WASHINGTON -- As the media horde filed past him into the cramped quarters of the Penguins locker room, Dominik Simon was trying to plot his escape route. The rookie with the missing front tooth was grinning ear to ear.
At last, Simon could laugh about something.
For the better part of 42 minutes in Thursday night's game, Simon stood to be the goat in what looked to be a frustrating loss to the Capitals in Game 1. Fortunately for the Penguins, Simon and his missed opportunities proved to be little more than a side note in what turned out to be a remarkable 3-2 win and a 1-0 series lead.
Oh, Simon thought he had scored. He even lifted his hands skyward with 9:35 left in the first period after he lifted a backhander ... that hit Braden Holtby's left pad and then the right post. Three minutes later Simon took a feed from Riley Sheahan behind the net and, all alone in the slot, shot the puck ... right into Holtby's equipment.
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"Not the best for me," Simon said. "I try to score but, yeah, we won. So it's whatever."
It was one of those teachable moments for a young player about the importance of lifting the puck and finishing chances when you get them in the postseason. But Simon was hardly alone. With Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin out with injuries, Simon was part of a second line with Sheahan and Phil Kessel that didn't register a point. That was the same point total from the third line of Derick Brassard, Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary.
No matter.
The Penguins won because they have a quick-strike — and I mean really, really quick-strike — offense. Like, three-goals-in-4:49-quick offense.
That's all the Penguins' top line of Sidney Crosby, Patrick Hornqvist and Jake Guentzel needed to turn a 2-0 third-period deficit into a 3-2 win that stunned even the Capitals, an organization which seems to find new and creative ways to lose to their rivals.
"They just stayed with it and they ended up being the difference for us in the third period," Mike Sullivan was saying of his top line.
At 2:59, Hornqvist scored on a high tip of Justin Schultz's wrist shot, through layers of traffic in front:
"Just a big play by Horny to get us going," Crosby said. "We had some good looks throughout the night. He goes hard to the net and kind of jumpstarts us. At that point, when you're down, you're just on your toes trying to get back into it."
As seemingly innocent as the initial shot looked, it was actually a set play with Schultz aiming for the blade of the Swede's stick. Sullivan credited assistant coach Sergei Gonchar, one of the best offensive defensemen during his playing days, for the goal.
"Justin does a great job of changing his angle, having some patience and delivering pucks on the net that gives our forwards an opportunity to get a stick on it," Sullivan said.
At 5:20, Guentzel's cross-ice pass — bobbled by Alex Ovechkin — somehow found its way across to Crosby, who snapped a one-timer through Holtby's five-hole:
At 7:48, Crosby intercepted Holtby's clearing attempt and threw the puck on net, but not before deflecting off Guentzel's stick and under the Capitals goalie's arm:
Just. Like. That. Three shifts. Three goals.
"There's no good lead in the NHL anymore," Kris Letang was saying. "Two, three-goal (lead), teams are so fast, they have so much power up front they can score quick goals. You just have to stay focused, play the right way and sometimes you get rewarded like this."
Of course, no one was more relieved to see those three goals go in than Simon:
But if you've watched just the last two games, you would know the kind of damage that the Penguins' top line is capable of inflicting.
The trio of Crosby, Hornqvist and Guentzel combined for seven points Thursday after combining for 11 points in Game 6 against Philadelphia in the first round. That's 18 points — 18! — in the last two games.
Going back to Game 5, Jake Guentzel now has six goals in his last three games and currently sits atop the playoff leaderboard in goals (seven), assists (nine) and points (16). Against John Druce's former team, Guentzel showed again that he's not a one-spring wonder:
"He's just a talented kid, he's got great hockey sense, he's a good player," Sullivan was telling me of Guentzel. "He has a nose for the net, he's got a good stick, he's brave, he goes to the battle areas. He's one of those guys that has that intangible where the stakes are high, he plays at his best."
Of course the same could be said of Hornqvist and, certainly, Crosby. In another postseason showdown against his longtime personal rival, the captain upstaged Ovechkin again.
"I just think we're complementing each other well, getting in on the forecheck and revolving around each other," Guentzel said. "Whenever you play with Sid that makes it pretty easy for you and opens up a lot of space for us. Just trying to take advantage of it."
The Penguins had just 25 shots, their fewest in the postseason. And yet they still won, negating Washington's home ice advantage in the process.
And with Malkin coming back as soon as Game 2 on Sunday, the Penguins' offense should be that much more dangerous. As Game 1 showed, no lead is safe with the defending champions. You have to defend them for all 60 minutes, not 55.
“It’s pretty tough to talk about that right now, but overall I think we played pretty much an even game,” said Evgeny Kuznetsov, whose breakaway goal gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead just 17 seconds into Game 1. “They have good looks, we have good looks, but those three shifts changed the game, and it’s again our third period. We have to be better.”
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Capitals, Washington, April 26, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS