Penguins' Struggles Continue in 6-3 Loss to Capitals

Recap by Yinzer Crazy Featured Penguins Contributor Patricia Beninato

This was a hard one to watch.

The Penguins lost to the Washington Capitals 6-3 at PPG Paints Arena. For those that are counting--and I think that’s everyone--this was their fourth loss in a row. And, since these are the Capitals, there were many insults to the injury of the loss. Alex Ovechkin scored. A guy who literally hadn’t scored in five freaking years got a goal. And, worst of all, Tom Wilson scored the winner. All together now--EFF TOM WILSON.

Okay, I feel better now.

The game started out promisingly and quickly for the Pens when Bryan Rust caught a nice Jake Guentzel rebound and slapped it past Ilya Samsonov to open the scoring at just forty-five seconds into the first period. Evgeni Malkin helped out and notched his 700th career assist. However, as has become distressingly common, the Caps answered back a mere sixteen seconds later after Marcus Johannson intercepted a Brian Dumoulin clear attempt and redirected it past Tristan Jarry. The last time Johannson scored? April 8, 2017. That is not a typo. 

The Caps went up 2-1 on a Dmitry Orlov snap on the far post at 7:24, but the Pens came back. Yes, really. Jeff Carter got the credit for the goal at 18:34, but Evan Rodrigues set him up so beautifully that he should have gotten an assist and a half. Exactly a minute after that, Brian Boyle got in on the action with a pretty wrister past Samsonov’s stick to give the Pens--gasp!--a 3-2 lead.

But that was just the first period, and in hockey, they play three. Dumo, in his second screw-up of the day, went into the box for sending a puck over the glass. Ovechkin took advantage of that at 4:49 and of course showboated as if he’d just gotten one past Patrick Roy in Game Seven of the Finals. (Ovi hate vented, check). Still, things were tied, and with no other scoring in the second hope rose in the hearts of Penguins fans.

If by “hope rose” you meant “a dagger was stabbed,” then yeah. At 11:35 in the third, Wilson banked a shot to himself and got it past Jarry. If the Pens didn’t foul things up for themselves enough, at one point they had three guys in the box. Jarry got pulled, and even when the Pens had a power play it still meant not one, but two empty-netters in the last two minutes of regulation, courtesy of Evgeny Kuznetsov and Martin Fehervary respectively.

Sure, Jarry made 39 saves, but he’s playing on ridiculously little rest. Sidney Crosby, coming off a stomach bug, had no points. 

There are ten games left in the regular season.

This is NOT the time to go cold.