WASHINGTON -- Aside from one 19-second shift, Kasperi Kapanen didn't see the ice in the third period in the Penguins' game against the Islanders on Saturday, their last game before the road trip to Washington.
“I was trying to find guys that were bringing it tonight, that were competing hard and were going to give us the best chance to win,” Mike Sullivan said afterward. “And some nights, those things are going to happen. I didn’t think Kappy had his game going tonight. And so I was trying to find guys that were going to give us an opportunity to win.”
Sullivan said after Monday's practice that he had a conversation with Kapanen about the benching, and that he thought they came away from the conversation "on the same page" when it came to what was expected of Kapanen.
"Everybody sees how I played," Kapanen said Tuesday. "I see it too, and I feel it. It wasn't good enough. I just wasn't as engaged as I wanted to be and should have been. ... It was a good time to have a conversation with (Sullivan) and kind of reset, look back at the past games that I've played, which obviously haven't been good enough. We just kind of talked about what he expects from me, what he expects out of me. To play with Sid and Jake, it's obviously a privilege."
It's safe to say that Kapanen got the message.
Kapanen's strong play on Tuesday had him leading all Penguins forwards in even-strength ice time at 17:48. He assisted on the game-tying goal and scored the game-winner in a 3-2 overtime win over the Capitals in Washington.
Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring for the Penguins, redirecting a Kris Letang shot on the power play:
Richard Panik tied the game for the Capitals early in the second period, and Conor Sheary extended the Capitals' lead at 13:18. Just 22 seconds later, Guentzel tied the game off of a redirect from a John Marino shot:
"I just made a play to Kappy," Guentzel said of the play. "I tried to get to the front of the net, he found John. John just shot through, and I just happened to get a stick on it and went far-side. Just a goal you'll take and move on."
The Penguins outshot the Capitals by a combined margin of 30-15 through the first two periods. After a tight, scoreless third period in which shots were 7-6 Capitals, the game went to overtime.
Kapanen and Teddy Blueger had a 2-on-1 less than two minutes into overtime, and Kasperi skated up the left side of the ice and started winding up for a shot way back in the neutral zone. Blueger passed Kapanen the puck, and he fired the one-timer past Vitek Vanacek to win the game:
"They had a chance in our zone and it went along the boards there," Kapanen said of the play. "Teddy did a good job of picking it up and I started to yell at him that we have a 2-on-1. He just found me really well. Big shot, gave it to me, I just tried to go short side and I'm lucky enough that it went in."
The win gives the Penguins a 4-1 record against the Capitals this season, and a crucial extra point in the tight East Division standings, moving the Penguins to No. 3 in the division.
"It's a big win for us, especially against these guys who were up at the top," Kapanen said. "It's just a good feeling to be able to help the team win and to see the smiles on your teammates' faces. It's been awhile since I had scored, so that's always a bit of a confidence-booster too."
Kapanen's teammates were smiling from seeing the way he rebounded from last game, too.
"I thought he played a great game," Guentzel said. "He's hard on pucks, he's skillful, and he makes a lot of plays out there for us. Just a big game for him, you're excited for your teammates when stuff like that happens."
"He's a great player," Marino said. "He's going to do big things for us now, big things for us later in the season. He's a great player, he knows what to do, and he stepped up tonight."
Sullivan called Kapanen's performance one of his best games as a Penguin.
"He was much more involved in the forecheck, he stayed engaged in the offensive zone with his linemates," he said. "I think his speed was more evident, and obviously the goal he scored you can see how capable of a goal-scorer he is. With the speed that he has and that scoring touch, we think he can be a real important player for us. I thought it was one of Kappy's best games, if not his best game, as a Penguin."
For Kapanen, he'll look to keep building on this game moving forward.
"I felt like I took strides forward in the right direction, but there's still room to improve."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Jason Zucker left the game with a lower-body injury. More on that, plus video, here.
• The top defense pairing didn't play most of the second half of the third period. I asked Sullivan about it and he said it was because Letang was dealing with an injury. Letang did come back on the ice for the start of overtime.
• The Capitals entered the game with a power play tied for the league's best, operating at 33.33 percent. They had two power play opportunities, both in the first period, and the Penguins held them to zero shots in both.
"Sometimes that's just the way it goes," Marino said of the penalty kill's success against the Capitals. "It just comes down to execution."
• The Penguins were outhit in the game, 31-15. Common sense suggests that given how much they possessed the puck through the first two periods, a disparity in hit totals should be expected, since you can't get hit unless you have the puck. Sullivan was asked about the hit totals after the game, and he expressed the same general disdain for the stat as a whole that he always does when asked about hit totals.
"I think it's a difficult statistic in my opinion to try to draw any conclusions," Sullivan said. "No. 1, when you go from building to building, what constitutes a hit (as judged by the in-arena off-ice officials) is different everywhere. There's so much subjectivity associated with the statistic. It's almost hard to take it at face value. We don't hold a lot of credence as a coaching staff in that statistic. Like I said yesterday or the day before, what I will tell you is we know the nature of the team that we have. We certainly want to have a physical dimension or a physical element to our game. Every team would like to have that, it makes you hard to play against. If we're too high in that category, it could be a case where we don't have the puck enough. Context is really important when you're looking at that type of statistic. In my mind it's a really difficult stat to evaluate or assess because of the subjectivity of it. ... We track stuff internally that we hold a lot more credence in."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Video highlights
• NHL scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Capital One Arena:
1. Kasperi Kapanen, Penguins
2. Tristan Jarry, Penguins
3. Vitek Vanacek, Capitals
THE INJURIES
• Defenseman Juuso Riikola has been out since suffering a upper-body on Jan. 19. He has been practicing with the team in a regular jersey and traveled with the team to Washington.
• Forward Evan Rodrigues has been out since suffering a lower-body injury on Jan. 25. He stayed in Pittsburgh to continue skating with skills coach Ty Hennes.
• Defenseman Brian Dumoulin has been out since suffering a lower-body injury on Jan. 26. He stayed in Pittsburgh to continue skating with Hennes.
• Forward Jared McCann has been out since suffering a lower-body injury on Feb. 6. He traveled with the Penguins to Washington and wore a non-contact jersey in the optional morning skate.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Kasperi Kapanen
Jason Zucker-Evgeni Malkin-Bryan Rust
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brandon Tanev
Colton Sceviour-Mark Jankowski-Sam Lafferty
P.O Joseph-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-John Marino
Marcus Pettersson-Cody Ceci
And for Peter Laviolette's Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin-Lars Eller-Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Conor Sheary
Richard Panik-Nicklas Backstrom-T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin-Nic Dowd-Garnet Hathaway
Brenden Dillon-John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov-Justin Schultz
Zdeno Chara-Nick Jensen
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will practice at noon at Capital One Arena on Wednesday, and it will be closed to the media. They'll have another morning skate on Thursday before that game against the Capitals.
THE CONTENT
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