And so we meet again.
For the third straight spring and the record 11th time in franchise history, the Penguins will meet the Capitals in postseason play.
Washington advanced to the second round with a 6-3 win Monday night in Columbus on Monday. After losing the series' first two games, the Capitals rallied to win the final four to become the first team in NHL history to win a playoff series after starting with consecutive overtime losses at home.
That sets up another second-round series with the Penguins beginning later this week -- dates and times still to be determined -- at the Capital One Arena for Games 1 and 2. With the NBA's Wizards set to host Toronto on Friday night, the series will likely start Thursday or Saturday.
"I can't wait," Alexander Ovechkin told NBC when asked about his team's upcoming showdown with the Penguins.
By virtue of winning the Metropolitan Division by five points over second-place Pittsburgh (105-100), the Capitals will hold home ice advantage in their latest best-of-seven. It's the only advantage the Capitals will have over the two-time defending champions, who will be installed as heavy favorites.
Following an off-season of free agent defections, including Karl Alzner, Justin Williams and Kevin Shattenkirk, the Capitals seemed to have thrived this year with lowered expectations. Perhaps not as deep as in years past, they still managed to average 3.12 goals per game (ninth-best) while allowing 2.90 (13th).
The biggest drama surrounding the Capitals entering the playoffs was in goal where Philipp Grubauer temporarily unseated incumbent starter Braden Holtby. Reinserted late in Game 2 against Columbus, the former Vezina winner responded by going 4-1 with a 1.92 goals-against average and .932 save percentage.
In beating Columbus, the Capitals scored at least one power play goal in each game, while the penalty kill successfully killed off 17 straight Blue Jackets power plays after yielding four power-play goals on eight chances in Games 1 and 2.
“We’ve had lots of different adversity through this year than maybe in the past,” Barry Trotz told reporters Monday night in Columbus. “We’ve grown up a little bit in some ways that we understand our core group is really, really strong. They believe in each other.”
Though the Capitals went 2-2 against their long-time nemesis in the regular season, with each team winning once at home and once on the road, and with Ovechkin besting personal rival Sidney Crosby five points to three, the Penguins have dominated -- you could say tortured -- them in postseason play since 1991.
The Penguins have beaten the Capitals nine times in their 10 meetings. In fact, the Penguins won all five of their Stanley Cups by going through Washington along the way. They beat the Capitals in 1991, 1992, 2009, 2016 and again last spring in a seven-game epic that featured Crosby missing Game 4 with a concussion following a crosscheck to the head courtesy of Matt Niskanen.
Washington's only playoff series win over the Penguins came in the first round in 1994.
The Capitals have advanced to the second round in each of the past four seasons, most of any NHL team, but have never advanced further in Ovechkin's 12 seasons. Washington's captain has 98 points, including 51 goals, in 103 career playoff games. In 20 career playoff games against the Penguins, Ovechkin has 12 goals. In 13 career playoff games against the Penguins, Holtby is 5-8.
“I think we accomplished what we believed we could from the start of the series,” Holtby told reporters in Columbus. “Obviously, enjoy it for a bit, rest up and prepare for the next one.”
The Penguins earned themselves a day off Monday by beating Philadelphia, 8-5, a day earlier to wrap up their first-round series in six games. They are scheduled to return to practice Tuesday morning at the Lemieux Sports Complex where Mike Sullivan could provide an update on the status of Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin. Malkin did not play with an undisclosed lower body injury suffered in Game 5 vs. Philadelphia. Hagelin left Game 6 in the second period with an apparent upper body injury after taking a hit from the Flyers' Claude Giroux.
The Capitals have scheduled an off-day for Tuesday.