Kovacevic If we're being candid, Penguins' path couldn't be clearer

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Brief and to the Point ...

• "When we play the game right way, we're a good enough team to beat anybody."

Those were the words of Olli Maatta at the Penguins' hotel here Monday morning and, believe it or not, he couldn't have known what would unfold by nightfall.

Meaning this hilarious turn of events in Toronto:



That, of course, was Tyler Bozak's overtime goal that raised the NHL's most failed franchise over the past half-century to a 2-1 series lead over the Capitals, who ... oh, you know. And you'd better believe that's hilarious. Because, for however much Toronto's fine young forwards have been able to exploit Washington's plodding defensemen -- hardly a new script -- we're still talking about a Presidents' Trophy winner in peril against a No. 8 seed that, just a year ago, was what it's almost always been.

Say it with me: That is so, so Caps.

And for the Penguins, that is so, so huge.



Be ready for an onslaught out of Toronto, the media capital for both Canada and the hockey world, that'll build up the Leafs not only as Cinderella but also as an imminent Cup contender. Which will be utterly ridiculous. As if one of the league's leakiest defensive teams, now minus Roman Polak for the playoffs, has even a prayer.

They're fun, but they're hardly a finished product.

What provided the Capitals completing their usual Heimlich would actually mean is this: The Penguins' path to a repeat Cup couldn't possibly be clearer. And cleaner.

Once they dispatch Columbus, as early as tonight in Game 4 at Nationwide Arena, they'll have emerged from the first round about as unscathed as anyone could have reasonably expected. A sweep buys them a few extra days of highly welcome rest and recovery. A safe night, meaning no injuries, would be the cherry. All they need to do is to take that aspect of it seriously, and a victory will come.

To hear Trevor Daley tell it Monday, "I don't think we have a problem with that. We've been in this situation before. We know who we're up against. It's a great team over there that has a lot of pride. We're going to see their best in Game 4."

Sure they will. Whatever. They just need to end it.

Once that happens, the Leafs can offer the biggest assist imaginable by taking down the other team capable of bruising them up too much before the two biggest series. And make no mistake: They'd be a far more dangerous threat in that regard than the Blue Jackets ever could have been.

Who'd be left in their wake?

Leafs, Canadiens, Senators, Bruins, Rangers ... all teams the Penguins could handle with nothing more than their own level of competency.

And don't even get me started on the West bracket. The way this is lining up, I'm fully expecting the '91 North Stars to emerge.

• Speaking of the Toronto media, they're having as much of a blast at the expense of Barry Trotz's babblings and other gaffes as some of us did at his expense last year, with the iconic Canadian commentator Don Cherry declaring him "the most nervous man in these playoffs," and with others eviscerating him for failing to match lines all series long, Dan Bylsma-style.

All anyone needs to know: Monday night marked Trotz's 1,445th game as an NHL head coach, which is more than anyone else who never coached in a conference final.

• It's Marc-Andre Fleury's net.

I'm not sure how much more obvious they could be at this point, but if it isn't already based on Matt Murray's status -- I saw him walking at PPG Paints Arena two nights ago, and he was about as mobile as the Capitals' blue line -- it should be based on his performances and the confidence the collective is feeding from them.

To put that bluntly: Once Murray returns, the net is still Fleury's. It has to be. This isn't the regular season. This isn't the time to go to your guy. It's the playoffs, and the hot hand rules.

Especially when that hot hand is a bona fide No. 1 goaltender.

• Speaking of the hot hand, Jake Guentzel now has 20 goals in 46 total NHL games. I can't even conjure up a comment for that.

• OK, maybe just one: I didn't like Ray Shero's drafting approach as a GM -- take a ton of defensemen and dump them off at the trade deadline -- and I liked his results even less. But credit where due on this count, because Guentzel was the Penguins' third-round pick, 77th overall, in 2013, Shero's last class. That's an outstanding choice, particularly given all the question about his stature.

• As long as I'm on repentant roll, more credit where due: Scott Wilson has had an uncomfortably high percentage of the chances in these three games, given that he doesn't do much with them. But his effort, his willingness to put himself in danger, is how he's gotten most of those. That's playoff hockey.

• It's amazing to ponder how much of a difference Carl Hagelin could -- and will -- still make for this forward group. He takes that speed up to another level, and it affects everything.

• It's been easy and fair to criticize the Maatta-Daley pairing, but there's no way it shouldn't be accompanied with the context that they've taken most of the shifts against Columbus' top line.

• Such as it is.

• No one will weep for the Blue Jackets. They've got one too many of Brandon Dubinsky, Scott Hartnell, Matt Calvert and all the rest.

But I will offer that, in a broader sense, it's a shame they don't fare better. The arena is the coolest, most charismatic in the league, and the atmosphere is out of sight, almost excessively so at times. (They cheer for weird stuff.) And after 17 years, they're crushingly overdue for anything resembling a playoff run.

And yet, for all the smart moves John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen have made in building the roster, the desperate hire of John Tortorella and all the other lazy, lost-era decisions that followed ... well, they're getting what they deserve.

• It'll be awesome for the league and the great game of hockey having Calvert back out there on the ice tonight. Hoping all the networks cut away to show it.