Penguins Need To Start Playing Playoff Hockey

The Pittsburgh Penguins have grabbed the momentum from the Washington Capitals, and after a 3­2 Game 3 win at home, they’ve gone up 2­1 in a series where they are the underdogs playing this season’s President’s Trophy winners.

Unfortunately, while the series says the Penguins have been the better offensive team ­ the play (especially in Game 3) says otherwise.

One of the keys for the Penguins coming into this series was to limit the looks Washington got on rookie goalie Matt Murray. Murray, 21, has quite arguably been the reason the Penguins have a series lead now. He’s been a brick wall sitting in the Penguins crease, and for a goalie who’s playing his first postseason in the NHL ever, has been, as Mike Milbury put it, “cool as a cucumber”.

The Penguins certainly owed Game 3 to Murray. Although Pittsburgh was up 3­0 by second intermission, Washington had dominated play so far, outshooting the Penguins 49­23 by the final buzzer. Without Murray’s 47 saves, which set a new career high for him, the Penguins would have had a lot more trouble pulling off a win.

The problem is, if the Penguins want to have a long playoff run, let alone be able to close out this series, they have to shape up in almost every aspect of their play. Game 3 saw Pittsburgh get into trouble right from the first puck drop. Murray had made more than his fair share of clutch saves before the Penguins even got much of anything going. A deflection by Patric Hornqvist on a Trevor Daley shot made it 1­0 6:37 into the game, but by then the Penguins hadn’t even gotten five pucks at Capitals goalie Braden Holtby yet.

Then, 7:37 into the first, Tom Kuhnhackl scored for the Penguins when Matt Cullen attempted to set him up for a tip­in that bounced off Kuhnhackl’s shoulder and into the net. The Penguins were up 2­0; the problem was, this goal occurred only one shot after Hornqvist’s goal. 15:03 into the second period, the Penguins were up 3­0 after a beautiful setup by Nick Bonino, who controlled the puck to the left side of Holtby, outwaited the goalie, and passed the puck across the open crease to Carl Hagelin, who easily put the puck in. Once again, though, the Capitals were still dominating shots, puck possession, and scoring chances. But the third period? That’s where things started getting terrifying for Penguins fans.

The Capitals took control of the game here, and the Penguins had a feeble response.

Matt Murray had to be at the top of his game, helping the Penguins survive what seemed largely like a 20­minute power play for Washington. The Capitals had the puck most of the period and came as close as they could to tying the game. A laser snipe eight minutes into the period, from Caps captain Alex Ovechkin, who finished the night with a goal and an assist, put the Capitals on the board. The goal gave Washington even more life and intensity, with the Penguins only occasionally able to clear the puck from the zone. and with 56 seconds in the game, Justin Williams collected the rebound of an Ovechkin shot that had hit the post and put it in the open net with an empty net at the other end of the ice. From then on, the Capitals made several desperate pushes, which the Penguins just barely survived by attempting to collect the puck and hit the empty net, resulting in several icings. The whole time, I can’t imagine that any Penguins fan’s heart rate wasn’t going through the roof.

So, does that sound like a good game to you? In all honesty, the Penguins didn’t really deserve that win. Matt Murray’s incredibly calm demeanor and resiliency is really why the Capitals didn’t take a game in which the stats resemble a game that you would have thought would result in a blowout by Washington. To add to the Penguins’ struggles, defenseman Kris Letang, arguably one of the team’s most valuable players, will sit out Game 4 after being suspended one game for an interference hit on Capitals forward Marcus Johansson. Murray’s gotten the Penguins a lead in this series, but he can’t be expected to continue to carry that kind of load on his back for long. It’s not a question of Murray’s capability, but more the importance of the team supporting their goalie. They can’t allow the ice to get so tilted. It was especially surprising to see such a defensive collapse on the Penguins’ part after Game 2, in which the team received heavy praise for severely limiting Washington’s shots and scoring chances for most of the game. It was only a little into the third period of that game that Washington started putting some heavy offensive pressure on the Penguins, and it seems like they made sure that trend continued into Game 3. The Penguins can’t allow them to keep on gathering momentum, and they need to push right back quickly.

Now, for them to be able to come away with the series, there are a few key factors. Firstly: getting it out of their zone. This is a problem I saw happening in the first round against the Rangers, and is happening against Washington too. The Penguins have frequently handicapped themselves by entering long defensive slumps where they are unable to get the puck out of their own zone, and the opposing team keeps possession of the puck in the zone for several consecutive minutes. I have not seen the Penguins succeed in offensive zone possession the same way their opponents have. That’s what I mean when I say that sometimes 5­on­5 hockey is looking like a tired Penguins penalty kill; even when someone gets the puck, they turn it over or aren’t able to clear the puck. The Penguins have to lose that trend quickly. Thus far, they have survived these mini slumps because of solid goaltending, but instead of continuing to rely on that, they need to improve their breakout and prevent any team from being allowed to spend so much time in the offensive zone and getting so many quality looks at the net.

Secondly: better play from the Captain. After solid first round play, Sidney Crosby has struggled in this series. He hasn’t gotten much going, and it isn’t looking very much like 2009 when the Pens­Caps series was truly a Sid vs Ovie showdown. Ovechkin also had In Game 3, I did see a solid defensive effort from Crosby, but offensively both disappointed me. Crosby looked hesitant to shoot the puck even when he had looks, whether on the power play or during 5­on­5 hockey, and I can’t ever remember a time when I’ve seen him refusing to shoot the puck and have been too happy with his play. He’s also either been effectively shut down by the Capitals defense or missing quality chances. Last game saw Crosby get a lot of setups in the ideal scoring areas in the slot, where he would have had point­blank looks at Holtby. Every time, he either allowed himself to get pushed out of position or have his stick tied up, or got a shot off and missed. He needs to fight back against whoever is defending him and do a better job of battling for positioning, and when he gets quality chances, he needs to take advantage of them. With Letang out for Game 4, it’s time for the Captain to take charge.

Thirdly: better power play. Before the series, I wrote an article arguing that special teams could be the difference between the Penguins advancing to the second round or being eliminated from the playoffs. I’m not too upset about the penalty kill, which I feel has fought valiantly against a lethal Capitals power play, but the real problem lies with the fact that the Pittsburgh power play is nowhere near as dangerous. So far, the power play has not successfully established a rhythm, and is highly inconsistent in its effectiveness. Sometimes the power play gets some pretty good looks and some quality chances, but other times there is way too much passing, way too much predictability, and way too little actually getting done. I’d feel more comfortable about the Penguins’ chances if they can really start making the Capitals pay for visits to the penalty box.

And finally: controlling their emotions. Unlike the others, this is an area where it’s not improvement I need to see, but just the Penguins continuing to do what they have been doing since the series started. From the get go, the Capitals have been the more physical team, and sometimes they have crossed that line; like with Tom Wilson’s knee­on­knee hit on Conor Sheary, which earned Wilson a fine, and Brooks Orpik’s significantly late headshot on Olli Maatta, which knocked Maatta out with an upper­body injury and earned Orpik a three­game suspension (Games 3, 4, and 5). There have also been some questionable comments from the Washington players and their coach, Barry Trotz, who was visibly upset by how long Orpik’s suspension was and responded by subtly suggesting that the league was giving Pittsburgh special treatment by hitting Orpik hard. In Game 3, following Letang’s hit on Johansson (which, although he would earn the one game suspension the next day, only resulted in a minor penalty for interference on Letang during the game), almost the entire Capitals team, including Johansson, went after Letang. Alex Ovechkin delivered some big hits. There was plenty for the Penguins to be upset about ­ but they kept cool for the most part. For me, that has been one of the most impressive things about this series. It is a giant rivalry we are witnessing in the second round of the playoffs, and the Penguins need to stay level­headed. As long as they don’t get rattled by everything happening on and off the ice, they’re improving their chances. I don’t want to see them start to act stupidly in retaliation to any incident; I want them to get any revenge they’re seeking by putting the puck in Washington’s net and eliminating their division rivals.

It’s not going to be easy for the Penguins to win this series, with the Capitals, already a formidable opponent, getting steadily more desperate and intense with each game. But if the Penguins match that intensity and clean up their game, they can outpace Washington. Potential is not a problem for Pittsburgh; they were the hottest team coming into the playoffs and earned a trip to the second round. But this isn’t just any old set of games; it’s the playoffs, and the playoffs require playoff hockey from every team. The effort I saw from the Penguins team (except Matt Murray, who is exempted from my criticism) in Game 3 was a far cry from the level of playoff hockey that is required of them. They need to hit the ice each game and play like a team that can win the Stanley Cup. That means showing the kind of effort they showed coming into the playoffs and against the Rangers. They can’t afford to take their foot off the pedal at all, and if they want to prevent their opponents from getting a leg up on them, they’ll need to play like the team that they are: a team that people are keeping an eye on to take a grab at the ultimate prize that awaits them, 10 wins away