Special Teams Saves the Day
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
The Penguins played a lackluster, uninspired first period that saw them down 3-1 heading into the first intermission.
"It wasn't very good, obviously," Sullivan said of the start. "Our players knew it. I told them that inbetween periods, that we've got to have a will to win here. We've got to be a hungry team."
The Penguins did get that 5-on-3 power-play goal from Guentzel to make it 3-2. But a few minutes later, the Capitals regained their two-goal lead with a goal from Evgeny Kuznetsov to go up 4-2, and a few minutes after that, they earned their first man-advantage of the game.
To make matters worse, right after Washington's power play started, Brandon Tanev - one of the Penguins' best penalty killers and overall best players to start this season - blocked a slapshot from Alex Ovechkin and headed down the tunnel to the locker room.
And to make matters even moreworse, with 54 seconds left on the man-advantage, Chad Ruhwedel joined Guentzel in the penalty box to give Washington a two-man advantage of their own.
So yeah, things weren't exactly looking good…until Tanev reappeared just in time to join Blueger and Brian Dumoulin for the faceoff.
The group was able to get a clear, and the Capitals reloaded, opting to lob the puck right into the glove of Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith. He quickly played a perfect pass up the ice to Blueger, who skated in on a breakaway and deked backhand for the score to put Pittsburgh within one.
It was the Penguins' first 3-on-5 shorthanded goal since Matt Cooke did so on Feb. 18, 2012 in Philadelphia. DeSmith also earned his first NHL point on the play.
"It's great play by Case," Crosby said. "To see a goalie play it, you just hope that he gets everything on it. And he definitely did. And it was a great play and read by Teddy there to find it and then make a great move on the breakaway."
The shorthanded goal gave the Penguins the spark they needed, and shortly after, they continued their dominance on special teams with a 5-on-4 power-play goal from Malkin after T.J. Oshie went to the box following a blindside hit on Marcus Pettersson (more on that below).
Up until tonight, the Penguins had done pretty much everything right on the power play except shoot. Malkin changed that when he teed up a pass from Kris Letang and blasted an absolute rocket past Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek to tie the score at 4-4 heading into the second intermission.
The teams battled through a tight third period and into overtime for a second straight game, where Crosby got the winner just 1:11 in. As Sullivan said afterward, the game wasn't pretty by any stretch, and the Penguins are well aware they need to improve in a lot of areas. But at the end of the day, they found a way, and wins like this can help build the kind of team chemistry that is necessary to be successful in this league.
"This might be one we look back on and say, what a wild game that was - it certainly didn't look all that great, but we found a way," Sullivan said. "That's got to be an important element of our team identity, making sure that we scratch and claw and grind and hang in there and fight till the end, until that last buzzer sounds. If we do, we give ourselves a chance, and that's what we did tonight."
OTHER THOUGHTS, MUSINGS AND OBSERVATIONS…
* The Penguins had to play that tight third period and into overtime with just four defensemen. Pettersson was injured on a blindside hit from Oshie in the neutral zone in the second period. After being tended to on the ice by the medical staff, Pettersson went to the locker room and did not return. In addition, Juuso Riikola appeared to get injured at the final buzzer, skating off the ice hunched over.
"Those guys are both being evaluated for upper-body injuries," Sullivan said. "I don't have an update right now."
Their absences meant Letang, Brian Dumoulin, John Marino and Ruhwedel had to log extra minutes and shoulder the load against a talented, tough and physical Capitals team. They proved more than up for the challenge with a gutsy effort. Letang led the way with 28:14 of ice time while both Dumoulin and Marino passed the 26-minute mark.
"The four that we played with in the third period and overtime, I thought they did a terrific job hanging in there and competing," Sullivan said. "That's not an easy task when you're down to that few defensemen in a hard-fought game like tonight was."
* DeSmith's puckhandling made a big difference in this game, not just on the 3-on-5 shorthanded goal, but also when he caught the Capitals off guard with a quick pass up the ice that ultimately led to Guentzel's power-play goal after stopping a 3-on-0 breakaway minutes earlier.
"It was obviously not something we hope to repeat as far as the 3-on-0 breakaway against," Sullivan said. "Casey made a terrific play on the 3-on-5 with his clear. I thought Case battled hard in the game, especially in the second half. He made some real big saves for us. That wasn't an easy game for a goaltender."
* Kasperi Kapanen finally made his Pittsburgh Penguins debut, six-and-a-half years after the organization originally drafted him in the first round (22nd overall) back in 2014. And he looked terrific, registering an assist and two shots in 10:02 of ice time. He stood out with his speed and stickhandling and had plenty of jump all night, even when the rest of the team did not.
"It felt good," Kapanen said. "Obviously it was a long time ago I was here. Coming back here and then obviously missing the training camp but hanging out with the guys and finally getting a game in is special and something I've been waiting for a long time now."
Sullivan said the coaching staff wanted to manage Kapanen's minutes and put him in a position to succeed considering his situation, as he was coming off his NHL-mandated quarantine and skating on his own in Finland during the months prior to that. So they started him on the fourth line with Blueger and Colton Sceviour and gave him some shifts with both Crosby and Malkin.
"I think that 10 minutes is important for him," Sullivan said. "Having missed all of training camp set him back. So we're going to have to find creative ways to get him up to speed, and this was one way that we talked about that we think can expedite the process. I thought he played pretty well tonight. You could see his explosive skating ability; he ends up helping out on one of the goals we get. He handles the puck well, he's a good playmaker, he's got a good shot. So, we just have to make sure we slowly but surely get him in shape here to the point where we can put him in a position to succeed."
