Penguins/NHL
Penguins – 
Capitals Meet Again in Round 2
With a 6-3 win in Game 6 over the Columbus Blue Jackets Monday night, the Washington Capitals won four straight to punch their ticket to another second-round matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Will this year be any different?
Everyone knows the history…….
The Penguins have won nine of 10 series vs the Capitals and are 3-0 in the Sidney Crosby era with the Capitals losing two Game 7’s on home-ice by a combined 8-2 score.
Last year seemed like the year the Capitals should have finally got the job done.
Pittsburgh was without their No. 1 goaltender, No. 1 defenseman and even lost Sidney Crosby to injury for Game 4.
Yet in Penguins fashion when these two teams get together, Pittsburgh won Game 4 without Crosby to go up 3-1 in the series, then lost control of the series as the Capitals pounded Pittsburgh in Games 5-6 with the Capitals doing Capitals things in choking on home-ice in Game 7 with a 2-0 loss and being lifeless in the third period of Game 7 when trailing 2-0.
This year feels like it again where if the Capitals are not going to knock off a vulnerable Penguins team in the Alex Ovechkin Era, it may never happen……
— While the Blue Jackets are still a club learning how to win, the Capitals showed a lot in Round 1 in dealing with adversity to win four straight that included two overtime wins (Games 3 & 5) and two dominant wins (Games 4 & 6).
Alex Ovechkin who gets bad a rap in the playoffs because of his teams’ lack of success come postseason, was great in Round 1 with 5 goals (8 pts), including 2 goals in Game 6, 34 shots on goal/65 attempts in the series and was at 57% in Scoring Chance For%. He’s going to be a factor in Round 2, the Penguins know it.
The bigger question marks surround others among the Capitals core that will dictate whether they finally solve the Penguins.
— A big development for the Capitals was Braden Holtby regaining the net in Game 3 and looking like the Vezina caliber goaltender he is paid to be.
Holtby went 4-0 with a .932 save percentage in the series.
Yet, what tipped the scales for the Capitals against the Blue Jackets was the center advantage.
Nicklas Backstrom, 2 goals and 6 assists, while Evgeny Kuznetsov with 4 goals and 4 assists was a major matchup problem for CBJ.
— Matt Murray has won Two Stanley Cups, has never lost a playoff series, yet, there still seems to be a large faction of the fan base and local/national media who feel he still needs to prove something this series.
All of the pressure is on Braden Holtby not Murray.
On a sidebar, it’s nice to see a traditional media outlet actually come to the defense of Murray for once as Jason Mackey of the Post-Gazette did in today’s paper, explaining why Murray doesn’t get enough respect.
Holtby has a Penguins problem that is one of the top storylines in this series on whether that continues or not.
Braden Holtby vs Penguins in 2017 Playoffs: 3-4, .887 SV%
Braden Holtby vs Penguins in 2017-2018 Regular Season: 1-2, .897 SV%
Injuries entering the series, more so on Pittsburgh’s end will be a factor.
For Pittsburgh, it’s the health of Evgeni Malkin and a lesser extent Carl Hagelin who has a To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Aside the Capitals having to get the goaltending from Holtby, I look at three players who will sway this series for Washington in either direction:
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Depaoli, gets some steelers draft discussion going woukd ya pal.
Will this year finally be different for depaoli?
Leafs lost because Mathews had no puck luck. Right npl
That and their goalie pulled a Fleury in the 3rd period. You have to admit, when Murray is off you know from minute 1. Fleury usually rips your heart out when you’re least expecting it.
That why pens used to lose they were often caught off guard . With fraud Murray they know every game is a must 4 or 5 goals. As you saw in playoffs they even had 5-0 games making sure their consistency is their just in case. Then you have clowns like npl that will think Murray stole the match
LOL, MAF was good for pretty much one soft goal nightly for many years. Revisionist history by a master of apologetics and a significant selective memory disability
…. creep van
Leafs fans are expecting another creep van to pass by
I had to look this up… 9% on rotten tomatoes? This is what you do with your spare time? Jack of… 5x while watching alltime bad movies?
Leafs loss because fraud Mathews never showed up. And jake Gardner is garbage I can’t wait leafs get rid of that clown. He even had – 5 tonight. Not thumbs down – 5
Around here that’s known as a “Letang”
Around here our Canadians bail him out while around there Mathews shitting his pants
Letangs defensive partners have been Orpik and Dumoulin primarily… Sometimes theyve tried Maatta…
Do you guys think Canada will ever get the cup back?
We do every year the cups home more then it stays in the states since Canadian players give the glory to the American teams.
There goes Lyin’ Sam, lying again.
About the same chance as the Pirates have of winning the pennant.
Looks promising for American fraud players that will steal paychecks they will fill in the shoes of Bobby Ryan and praise. Eichel and Mathews.
Hard not to root against Winnipeg. The world is a better place when Canada is miserable.
At least they have Justin Trudeau. Great guy.
Toronto needs an American coach. Lovecock is overrated.
NPL, who do you have the Steelers taking tomorrow?
Havent watched much film this year but id love to see Vander Esch fall to them.
Touche. I havent stopped watching film. Steelers will dissapoint me as always and reach for someone at #28. I’d like to see them trade up with the Lions and grab best LB available. Id take Evans over Vander Esch
They once had one when you haven’t discover pens yet
His name was Ron. Not Ron klatt
Ron Wilson and team was miserable.
I wonder how long db would last with the leafs. Most probably his own American fellow will turn against him and want him fired. Just like eichel did
Ron Wilson was born in Canada. We dont claim him.
Shocked Hainsey couldn’t pull that out.
Poor Canada. Less relevant every week
Look at bruins roster the main scorers. Canadians
But French Canadian.
Pastrnak is Czech-Canadian.
Rat with empty net goal.
Once again same is right you don’t build your team around Americans.
Have you heard of the Pittsburgh Penguins?
Leafs didnt learn from their previous mistake when they had chubby as main guy. And now you want Mathews as next captain. What a bum
Does Mathews know it’s game 7 yet ?
I hate Jake Gardiner
Always found he is overrated garbage and now I’m convinced this guy is absolute garbage
That was a terrible goal to give up on Anderson.
Answers….
First question is Malkin and Crosby… in that order.
Second is Guentzel and Nash… what a fucken waste of money Nash is
Bonus… thumbs down this post for every time you’ve seen and jerked off to “creep van”
The answer is always Sheary! Lol
Man, I’d love to see the bruins lose but think Bruins -Bolts would be better series and better outcome for Pens if they can get past Caps.
Nice goal by kapanen you think chubby took.notes seeing how you skate hard without the puck
I wish Pens had Kapanen back instead of Kessel. Don’t you
Specially that our 3rd liner is the most expensive 3rd liner of the league
BTW Ron klatt favourite movie is Creep van
Actually it’s menace II society but watching you be made fun off by one of your go to +5s and you not even notice is my second favourite lol
Hey -5ammich
Player 1
31gp 19g 39pts +11
Player 2
83gp 16g 42pts +4
Name the two players… hit player one is from Pittsburgh
Once again marleau scored where is Mathews
Behind every Canadian there is an American glowing. Got to know the worth you money.
Go leafs go
Npl and zerotool favourite movie is creep van. Zerotool uses that movie to get a hard on in order to bang his Alberta cow. The movie is his go to Viagra. And npl loves that movie helps him lose weight. When there is a gore scene makes him stressed and sweat like the pig he is and try to lose weight
Dude… this is hilarious… good job…
And no… your mother isn’t methhead thin but Alberta Cow? Come on dude we are a beef province… your moms in great shape for her age!
I see the pusssy chorus is worried about a physical series. Oh my gosh, body checks.
Geno and Hags OUT for game one. Malkin traveled, Hags did not.
and yet the NHL will let that dirty hit on Hags go unpunished. Wait for the shit in this series from Craps cheap shot specialist.
Wilson will be running and gunning and dishing out headshots
That’s who i am most worried about and my complaint is these injuries add up after a while.
I could see Orpik doing something dirty, especially being that he can’t keep up with most of our team.
What you mean get vanned?
Lmao, well done
That is one of my biggest concerns and the Pens only real “weapon” is Oleksiak when it comes to size.
You should run this site! You give more updates than DePaoli
Sam sucks
Hey -5ammich, I want you to tell me who these stat line belong to… they are from the 2016 and 2017 cup runs
Player 1
48 GP; 16 G; 46 PT; +10; 20 PPP
Player 2
48 GP; 14 G; 46 PT; +2; 18 PPP
Who is who and which one was on vacation in April through June?
So what crashed the system this am? traffic? too many articles? What a fucken joke!
Thursday night…Game on!
Anyone else kind of like Toronto tomorrow?
What you mean get vanned ?
Is that supposed to be a real sentence?
Hopefully the next one is in Montreal… your street
You probably enjoy those van scenes. I bet your and npls favourite movies is Creep van
And I bet you own an old, unmarked van with the words free candy painted on the side with house paint and a kids tv character costume in the passenger side.
… sorry… had to get your mother to buy for you… with her untaxed dollars… she earns from whoring… means she fucks a lot of guys and don’t get paid much… cuz she’s a cuntt… like you… hodor
Oh… and…
Hey -5ammich, I want you to tell me who these stat line belong to… they are from the 2016 and 2017 cup runs
Player 1
48 GP; 16 G; 46 PT; +10; 20 PPP
Player 2
48 GP; 14 G; 46 PT; +2; 18 PPP
Who is who and which one was on vacation in April through June?
Nope
I’ll give them a chance. Got get through the first 10 minutes.
Like Toronto’s chances Ron Hainsey has never lost a playoff series 🙂
With Malkin hurt, Unless Murray steals several games hard to see the Caps streak continuing.
Yep, the Caps are virtually unbeatable.
I dont remember when was the last time he stole a game. No worries team will have that 4-5 goals for him to get the W and call it a steal
If you two dumbfcuks don’t remember the last time Murray stole a playoff game, then you don’t know what you are watching. Asshats.
Hey -5ammich, I want you to tell me who these stat line belong to… they are from the 2016 and 2017 cup runs
Player 1
48 GP; 16 G; 46 PT; +10; 20 PPP
Player 2
48 GP; 14 G; 46 PT; +2; 18 PPP
Who is who and which one was on vacation in April through June?
That has to be Sheary! Lol
I said at the begining of the season the best thing that happened to Washington was some of the big names leaving. Expectations were lowered and so was the pressure. They were an under the radar team this year with no need to win the Presidents trophy. If they lose to Pitt they lost to the two time defending champs… if they win they beat the two time defending champs and get that monkey off their back and are now playing with house money. On that note… fuck Washington!
You never said that.
Not to you no. Lol.
Well, the fact that they are back in round 2 vs a team that has been their Achilles heel for a long time I wouldn’t say they are feeling no pressure.
I could have swore I just watched a Biz Nasty video that said exactly this nearly word for word about 10 minutes ago on twitter
Biz Nasty is stealing my shit!
Wilds finally letting go of fletcher they just realized fraud parise and suter. Constantly take turns to sabotage the team. But this year classic they both took vacation at same time. Ufff talk about 2 big salaries. Team can get 4 decent players at that price
Or one Jonathan Toews!
Oh you mean the Habs model? The one where they attempted to add a bunch of mid priced talent and continued to realize they would get trounced by teams with the big money big game guys? Fuckk Subban looks great in Nashville hey?
Winnipeg has looked very impressive all year. Sometimes all a Canadian team needs is a solid American captain like Blake Wheeler to have moderate success. Unless, of course, its Montreal. There is no saving that dumpster fire.
You can’t leave out their American Vezina finalist.
Remember when Sam said the Boston series was over after Game 2? One more game for the French-Canadian led team to complete the collapse. Toronto is fortunate to have an American like Matthews leading them out of mediocrity.
I’m sure you are watching that series closing because you Matthews been a ghost for the most part. Top players for leafs marner ,marleau and now plekanec since he joined marleau on the same line. Then comes Anderson
Once again Canadians play and the American fraud gets the glory
Regardless you still said the Bruins had it in the bag…
Matthews has 1 and 1 for 2… Rick Nash has a single goal
Even Conor Sheary has produced better than Nash 😉
Sammich, Anderson isn’t Canadian you fuckwit
Neither is Plekanec fwiw lol
Yes they are not Canadian and shows I don’t have a bias agenda
… the are not american or Russian either… your bigotry is still in tact
Malkin and Hags did not skate today.
Hags will be back. Malkin worries me. Well Coots showed you can play on one leg, but can that be sustained until June. The longer he doesn’t skate, the worse I fear it is.
Well he is out for his annual vacation. Usual takes them Feb – March time so team owes him those vacation days
It’s actually good thing malkin gone for vacation. Pens will take less penalties and ovi will score less from his office
Hags has a concussion… Malkin was seen without a boot and a slight limp
Hard to call this year, I mean it usually has the feel of the Pens beating the Capitals due to the fact that the Caps have too many floaters but the Pens didnt settle vs Philly and that is a concern. That said they may have been guilty of taking the foot off the gas against an inferior opponent. While I think the Pens bad habits this year could catch up with them it’s hard to think it will be this year… injury notwithstanding… Pens in 7
To clarify… the bad habits may catch up with them later in the playoffs but ultimately the Caps may not have what it takes
Caps are getting the Pens, at the latter’s most vulnerable, both with their injuries, weak D, and suspect goal tending.
What scares me is that at some point Washington is eventually going to win a series against the Pens and this is possibly the most vulnerable the Pens have been in recent history, Especially if Malkin & Hagelin are out an extended period of time.
Agreed coach Douche
This might be their year to finally beat pens having holtby hot and ovi and with pens injuries but never give up pens have Jacques Martin I’m sure he would find a way to frustrate the other team with his defencive system
Coming from the man that said Philly in 6 this all but guarantees the Pens win. Now all we need is after Game 2 you say the series is over.
I agree but we need to see them exorcise those demons first. I am probably less confident than at any point in the OV/Crosby era to be certain but… They have their own ghosts too.