Kovacevic: Eventually, Penguins will learn it all starts with defending

"I thought, to a man, we defended hard," Mike Sullivan spoke from the podium at his postgame press conference. "We made pretty good decisions with the puck. We stayed above the attack. And when we had opportunities, those started with our defense."

Hey, thanks for reading the column, everyone. Check's in the mail, Coach.

No, really, anything else I'd add could only cloud what actually occurred in the Penguins' 3-1 throttling of the Capitals in Game 4 of this Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday night at PPG Paints Arena. And I say that with all the appropriate acknowledgement to Jake Guentzel piling on two more goals, Evgeni Malkin pounding in another, Matt Murray bouncing back admirably, and Sullivan's own whip-smart line adjustments.

All of it was worthy of the standing, roaring ovation received in the final couple minutes.

But none of it, not even any after-effects of the Tom Wilson drama, mattered a whit next to the boring stuff. Meaning that the Capitals were held to 21 total shots and only a tic-tac-toe power-play goal. They also were held to 48 shot attempts for a second game in a row, a precipitous plunge from the Games 1-2 figures of 74 and 69.

In the third period, with the Capitals down a goal and desperate, they put all of three pucks on Murray.

Oh, and this: Alexander Ovechkin finished with zero goals, zero assists, zero shots.

Let me blunt: If this team is to win a third consecutive championship, it'll be through performing with precisely this level of defensive passion. And if the latter doesn't happen, there's not a sliver of hope.

It's not any more complicated than that with this group. Hasn't been for close to three years now, as Kris Letang reaffirmed for me afterward:

Hear that?

He cited, as the most recent role model, these very Capitals and the way Ovechkin, in particular, was being patient and burying the Penguins' many mistakes. And it's a fair assessment. Barry Trotz's scheme calls for his players to be packed like skinny sardines in the Washington zone, filling the vertical middle even if that concedes possession on the perimeters. Everywhere else, they're hyper-aggressive while always fronting the puck.

Sound familiar?

Exactly.

Sullivan somewhat avoided a question afterward about whether he'd made any tactical switches, answering, "I think it was just good defense." And it's true that the Penguins, too, prioritize being hyper-aggressive in the offensive and neutral zone while always fronting the puck.

But it was unmistakable that they packed it in more than the norm in the defensive zone.

"I thought tonight we tried to keep everything to the outside," Brian Dumoulin would say. "Matt did a great job of steering pucks out wide, and he made the big saves when he had to, but we wanted to be a lot better than we were before."

It was equally unmistakable that their defensemen backpedaled out of the offensive zone far more than the norm. Sullivan allowed that the coaches had watched "a lot of film" on the Capitals' 17 odd-man breaks or clear breakaways in the first three games that brought half of their 10 goals, notably Ovechkin's winner in Game 3, which Sullivan specifically referenced as a stressing point to his players.

In this one, the Capitals had one two-on-one, one semi-partial break and, again, next to nothing from Ovechkin. Seriously, he had only two shot attempts, both misfires, and that was it.

What's funny is that a few of the Penguins had been telling me through three games that they felt they were faring pretty well against Ovechkin except for the odd-man breaks. Which, of course, is akin to suggesting a football team shut down the opponent's star wide receiver except for those three big-splash touchdown catches.

This game made that initial feeling matter.

"He's a great player, always dangerous, but we were giving him two-on-ones, lots of room," Dumoulin said. "We just wanted to make him earn his scoring chances."

Ovechkin declined to meet with reporters afterward. Not directly, but a Washington media relations official told a small group of us waiting in the Washington room that he'd meet us out in the hallway, which didn't happen.

"I don't know if they've done anything differently," Trotz said flatly of the Penguins defending Ovechkin. "Trust me, Ovi will get his shots."

He probably will, but it surely won't be easy if the execution stays this sound. Even with the slight alteration on the dry-erase board, Sullivan's assessment that the players deserved the credit was spot-on.

That started on the back end, where Murray had to make only 20 saves, but one of them came on that semi-partial break midway through the first period by Shane Gersich, a 21-year-old rookie making his career playoff debut:

Murray shows the kid the Fort Pitt Tunnel, then slams it shut like a 5 p.m. overturned truck. That's quality goaltending. That's the playoff goaltending he hadn't been producing in this series.

How does he shrug off lousy losses again and again?

"I just try to stop the next shot," Murray would reply with a trademark shrug.

And how does he think the defense looked in front of him?

"I think that was the difference in the game. A lot of blocked shots. Sacrificing bodies, blocking shots ... that's huge."

It was all across the board. Sidney Crosby, who was brilliant over all 200 feet, had one of the 13 blocks. Justin Schultz had three. Carl Hagelin, wearing a full faceshield upon his return, had two. Patric Hornqvist had two. Even the budding NHL star who's now up to 10 goals and 21 points before the midpoint of these playoffs was putting his foot in the path of a John Carlson slap shot in the third period:

Guentzel was stung, too. Took a couple extra seconds to get back up, then cringed as he made it to the bench.

"It was just a great team effort," he'd say. "I think we all knew we had to get this one. Right from the drop of the puck, we had to play a full 60 minutes."

And, arguably for the first time, using the full roster. In addition to mixing up all four lines, Sullivan committed to keeping everyone involved and at optimal energy levels.

"There wasn't a lot of room out there," Sullivan explained. "I think both teams are defending extremely hard. We went through 10 minutes of that third period where we didn't have a whistle, so with the pace of the game, the physicality, we tried to roll all four lines."

That applied to the defense, too. Jamie Oleksiak and Chad Ruhwedel both logged playoff-high ice time at 15:27 and 17:14, respectively, and both were instrumental in keeping the Capitals to the edges, albeit each in his own way. Oleksiak was using that grandfather-clock frame to shove bodies toward the boards, and he was particularly adept at that on rushes. Ruhwedel used his skating and smarts.

He had the evening's defensive gem, in fact:

That's midway through the third period. The Capitals' Jakub Vrana takes a stretched breakout from Lars Eller and bursts toward Murray ... only to have Ruhwedel overtake him, amazingly gain body position and, just for kicks, one-hand the puck to Olli Maatta for the routine clear.

That's not ideal defense, obviously, in that Ruhwedel and Maatta could have been more aware of the cherrypicker in their midst. But it's a superlative recovery.

This is what's needed. More of this.

More of Nicklas Backstrom bemoaning, "You're not going to win many games against Pittsburgh scoring one goal."

More of Evgeny Kuznetsov bemoaning, "We needed to get another goal. We couldn't."

More of Matt Niskanen bemoaning, "They really tightened it up."

More of T.J. Oshie bemoaning, "I thought both teams were pretty tight. Tonight, they just did it better than we did."

More of Ovechkin bemoaning, " ... "

The Capitals aren't about to change. And the Penguins, of whom Trotz himself said, "They played really well defensively" ... well, we'll see which version shows up Saturday night in Game 5.

Asked why his guys can never seem to fully embrace that this is the best version of their collective selves, Sullivan came back, "I think part of it's our DNA. When you look at our team, we're wired for offense. When you look at our core players, they're playmakers, goal-scorers, guys that want to play with the puck. But when you get into a playoff environment, sometimes there's no ice to play on. Sometimes it's hard to make a play. And if you force something that's not there, in the wrong area of the rink, then you can put your team in a vulnerable position."

He took a small breath there.

"So it's the discipline of recognizing when the opportunity is there, when we have numbers, when we have speed, when we have ice. I know this coaching staff never wants to take the stick out of our players' hands. Because we think that's what separates our teams from others."

But ...

"But it takes discipline, diligence. When we play well, we make good decisions. When we get away from it ... that's usually the root of our issues."

I mentioned that the check's in the mail, right?

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY