Capitals 5 – Penguins 2

The series is heading to a seventh game and all of the momentum is with the home team Wednesday night.

The Washington Capitals put on a mockery of the Penguins Monday night at the PPG Paints Arena in a dominant 5-2 victory.

Washington held Pittsburgh to eight shots through the first 40 minutes of the game and scored three times on their first 17 shots, the dagger being an odd-man rush goal from Nicklas Backstrom 16 seconds into the third period that buried the hapless  Penguins tonight.

A good way to sum up the Penguins performance was lifeless but credit goes to the Capitals.

They executed a great game plan and the Capitals beat the Penguins in every facet and frustrated the Penguins throughout.

For the first time in the Mike Sullivan era, the opposition looks to be in the Penguins heads and Pittsburgh being the team that’s doubting themselves and as normally happens in a seven game series, the longer the series goes on, the more likely it is that the better team emerges.

The Penguins are still the defending Stanley Cup Champions, have that resiliency factor about them where you don’t want to bet against them (until the Capitals prove it) but this Penguins team is starting to crack in a lot of areas.

The defense is being exposed like many expected, Marc Andre Fleury is reverting back to Marc Andre Fleury and the Capitals with their neutral zone trap are neutralizing the Penguins forwards to get clean zone entries that haunted the Penguins offensive attack tonight.

If you want something positive going into Game 7, all of the pressure will be on the Capitals to finally get it done and the Penguins have the high-end talent upfront where they just need one shot to make you pay, so let’s not plan the funeral for the 2016-2017 Penguins just yet but the Penguins playing with fire all postseason looks to be finally catching up to them.
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