Drive to the Net: Odds have been against Penguins

The Penguins had the Capitals right where they wanted them Tuesday night: Pinned in Washington's defensive zone in the final minutes of play.

Mike Sullivan had the exact players he wanted on the ice, too: Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby, the NHL postseason's first- and third-leading scorers, along with Patric Hornqvist. That trio had accounted for all three of the Penguins' goals in Tuesday's Game 3 and had also been on the ice for every goal the team scored in Games 1 and 2.

When the top line stepped on the ice with a little over two minutes remaining in what had been a 3-3 game, the crowd noise at PPG Paints Arena rose to a crescendo, sensing the end was near.

Hornqvist immediately got the puck deep behind the Capitals net as the home team worked it quickly around the zone — untouched by the Capitals — for a remarkable 45 seconds. Every player in black and gold had the puck on his stick at least once, including defensemen Kris Letang and Olli Maatta.

"They almost had some looks, they were buzzing, they were forcing us to defend," said Barry Trotz. "We were fortunate."

"We have our top line on the ice," Sullivan would say afterward. "We felt the other team was tired."

Turns out, not that tired.

Crosby, from the right corner, threw the puck back to Maatta at the point. Receiving the puck on his backhand, the left-handed shooting Finn, sensing pressure from Tom Wilson and an inevitable hit, tried to push the puck over to Hornqvist in the slot. Instead, his weak pass went into the middle of the ice where Nicklas Backstrom intercepted it, starting a painfully slow 2-on-1 the other way with only Letang back, as he explains:

"We've just got to be smarter with the puck at that time of the game and that area of the rink and make sure we give our forwards another opportunity to make a play at the net," Sullivan said.

An exhausted Hornqvist, who had been on the ice for just over a minute, was stuck in first gear trying desperately to get back into the play. Backstrom raced down the left side of the ice with Alex Ovechkin on the right. Letang, who'd also been over-extended, played the pass, diving on his stomach, to take away the passing lane. Unfortunately for Letang, the puck found Ovechkin at the right side of the net.

The greatest goal scorer of this generation — and a few others — flipped a shot on goal, hitting the right post square. Matt Murray, pushing off from his right, was helpless to do much of anything. The puck fluttered in mid-air where Ovechkin — who had been on the ice for an unconscionable 80 seconds — batted it in with 1:07 remaining in the third period for the game-winner in the Capitals' 4-3 victory:

"It’s 2-on-1 on breakaway, I knew it was him," Backstrom said of Ovechkin. "He did great job sticking with it, too. I think he hit the post first, then knocked it in. Huge win. We’ll take it.”

“I hit the post and it’s a good thing I didn’t raise my arms up. I finished up the play and got lucky,” Ovechkin said.

So, uh, what happened to Maatta?

Well, as you see above, Maatta was never hit by Wilson, but he was slew-footed by him. Maatta was unable to get back and, no, Wilson wasn't penalized on that play, either.

On a night when Wilson was back to his usual tricks, concussing and breaking the jaw of Zach Aston-Reese on a violent hit in the second period, it was that trip with 1:16 remaining that proved most costly for the Penguins, who now find themselves down 2-1 in the series. It's the first time that they've trailed the Capitals in a playoff series since the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals.

For that, the Capitals have Wilson to thank.

"He's a unique player," Trotz was saying. "There's very few Tom Wilsons in the league. That's why he's very effective."

But let's not give Wilson too much credit. He wasn't the only reason the Penguins lost.

There was Murray's leaky glove on Matt Niskanen's tying goal at 5:06 of the third. Then there is the fact that the Penguins mustered just three — three! — shots on goal in the final period.

More troubling though, there was also the same number of 2-on-1 breaks the Penguins allowed in the final 6 1/2 minutes, including Ovechkin's game-winner. That just can't happen at any time, let alone in the third period of a tied playoff game.

With 6:30 remaining, Jamie Oleksiak got caught pinching near center ice, allowing Brett Connolly and Jay Beagle to get an odd-man break that was thwarted only by Chad Ruhwedel's active stick:

And that was against Washington's fourth line.

Two minutes after that it was Letang who got caught up ice, allowing Wilson and Evgeny Kuznetsov to get in on another 2-on-1:

On that chance, Kuznetsov fired wide, hitting nothing but glass.

Trotz insisted that the Capitals didn't do anything different schematically, but clearly they were able to turn the Penguins' aggressive play against them.

"It's commitment and it's paying the price," he said. "It's getting all those loose pucks, those battles. There's a loose puck, 'Who's getting to it? Who wants it more?' and all that. If you execute those, you get some opportunity. I thought we had a real high commitment in a lot of areas and that's an area where that is one of those necessary details for you to have success if you're going to win. We had those necessary details."

And it was a lack of detail that ultimately cost the Penguins yet again.

Five of Washington's 10 goals in the first three games of the series have come on odd-man rushes, either breakaways or 2-0n-1s.

Perhaps if they were getting scoring from anyone other than Crosby, Guentzel or Hornqvist, or maybe if Murray's glove hand was a little better, maybe those little details wouldn't matter.

But for this team, right now, there is no margin for error, every small detail matters.

Obviously, the Penguins pride themselves on activating their defense and possessing the puck in the offensive zone for extended stretches, but there are limitations even for them. If a defenseman pinches, the third forward has to stay back. As Sullivan has said ad nauseam during rough stretches this season, these past three games included, it's about having a defensive conscience and being on the right side of pucks and of people.

Somewhere along the line, that message seems to have gotten lost in translation.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY