Kovacevic: Capitals thrown off by Wilson's loss?

"F--- this league!"

That's what one Washington player shouted Thursday night as he flung his stick while storming down the visiting runway, this immediately following the final horn of the Penguins' 3-1 victory in Game 4 of this Stanley Cup series.

Sorry, never got the face or name of the player, though one PPG Paints Arena official told me it was Nicklas Backstrom, and that apparently was corroborated by ESPN, which quoted Backstrom as explaining his outburst thusly: “We didn’t win. That’s what I’m upset about.”

Right. Because nothing terribly controversial had occurred against the Capitals over the previous three hours, save for a tame dispute over goaltender interference. So get profane about the league. Makes sense.

This is complete conjecture, but let's at least posit here that the Capitals were still seething over the three-game suspension of Tom Wilson, their beloved bodyguard/bouncer and first-line right winger, as they'd made plenty clear earlier in the day.

Heck, the way they'd spoken of Wilson's pending absence, one would think they'd lost Backstrom, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and the prime-of-their-career editions of Peter Bondra and Rod Langway.

"There aren't many Tom Wilsons out there," Barry Trotz had lamented.

"We had a sense of confidence," Devante Smith-Pelly, Wilson's replacement on the first line, had said, curiously referring to that confidence in the past tense hours before this faceoff. "And I think any arrogance that could have come from our last couple victories has been squashed from the fact that we’re losing Tom. To me, he’s been taken away from us for a couple games here, and we’re fired up and want to win the game for him.”

Uh, OK. So maybe that was it.

And maybe, just for argument's sake, that concept is worth considering. Because neither Ovechkin nor Smith-Pelly generated a solitary shot, and Ovechkin often praises Wilson for creating space for him. Also, none of the Penguins were concussed or had their jaws broken. Both were very real losses from the Washington perspective.

That said, it sure seemed to me like the Capitals were so hellbent on compensating for the loss of Wilson's physical play that they didn't prioritize actual hockey. They put up a 43-25 edge in hits, even as they were outshot, 24-21. Ovechkin, in going without a shot, had seven hits, second-most in the game. T.J. Oshie, another of their most skilled forwards and the author of their lone goal, topped everyone with eight hits.

The blankety-blank league didn't make them do that.

• What's especially stupid about all of the above, again from the Capitals' perspective, is that they're legitimately playing well. Maybe as well as they're capable, certainly in defending.

Matt Niskanen had some strong words about this afterward, almost predicting that their days of being the Penguins' perennial victim are about to end: "You can complain about this or complain about that, or whatever. Just keep playing the game really hard. Keep believing. I think we’re building a belief that we can beat these guys.”

The Penguins needed an extraordinary effort to eke this out. I'm with Niskanen in that regard. This has been and will continue to be a big challenge, these next two or three games. There's no big momentum swing in sight for either side.

• Wait, again, what's the complaint?

That Evgeni Malkin's goal shouldn't have counted because Patric Hornqvist interfered with Braden Holtby?

Please ...

"We didn't feel Orpik was pushing him," Trotz said of Hornqvist. "We felt he was already in there when they made contact."

Hornqvist isn't just pushed by Brooks Orpik, he's taken down in a sleeper hold. And the whack at Holtby's left leg pad follows the puck getting there on Phil Kessel's shot, unlike when Brett Connolly whacked at Matt Murray's same pad in Washington with no puck in the vicinity, and that still wasn't deemed goaltender interference.

• How much did the Hornqvist/Connolly similarity, coupled with the Malkin goal being reviewed not once but twice before finally being approved, feel like karma?

There was more: The Penguins had been 1-3 on home ice in these playoffs, and that wasn't going to last. They'd scored first in only three of the first nine games, and that wasn't going to last. The Capitals had scored first in eight of their nine games, and that wasn't going to last.

Baseball works best like this, but water finds its level in all sports.

Thing is, this series is now level, so the hidden vigorish bottle is probably empty.

• This Jake Guentzel thing is out of control.

A really big paragraph of historical perspective: His two goals in Game 4 give him 10 for these playoffs, as well as an NHL-leading 21 points. ... The points match his total from the entire previous playoff, which was only the league's all-time rookie record. ... He's now scored more career playoff goals (23) in 35 games than regular-season goals (22) in 82 games in 2017-18. ... He's now the second player in league history to put up 10-plus goals in his first two playoffs, with the only other one being Mario Lemieux, who did so in the first three: 1989, 1991, 1992. ... He's now the seventh different player in league history to put up 20-plus points in his team's first 10 playoff games. Wayne Gretzky did it five times. Mark Messier, Mike Bossy, Darryl Sittler, Rick Middleton and Barry Pederson were the others. ... Only eight players in league history have more goals in their first 35 playoff games., and this list is beyond belief: Maurice 'Rocket' Richard had the most, with 32. Lemieux had 28, Gretzky 27, Reggie Leach 26, Joe Sakic, 25, and Brett Hull, Steve Payne and Ovechkin had 24 each. Guentzel has to settle for a tie at 23 with ... my goodness, Jean Beliveau.

Guentzel let out a slight laugh when asked if he'd ever experienced anything like this at any level of hockey.

"I don't think so," he came back. "I just kind of feel like the bounces are going in right now, and I'm just getting lucky on some plays in front of the net. The puck's finding me. I've just got to try to be around it. Hopefully they keep coming. But yeah, it's a good feeling."

• Murray made only 20 saves, but he had to stay sharp -- not to mention in the game -- after Dmitry Orlov's point-blank blast in the second period caught him near the right collarbone, causing what he'd later call "a stinger" that briefly numbed his arm.

He downplayed his toughness there, but his teammates didn't.

"Murr really did the job tonight," Brian Dumoulin said.

• It really shouldn't escape attention that Derick Brassard logged only 10:50 of ice time, a minute less than Tom Kuhnhackl. And he didn't get a whole lot done in that time, either, continuing to hover on the perimeter and get knocked easily off the puck.

• Conor Sheary was the only player on the Penguins with less, at 9:00. He had a rough one, too.

•  But no, now isn't the time for Daniel Sprong. Not when all the emphasis is on defense at all points on the rink.

• What to do about Kessel?

All that Guentzel typing wore me out, so I turned to the radio mic for this one:

• Mike Sullivan's line changes were perfect, and I'm on the record in the live file as having liked them before the result. Reuniting Malkin with Hornqvist and Carl Hagelin was a masterstroke. They'd been so strong together for two months that they had the best chance to help each other and create a real second threat.

But what ultimately made Sullivan look smart was Dominik Simon stirringly taking charge on the Crosby line for this rush that led to Guentzel's icebreaker:

It's funny, but Simon isn't finishing in these playoffs --  no goals on five shots over six games, though those shots have included four golden chances -- and yet, he's getting so much else done that he's validated his presence in the lineup.

"I played some games with Sid earlier this season, so that helped," Simon said. "And it feels good when you get that trust from the coaches."

• Before going overboard for Simon or even Guentzel, this is worth emphasizing: Crosby's been on the ice for all 10 of the Penguins' goals in this series.

"He's the driver," as Guentzel put it. "Always."

• Trotz won't be the next Don Cherry over that late too-many-men penalty with 1:11 remaining that effectively quashed the Capitals' last chance to tie, but man, it's not easy to have seven skaters on the ice at the same time:

Is there a too-many-men major?

• The NHL will do nothing about two more seriously questionable Washington hits. Wrote that up separately.

• The Penguins will eventually grasp that they need to defend consistently. Wrote that up separately, as well.

• The place felt airtight through warmups, right down to the athletes, who moved as rigidly as I could recall of late. But the lid lifted once it got real:

Good for them. It could be easy to take playoffs for granted this deep into a possible third consecutive championship run. The 18,650 on hand didn't. And yeah, I'm including Ryan Shazier and JuJu Smith-Schuster, both of whom brought their A-level towel-waving games to the scene.

• Back to D.C. for more.

I'd written many times the previous two years that the Capitals were the most difficult opponent the Penguins had to beat. I'm far from certain that'd be the case this time -- the Lightning are loaded, and the West's got the Jets and Predators clawing at each other just as fast-and-furiously -- but it can't be ruled out.

Makes it so much more fun, right?

Right?

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY