Pittsburgh Penguins Eliminate Washington Capitals in Game 6
By Ryan Ritchie
Pittsburgh Penguins Eliminate Washington Capitals in Game 6, Will Move on to Face Tampa Bay in Eastern Conference Final
After the Pittsburgh Penguins took a commanding 3-0 lead late in the second period of game six, it looked as though the Washington Capitals were finished. With 6:53 remaining in the third period, Caps defender John Carlson tied the game up at 3-3.
A few late penalties had the Pens on their heels, opening the door for several opportunities for Washington to put the game away. Ultimately failing to convert, the game went into extra time.
Six and a half minutes into OT, Nick Bonino tapped in the winner on a pass from Phil Kessel.
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Pittsburgh Penguins knocked off the Presidents’ Trophy winning Capitals, and move on to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2013.
Awaiting the Pens is Tampa Bay – who could have their superstar forward (Steven Stamkos) back from a blood clot issue. The Lightning had an easier path through the first two rounds, but make no mistake, this could be the Pens toughest match-up yet with a high-flying potent offense that includes Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Jonathan Drouin, among others.
Also, don’t be surprised if Ben Bishop is one of TB’s MVP’s in round three (whether they win or lose).
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Capitals Disappoint Once Again
Braden Holtby didn’t exactly play spectacular in round two. He looked more like the guy that played himself out of Hart Trophy consideration late in the regular season.
Not to take anything away from the Pittsburgh Penguins (because they’ve been playing lights out hockey), but the end result of this series is more indicative of a deeper issue within the Caps core.
When push comes to shove, players such as Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Braden Holtby simply aren’t raising their game to a high enough level this time of year.
Caps front-office has one last opportunity to find defensive upgrades (we wrote a piece titled “Washington Capitals Defense Not a Stanley Cup Winning Group” a few weeks before the playoffs criticizing the Caps blueline, and got lambasted on social media for it) – if that doesn’t get them over the hump, it could be time to start thinking core shake-up.
Matt Murray
21-year-old Matt Murray continues to play well between the pipes. He now has seven wins, two losses, with a 2.05GAA and .935 save percentage.
Murray shows unbelievable poise and maturity for a young man of his age. Rumors suggest his leash is rather small with Marc-Andre Fleury waiting for an opportunity, but it might take a horrific outing or falling in the next series for the veteran to get a look.
HBK Line (Carl Hagelin, Phil Kessel, Nick Bonino)
A lot of buzz is surrounding the line of Carl Hagelin, Nick Bonino, and Phil Kessel. Give the trio credit, they’re doing exactly what you need in terms of depth scoring in the playoffs.
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Who deserves the most credit for the emerging line? Most point to coach Mike Sullivan for constructing the line, but it wouldn’t have been possible without Jim Rutherford making transactions to acquire all three. Perhaps Evgeni Malkin‘s injury was the true blessing in disguise?
Whichever way you want to look at it, the most interesting detail of what has become a positive story, was largely negative for roughly 3/4 of the season. Phil Kessel couldn’t play with Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin. This might be one of the Pittsburgh Penguins biggest vulnerabilities moving forward. If the Tampa Bay Lightning find a way to shut down the HKB line forcing Sullivan to shuffle his lines, the Pens are in trouble.
Eyes on the Prize
Both Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay have Stanley Cup aspirations heading into the third round.
For Tampa, they are just one year removed from a heart-breaking Finals loss to Chicago and know exactly what it takes to get there. For the Penguins, it’s been awhile since they’ve hoisted Lord Stanley, but they can draw for experience in hopes of knocking off a relatively young team.
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Look for this to be a hard-fought six or seven game series with a possibility of overtime almost every game. This match-up screams close one-goal games that are either low-scoring overall, or back and forth style hockey lighting the lamp.