With no shortage of compelling storylines and controversies from Game 2, the latest installment of Penguins-Capitals is only starting to heat up.
Will Evgeni Malkin play? Will Carl Hagelin? What about Brian Dumoulin?
Will any bad blood carry over from Tom Wilson's hit on Dumoulin?
Stay tuned.
1. Home has to be an advantage.
By earning a split in Washington, the Penguins took away the Capitals' home ice advantage. Now, the Penguins have to make them pay for it at PPG Paints Arena, which will be the site for Games 3, 4 and 6.
During the regular season, the Penguins went 30-9-2 at home to earn 62 points — second-most of any team in the NHL — while outscoring opponents, 151-110.
Naturally, they went just 1-2 at PPG Paints Arena in the first round. Though they outscored the Flyers, 10-9, at home in the series, the Penguins were outscored 9-2 in their two losses, including this Claude Giroux goal in Game 5:
Of the eight teams still remaining in this year's tournament, the Penguins and Capitals are the only two with losing home records. The Capitals went 3-0 in the first round at Columbus, outscoring the Blue Jackets 13-6 at Nationwide Arena.
If the Penguins are to threepeat, they will need to re-establish their dominance on home ice. It was crucial to their successful title defense last spring when they went 10-3 at home and outscored opponents, 48-22.
Given the opponent and the way Game 2 unfolded, PPG figures to be electric tonight. The Penguins can feed off the energy of their crowd but can't play to its base instincts ...
2. There can't be any carryover.
The Penguins were clearly frustrated in Game 2 after losing a goaltender interference challenge on Jakub Vrana's second-period power play goal and having a Patric Hornqvist goal denied by poor officiating and video replay in the third. Oh, and they also played half the game without Dumoulin to a concussion from Wilson's thunderous hit:
The Penguins must push all that aside and focus squarely on tonight's game and not what the referees are calling or what Wilson is doing.
Though Wilson was absolved of wrongdoing by the league, the Penguins can't be running around in search of frontier justice. Assuredly, the Capitals and Wilson will try to play a heavy game, but the Penguins are best served when they "just play." That is a formula that has worked well for them each of the past two springs against Washington.
"I think it's important that we understand (what our identity is) and don't get caught up in playing someone else's game," Mike Sullivan said. "Teams over the last handful of seasons have tried different tactics to play against us to try and beat us. Sometimes it's physical play and aggression. That doesn't mean that our team doesn't have physical play or pushback. We certainly do, but we don't want to get caught up in playing someone else's game. We're going to try and stay focused on the game that gives us the best chance to win."
3. All you need is glove.
The Capitals' "book" on Matt Murray isn't exactly a book, it's more like a best-seller. Everyone in the league knows the one area where the Penguins goalie has been susceptible.
Despite that, Murray has won two Stanley Cup rings and has been largely outstanding through the first two games of this series. He has stopped 60 of 65 shots and was primarily responsible for keeping his team in Game 1, including this late stop on a T.J. Oshie tip:
There have been myriad reasons for the five (non-empty net) goals that the Penguins have surrendered, but every one of them has beaten Murray to the glove side, including this Brett Connolly breakaway in the second period Sunday that hamstrung the goalie:
Not sure that there is a quick remedy for Murray's glove — obviously he works on it in practice — but the Penguins could help out by limiting the number of easy chances to aim that come with breakaways and odd-man rushes.
