Kovacevic: Let narratives ring, fans sing, but all that room was a beautiful thing

WASHINGTON -- How does any team lose that game in that situation?

Yeah, yeah, everyone knows the answer. But do me a favor and play along, just for fun.

How do the Capitals pounce quickly for the game's opening goal Thursday night, just 17 seconds after faceoff, off a deft breakaway finish by one of their most gifted players, Evgeny Kuznetsov, one that fired up their home crowd to a full crescendo ... and then lose?

How do the Capitals pounce quickly again for the game's next goal, just 28 seconds into the third period, off a devastating laser by our generation's greatest shooter, Alexander Ovechkin, one that raised the decibel level that much further ... and then lose?

How do the Capitals stake that two-goal lead against an opponent missing one of its own superstars ... and then lose?

Which is to say, how do the Capitals get galvanized by Vezina-caliber goaltending from Braden Holtby all through this Thursday night ... and then get gouged for three goals in a 4:49 span ... and then lose, 3-2?

Right. Because they're the Capitals playing the Penguins.

It's a rite of spring, so let the narrative ring, and let those fans on the National Portrait Gallery steps sing.

But let it end there, too. Because at least from this press box perspective high atop Capital One Arena, there was something else predictable, and that much more controllable, that created this comeback. And it was far more boring than any of the fun memes that will keep dogging this very doggable franchise that still proudly hangs a banner in honor of the 1988-89 Patrick Division champions.

Plain and simple, the Penguins had their way in the Washington zone.

Remember that?

____________________

"We try to control what we can," Mike Sullivan would say afterward. "We can't control how the other goalie plays or if he makes a lot of big stops, like he did early in the game. But I do think our guys have a certain resolve about them, a certain resilience that they just stay with it."

Some will hear Sullivan speak of resolve and resilience, and the first thought will be about missing Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin. Or about Sidney Crosby's No. 1 line scoring all three of those goals on consecutive shifts. Or about what might have been Matt Murray's best showing of these playoffs.

But trust me when I tell you that's not the coach's focus in that response, not in that context. This man deals with what's right in front of him, and what was in front of the Penguins on this night was an awful lot of real estate at the edges of the attacking zone.

Which, ultimately, began to pay with Patric Hornqvist's shaft tip:

Hornqvist does well to redirect, including muscling off Dmitry Orlov. But what defines the play is what defined the whole barrage: The Penguins were able to work the puck around the perimeter pretty much unimpeded. Olli Maatta pinches, and Jake Guentzel smartly backs him, then safely dishes across to Justin Schultz. Schultz glides smoothly to his right to avoid a split-his-pants looking block attempt by Ovechkin, then connects with Hornqvist.

And make no mistake: They connected before that.

"Yeah, I saw him," Schultz would confirm for me. "We made eye contact with each other, actually."

A big, gap-toothed grin accompanied that.

But look, too, at the Capitals. They're packed tightly enough into their slot to start a game of bridge. That's been a Barry Trotz staple going back to his Nashville days: Fill the middle.

Well, that slowed down the Blue Jackets and all their big bodies in the first round, but, as I wrote in the column this week, it'll only hurt them against the Penguins. Because the Penguins are one of the precious few teams in the NHL that can exploit that extra time on the edges with skillful, often deadly dissections through that middle.

Same with the next one:

Guentzel gains the left edge of the blue line, and all of the Capitals basically backpedal. They fill the middle. Even Guentzel, the bleeping puck-carrier, is left more time than Magellan to survey the scene. Now, he's still got an ambitious pass he hopes to make, through all that red to Crosby. But hey, he did, thanks to Matt Niskanen's alligator-armed flail — I'd never seen Niskanen look this generally timid, dating to his time in Pittsburgh — and Ovechkin just whiffing.

Nick Foligno and Boone Jenner don't make that play. Guentzel and Crosby do.

The No. 1 line would complete its natural hat trick of a sort — goals on three consecutive shifts — with this tip from Guentzel:

Blame this on Holtby, partly for his miserable history in this matchup, but also for backhanding the puck from the trapezoid right to Crosby's blade on the far boards.

He'd want that back.

Or maybe not.

"Their goals they scored ... it was just a bunch of strange plays," Holtby said. "Especially that last one. It was kind of a weird bounce."

Uh, maybe I'm missing the bounciness in the equation, but that was one clean pass by the world's greatest player that was then pristinely touched by a man-child who now has 20 career playoff goals in five career series.

Now, look back up there at the rest of the Capitals coming to full skate-stops rather than pressing anyone. That's the conditioning in motion. If they fill the middle, per the Trotz system, they're in position. So applying the brakes is par for the course, too.

No, really, look up there again. Three of the Penguins' forwards enter the zone, with no defenseman joining them. And yet, all five Capitals are back, the numbers are theirs ... and still no one's pressing anyone. That happened all night long.

Below might be the best example, even if it didn't bring a goal:

That, my friends, is 42 seconds of sustained zone time for the new third line of Derick Brassard between Conor Sheary and Bryan Rust. And coming while protecting a one-goal lead with 10-plus minutes to go, it might as well be a goal.

Again, full marks to the Penguins, including Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin at the points. But also again, look at the Capitals. They're a bland red blob roving around without any cause other than to — repeat after me — fill the middle.

"We did a lot of good things in this game," Brassard would tell me. "We had a lot of time, a lot of Grade-A chances."

That might sound funny, considering the Penguins would be outshot, 34-25, and markedly out-attempted, 72-50. But that had more to do with mishaps in pinching and tracking back, which I discussed with Brassard and others for a separate analysis.

It doesn't alter the reality that the Capitals' inability or maybe even unwillingness to engage the Penguins along the edges of the Washington zone would easily prove their undoing if it isn't changed.

I asked Crosby his thoughts:

"When we have opportunities," the captain spoke up there, "that's the strength of our game, being able to hold pucks and make plays."

Right. Don't anyone get that memo to Trotz's desk.

____________________

This is a promising start to the series for the Penguins, particularly with the circumstances. They stole home ice. They got an exceptional showing from some of their most important players, they honored Sullivan's weeklong plea to stay out of the box — Washington had one brief power play — and they even found a bit of a surprise in Dominik Simon carving out a few chances in the early going.

“It’s hard to replace a guy like Geno, and Haggy brings a lot to our team," Sullivan said. "But I think we just have a next-man-up attitude. That’s how it has to be. To win championships, it takes more than just 12 forwards and six defensemen. You’ve got to rely on your depth in games like these where you don’t have the availability of some guys.”

All good.

For the other guys ... something significant's got to change. And not just the narrative.

But to hear them afterward, it's hard to say they've figured that out yet.

"Just those bounces,” Trotz would say from the podium. “They executed on a couple plays. We had our stick on a couple of them, and they executed on them."

The Capitals were in position. That's what he's saying. Filling the middle.

Niskanen, on the ice for all three of the Penguins' goals, was asked what his side might have done better.

“Win the game,” came the terse reply. “We played pretty good tonight. We gave up some good chances, and Holts was really good early. We played a pretty good game. They scored on Crosby’s three shifts in a row to win the game in the third period, and we played pretty good. So I don’t think you need to overanalyze that.”

We aren't the ones with any such need.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY