonov did however stop shootout attempts from Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, and Evgeni Malkin. Casey DeSmith was in net for Pittsburgh on Sunday, and is expected to start once again for the Pens on Tuesday. DeSmith allowed 3 goals on 20 shots for a .870 save percentage.

NBCSN, ATTSN-PT, and NBC Sports Washington will be covering Capitals vs Penguins, from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, with puck drop coming shortly after 7:00pm.

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TLDR: In a game of trading chances, Alex Ovechkin scores his first of the season and the Capitals keep Crosby off the score sheet, but ultimately fall in the shootout to drop their third game, 4-3.

It has been 316 days since the Capitals and Penguins last played one-another, in-part due to the fact that neither team qualified for the 2nd round of the 2019-20 NHL Playoffs. In case one had forgotten, Pittsburgh did not qualify for the playoffs after losing in four games to the Montreal Canadiens in the best-of-5 Qualifier Round last year. The last time these two teams saw each other, on March 7th, 2020, Todd Reirden was Washington’s head coach, and the Caps defeated the Pens by a score of 5-2. Now, Reirden is Pittsburgh head-coach Mike Sullivan’s assistant, and is in charge of their power play (it’s no secret the Pens’ PP hasn’t been very good) and defense.

Period 1: Caps young netminder Ilya Samsonov got the start for the Capitals. Casey DeSmith started his first game of the season after ‘starter’ Tristan Jarry allowed nine goals in the last two games vs the Flyers. Minor changes were made to Washington’s starting line-up, notably, Daniel Sprong replacing Conor Sheary on the third line. Carl Hagelin, Sprong, and Justin Schultz are all former Penguins’ skaters, with a combined 471 games played for Pittsburgh. Cody Ceci and Mike Matheson were the healthy scratches for Pittsburgh, and Juuso Riikola and Chad Ruhwedel drew in. Just 19 seconds into the first period, new acquisition Evan Rodrigues put his Penguins on the board with his first goal of the season. Despite the Pens scoring on their 2nd shot of the game, the Caps were successful at gaining puck possession in their defensive zone. However, they weren’t great at keeping possession in their own offensive zone. At the 4:57 mark of the first, Pittsburgh earned their first power play of the game as Nick Jensen went off for tripping. Not a great call, as Jensen was just playing his position, but the Capitals killed off the penalty. Washington killed off all five penalties versus the Sabres on Friday. With just under eight minutes remaining, Nic Dowd narrowly tallied his first of the season to tie the game 1-1.

At first, it was hard to tell if the puck entirely crossed the goal line, but upon a brief review, it was clear that Dowd’s goal would be upheld. Washington’s passing has improved dramatically, with crisper tape to tape passing, and less obscure cross-ice passes. Momentum seriously tilted in favor of the Capitals after Dowd’s close-call goal. Just beyond the 14-minute mark, Tom Wilson aggressively forced Pens captain Sidney Crosby off the puck to force play back into the Pittsburgh defensive zone. A pass from Wilson to Evgeny Kuznetsov created a high-danger scoring opportunity. After failing to score in his first two games, a feed from Kuznetsov to Caps’ captain Alex Ovechkin allowed him to finally score to give the Caps a 2-1 lead.

Before the expiration of the first period, the Capitals received their first power play opportunity (Dumoulin, holding), but did not convert. Washington did not have a single man-advantage opportunity against the Sabres on Friday.

Period 2: Heading into the middle frame, Washington led in shots on goal, 12 to 8, and 2-1 where it mattered most. Again, it didn’t take long for the Capitals to allow another Pittsburgh goal. This time, it took a faulty misplay by Samsonov and two minutes and 10 seconds for Colton Sceviour to tie the game. An extensive review took place to determine if the puck actually went in, or if it rebounded off the cross bar and out. Multiple camera views showed the puck bouncing out, but the call was upheld.

Ilya Samsonov made some questionable plays and seemed shaken up in the goal for the remainder of the period. The Caps goalie needed to stay deeper in his crease and increase his awareness of where the puck is. John Carlson also needs to be better. Brenden Dillon was called for cross-checking at the 5:20 mark, but the Penguins again failed to convert. Three minutes later, Jake Guentzel went off for interference, giving the Caps a power play, but just 15 seconds into the man-advantage, TJ Oshie was called for interference as well. Play resumed as 4-on-4 for 1:45, but then Sidney Crosby was called for hooking 30 seconds later, so the Capitals played 4-on-3 for 1:15. At the 10:09 mark, with the man-advantage, Nicklas Backstrom scored to reinstate Washington’s lead, 3-2.

Unfortunately, just under three minutes after Backstrom’s goal, Marcus Pettersson tied the game, 3-3. The Penguins received a late power play as Evgeny Kuznetsov went off for tripping with 20.7 seconds left, so the Caps would start the third with the score tied, and on the penalty kill.

Period 3:  Over the course of the last two seasons, the Capitals were great in the third period, and on multiple occasions, led the league in third period goals. Pittsburgh started the period with the man-advantage, but almost allowed a short-handed goal when Carl Hagelin picked off the puck in the Pens defensive zone. A goal-less 3rd period featured two power plays, one for each team. At the 4:21 mark, Tom Wilson went off for breathing (just kidding, slashing). Pens goaltender Casey DeSmith nearly ‘played’ the puck into his own net, and Pittsburgh failed to convert with the man-advantage. Halfway through the period, Pittsburgh was called for too-many-men, which was served by Jared McCann. Alas, the Caps would not score on the power play, though a shot from Ovechkin ringed off both posts, but stayed out.

Pittsburgh Penguin Evgeni Malkin was nearly invisible throughout the match until halfway through the third. Washington was extremely aggressive in the final minutes of regulation, but would fail to score, so this match would require overtime.  

The overtime period was not enough to determine a winner in this one, so an extra point would be decided with a shootout. Ilya Samsonov does not have a lot of experience in the shootout, so it would be an extremely important win for he and the Capitals. Five of six possible points in three games is good, but six of six would be better.

Kris Letang- MISS

TJ Oshie- MISS

Sidney Crosby- MISS

Nicklas Backstrom- MISS

Evgeni Malkin- MISS

Evgeny Kuznetsov- MISS

Jake Guentzel- SCORE

Alex Ovechkin- MISS

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be Samsonov’s day, and the Capitals would drop their third game in four days by a score of 4-3 in the shootout. Washington will play the Penguins again on Tuesday at 7:00pm EST.

TXHT’s Three Takeaways

1. Play Vanecek on Tuesday.
2. The Capitals need more shots on goal. Quality is important, but so is quantity.
3. Washington’s penalty kill is good, but the power play needs to be much better.

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The Washington Capitals kicked off their 2020-21 campaign with back-to-back wins in Buffalo to get a 2-0-0 jump-start. Now, they’re hoping to write the same story in Pittsburgh.

The Capitals were looking to defeat the Sabres for a second time in two nights on Friday. Washington was 6-1-1 in their last eight vs Buffalo, and historically good on the 2^nd night of back-to-back games. Brenden Dillon played in his 600^th career NHL game, and goaltender Vitek Vanecek made his NHL regular season debut. Heading into the game, John Carlson boasted the most points by a defensemen in 2^nd game of back-to-back of active players. The Sabres received the first power play of the night, as they had on Thursday evening, but the Capitals successfully killed off the penalty (Dillon, hooking). Unfortunately, with just under 10 minutes left in the first, Buffalo went back on the power play as Conor Sheary was called for tripping. Washington luckily kept the Sabres score-less. But Buffalo was gifted their third power play of the period (to Washington’s zero) with three minutes remaining (Kuznetsov, holding). The Capitals killed off all three penalties in the first, but desperately needed to get more shots on net going the other way.

Jakub Vrana got the Capitals on the board as the first goal of the game just 94 seconds into the middle period. That makes two goals in two games for Vrana.

John Carlson went off for two minutes with 7:37 remaining for slashing, giving Buffalo their 4^th power play, but the Sabres once again did not convert. The last five minutes of the 2^nd period were the longest of the game, as the Sabres stayed in Washington’s defensive zone for over 90 seconds, as the Caps failed to clear multiple times. Vanecek was forced to make save after save to keep his Capitals leading, 1-0.

Carl Hagelin nearly scored with a sneaky wrap-around with 30 seconds remaining, but the score remained 1-0 heading into the 3^rd.

It was unlikely Vrana’s single tally would be the only goal of the game, and it took 31 seconds into the third for Rasmus Ristolainen to score for Buffalo and tie the game, 1-1. Buffalo was heavily outshooting the Capitals, 28-17, five minutes into the third. Tom Wilson scored the tie-breaker after a Buffalo turnover with just over 12 minutes left.  

Zdeno Chara went off for holding to give the Sabres their 5^th… yes, their 5^th… power play of the night, with 4:15 left. Self-discipline was a big problem for the Capitals last year, and despite being even split on Thursday, Washington didn’t have a single opportunity with the man-advantage. The Caps killed it off, and the Sabres vacated their net for the extra attacker with a little under two minutes remaining. Luckily, Tom Wilson’s tie-breaker ended up being the game-winner for Washington, and the Caps swept their opening two-game series against Buffalo.

Vitek Vanecek made 30 saves on 31 shots and allowed 1.02 goals against for a .968 save percentage to mark his first career NHL win. Ilya Samsonov will likely start for the Caps on Sunday versus the Penguins.

The Pittsburgh Penguins fell to the Philadelphia Flyers, again, by a score of 5-2 on Friday night. Pittsburgh dropped their first game (also versus the Flyers) by a score of 6-3.

Early on, the Flyers went on the power play as the Pens were called for too-many-men, and Chad Ruhwedel served the penalty. At the 7:27 mark Travis Konecny gave his team a 1-0 lead, with the man-advantage. Not long after, just under two minutes after his first, Konecny tallied his 2^nd of the game to extend the Flyers lead, 2-0. Ivan Provorov put up Philly’s third goal of the first period just two minutes later. Pens bench boss Mike Sullivan should have pulled Tristan Jarry in favor of Casey DeSmith in hopes of keeping the game respectable, and he did just that. On Pittsburgh’s first power play of the game, just 60 seconds in, Sidney Crosby tallied his 2^nd of the season to make it 3-1, and 32 seconds later, Brandon Tanev made it 3-2. The Flyers led heading into the middle period, but the Penguins had severely cut into that lead.

The second period was goal-less, but not without penalties-a-plenty. The Flyers received three more power play opportunities, and the Penguins, one, but neither team was able to convert. In the third, with just over seven minutes left in the match, Travis Konecny tallied his third of the game to seal the hat-trick. Both teams had one more power-play opportunity but didn’t convert. With the Pens net vacant, Oskar Lindblom tallied an empty-net goal to mark his 2^nd goal in two games to seal the 5-2 win.

Tristan Jarry, before being pulled, allowed three goals on six shots. Casey DeSmith stopped 12 of 13 shots, for a .923 save percentage. It is unclear who will start for Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Penguins are without the services of Kasperi Kapanen (Unfit to Play), and Zach Aston-Reese (IR-LT).

NBC will be covering Capitals vs Penguins, from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, with puck drop coming shortly after 12:00pm.

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