"Don't even bother talking with us. Go talk to the other team, the team that played well."
Ha! So Patric Hornqvist takes the direct route on and off the ice, it turns out.
This was late Monday night at Consol Energy Center, and the man who embodies the pulse of the Penguins had just walked into the home locker room. Most of the media sessions had just finished, but a few cameras and microphones lingered, still interested in interviewing the team that had just gained the upper hand in this Stanley Cup playoff series.
And that, as Hornqvist intimated, was that other team down the hall.
"They were the way better team all night," he'd proceed to say of the Penguins' 3-2 Game 3 victory over the Capitals that was anything but, given a 49-23 disadvantage in shots, a beyond-belief 85-36 disadvantage in attempted shots and, just to rub it in, a 58-25 disadvantage in hits. "If not for our goaltender, there's no way we win that game. No way."
That, of course, was Matt Murray, the 21-year-old kid with the 47 saves.
"We just couldn't get a hold of it," Hornqvist continued. "I don't know why."
That's the question that lingered with me, too, in various forms: Why?
Why were the Capitals, who'd been outplayed for the better part of the first two games in D.C., suddenly able to average nearly a shot and a hit for every minute of action?
Why were the faster Penguins, in stark contrast, suddenly stuck in the mud?
And why, especially if Kris Letang is suspended for his seriously questionable check on the Capitals' Marcus Johansson, should anyone believe Games 4 or 5 or 6 will be different?
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