Buckle your seat belts, ladies and gents. The real fun’s about to begin.
Starting on Thursday evening in Washington, the Penguins take on the Capitals in what promises to be a pulsating rematch of their second-round series from a year ago.
For those with short memories, the black and gold dashed past the Caps in six games during their march to the Stanley Cup last spring, including overtime victories in Games 4 and 6.
The run-up to the series is eerily similar. Once again, the Pens defeated a first-round foe—this time the bristling Columbus Blue Jackets—in five games. It took the Capitals six games to beat back the challenge of Mike Babcock’s energetic, young Maple Leafs. The defending Presidents’ Trophy winners required the same number of games to vanquish Philadelphia a year ago.
The setup is virtually the same, too. By virtue of their first-place finish in the Metro, the Caps enjoy home-ice advantage. Here’s the schedule:
| Game | Date | Day | Location | Time |
| 1 | April 27 | Thursday | Washington | 7:30 PM |
| 2 | April 29 | Saturday | Washington | 8:00 PM |
| 3 | May 1 | Monday | Pittsburgh | 7:30 PM |
| 4 | May 3 | Wednesday | Pittsburgh | 7:30 PM |
| 5* | May 6 | Saturday | Washington | TBD |
| 6* | May 8 | Monday | Pittsburgh | TBD |
| 7* | May 10 | Wednesday | Washington | TBD |
| * If necessary | ||||
It’s the 10th postseason clash between the bitter rivals. Remarkably, the Pens have won eight of the previous nine meetings. In fact, each time the locals have won a Cup, they’ve used Washington as a stepping stone.
During the regular season, the Caps throttled the Pens by a combined 12-3 in their two victories at the Verizon Center. Our guys prevailed twice at PPG Paints Arena, first in a season-opening shootout on October 13 and again in a wild 8-7 tilt on January 16, courtesy of Conor Sheary’s overtime winner.
More to come.
Puckpourri
Here’s how the other Round Two series shape up. The Rangers meet the Senators in the East. Out West, it’s the Blues-Predators and Ducks-Oilers.
Boston, Calgary, Chicago, Columbus, Minnesota, Montreal, San Jose and Toronto were sent packing in Round One.
Forward Chris Kunitz returned to practice Sunday morning in a non-contact capacity, according to Jonathan Bombulie of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Kuny’s” been out since suffering a lower-body injury against the Rangers on March 31.
Defenseman Chad Ruhwedel also skated with no contact. He’s recovering from an upper-body injury sustained on April 6.
Goaltender Matt Murray has resumed off-ice conditioning activities, but has yet to practice since removing himself from warmups prior to the playoff opener. Winger Carl Hagelin (lower-body injury) didn’t practice, either. No timetable has been set for their returns.
Forwards Josh Archibald and Tom Sestito, along with defenseman Cameron Gaunce, returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton during the lull in the schedule. Archibald (2) and Sestito combined for three goals to help propel the Baby Pens to a 6-5 overtime victory over the Providence Bruins, knotting the series at 1-1. Derrick Pouliot scored the winner at 7:49 of OT.
Goooooo pens
Hi Rick,
This is the fight we wanted and we are rested. I am looking forward to an exciting series, barring major injury I really like our chances.
Even better than last year.
I wish we had Letang, Hagelin and Murray back for obvious reasons, but the team we iced against the Bluejackets did well against a brutal physical attack and came away rather unscathed. Much to my surprise ! Washington can not be anymore physical than the last series we faced. They do not have that type of team. ( Yes they have a few bruisers, but not like CBJ.)
In the Toronto series a few glaring deficient weaknesses were apparent in the Caps games.1. Puck management in their own end. The Caps when pressured turned the puck over in their end and Toronto often capitalized on their errors. 2. The trailer following up the attack. The late man on the rush burned the Cap’s several times. 3. Net presence. Toronto really did not have that Patrik H.,( pain in the rear to play against ) screening Holtby all the time.
We have that dimension to our game. 4. Finally, even though in the Toronto series it was not always the case, the Caps rely on OVi’s line for much of their offense. Our attack is much better balanced over the entire roster and that will bear us results in a close series.
As published earlier by others one big advantage with Murray verses MAF
is that he tends not to give up as many rebounds and that could be a little bit worrisome, but all in all I like our chances.
Lets go get them !!! Pens … 🙂
Cheers
Jim
Hey Jim,
I was more confident in the Pens chances against the Caps before the the puck dropped for the first playoff game. Now, I am a little less confident. I would place the odds at even money. I do think that the Pens are the Caps toughest challenge now, but this series could be a toss up since Was has Home Ice. The Pens have to win one game in Was and as I mentioned earlier, the Pens are a much weaker team on the road, particulary so far in this post-season.
Therefore the Pens poor road performances vs the Caps playoff choke Monkey are going to clash and the winner gets to move on to the next round.
If Malkin and crew can steal a shoot out game in Was this week, I will no doubt gain a lot of confidence.
Hey guys,
I’ll be posting a series preview within the next couple of days, so I won’t go into too much detail here.
Excellent points, Jim. As well as Fleury played against Columbus, I wish Murray was ready. Something about that cool demeanor of his…it has a settling effect.
Other Rick, I feel the same as you regarding our chances. It isn’t that I don’t think we can win, because I do. It’s just that we seem more vulnerable.
I’m particularly worried about us getting stuck again in our own zone for prolonged chunks of time. Columbus had trouble finishing. But guys like T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams will have a field day if we let them linger too long, to say nothing of Ovechkin.
Plus, Washington’s deeper this year, with four legit lines. Combined with the fact that they passed a test against Toronto? Let’s say I’m concerned.
Still like our forwards against their D. But we gotta keep it out of our end and/or do a much better job on the transitions.
Rick
Hey Rick and Jim,
My heart and my head are doing splits; they are going in different directions so I don’t want to go into a lot of detail either, but I think the three of us are very close in our opinions.
If only we can steal 1 game in Was.
We will Coach, 🙂
There is a lot more pressure on Caps to win this series than us. That is the funny part.
Crosby,Malkin, Letang, Kessel,Hagelin, Matta ,MAF and Murray are all locked up with multi year, no movement, or limited movement contracts. The GM and Coach are the same. There is no real pressure for those individuals because the all have long term financial security.The pressure comes by being a professional athlete and wanting to do your best and be the best. Repeat as Champions. To build a dynasty.
That is it. If the Pen’s lose we will all be disappointed as fans but the sun will come up tomorrow and we always have next year. The new kids with less than 2 years NHL experience really are not feeling the pressure either because it is all new to them.
For the Capitals…. This is another story. It is do or die time! Their moment is now ! They have salary cap and free agent issues come July and if they do not beat us now, this team could be broken up …
Think about it.The number 8 seed almost beat them.
With Toronto’s wealth and money and the fact that 8 to 10 players are on low cost Rookie contracts, they can hire a lot of talent next year. My point being the Caps have to win NOW !!
The pressure is on them….
That pressure is going to be a real advantage for us in this series. Plus we have a healthy Sid Crosby, Geno and Phil Kessel. Those 3 a lone can win any series when they are on their game.
I know little about pressure…Trust me…
It is all on the Capitals.
Cheer—Up old friend…
Hey Rick,
Just got home.. Sorry for the late reply.
For me…Penalties,Power Plays, and Face offs !!…
Plus the pressure for Washington to Win will be the keys.
In the Toronto series it was evident that the Cap’s struggled in the face off circle. Last year everyone except Geno did well against the Cap’s in our quest for the cup.That should be an advantage for us if Sid gets his form back. I believe he will.
The power play needs to click at 30 % + for us to win. We need a better job than we did against CBJ. We will live and die by the PP.
The penalty kill. Of all the items mentioned above this one concerns me the most. We can not let Washington score 2 power play goals a game.The PK was always a strong suit for any Pen’s team in the past 5 years. I think this year we are a little weaker.( Need Letang ).
Last point. I am hoping either Kunitz or Hagelin is a go sometime soon. At least by game 3 in the burgh. We need one of them for sure.
It will be fun Rick !!
Hope MAF does not FALTER ! We need him too be our best player !
Let’s go Pen’s
Hey Jim,
There in lies my trepidation, during the regular season last year I had all the confidence in the world in MAF on the road or at home. Since he has returned from his concussion last year, he got bombed in the playoffs last year and this year during the regular season he has been good at home but below average on the road. Through the first series in the playoffs he was almost untouchable at home but on the road he has been horrible. The only reason the Pens won a game on the road in the first series is the O out gunned the opposition. Now the Pens have to start on the road and have to win at least 1-road game. That is why I am nervous.
So I agree, MAF has to be the key. If he plays only as good as he did against CBJ, the Pens will be the ones getting early tee times. MAF has to play better on the road.