As beautiful and touching as the pregame tribute to Mike Lange was, the Penguins' brand of hockey was just as ugly, leading to a horrendous 8-3 loss Saturday afternoon to the Capitals at PPG Paints Arena.

"We beat ourselves in so many ways," Mike Sullivan said. "That's the most disappointing part of it."

For the first 34 minutes of the game, the Penguins matched the Capitals each step of the way. If anything, they were outplaying them, despite being one goal down with 5:43 remaining in the second period. They were out-shooting them, 19-9. They had twice as much offensive zone time. And, both times the Capitals scored during that time, the Penguins would answer, including this beautiful breakout engineered by Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell to spring Sidney Crosby free and finish with his patented backhand finish:

So, despite falling behind, 3-2, after Jakob Chychrun danced around Vincent Desharnais with a gorgeous toe drag and finished with a short-side snipe past Alex Nedeljkovic, there was no panic on the Pittsburgh bench.

"Up until about six minutes left in the second (period), we did a really good job. Didn't give up a ton. Had a lot of zone time," Crosby said. "We made some mistakes that were Grade A opportunities for them. It changed the momentum of the game."

At the 14:17 mark of the second period, Chychrun struck again, only this time it came on a shot from the point, one of multiple goals Nedeljkovic would have liked to have back. On the goal, Tom Wilson was uncontested in front of the net with Karlsson and Matt Grzelcyk on the ice, screening Nedeljkovic.

Then, just eight seconds later, the Penguins' defense was stretched out as far east-to-west as possible, giving Aliaksei Protas a wide open lane to skate down and beat Nedeljkovic, the fifth goal allowed on 14 shots, triggering Sullivan to make a goaltending change:

Nedeljkovic wasn't sharp in this game at all. He sprawled far away from his net on the first goal and got beat to the short side multiple times. That's the kind of stuff you see when a goaltender doesn't have it that night.

"It's the first game back off the (4 Nations tournament) break," Sullivan said. "It's not an easy game for anybody. I just felt like we needed to make a change at that particular point in time."

Nedeljkovic might not have had the performance the Penguins needed, but that fifth goal was indicative of the type of team play Sullivan and Crosby described, giving the Capitals far too easy chances to score. And, aside from the goaltending, the signs were there in the Capitals' first two goals of the game that this game was going to end in disaster.

The first goal might be the play that best represented everything that went wrong for the Penguins:

Karlsson goes up to the Capitals' blue line and tries to make a cross-ice pass instead of get the puck deep. The puck is then turned over, and Karlsson gets caught chasing because two forwards went into the offensive zone and the third went off for a change. That leads to a break the other way, and Nedeljkovic sprawls far away from his net, all but guaranteeing a goal off any bounce or rebound in the crease.

The second goal also came off another play in which a defenseman unnecessarily got caught deep:

Letang passes to Evgeni Malkin streaking back toward the point and cycles with him. But in doing so, Letang gets caught way too far deep, Malkin doesn't stay back until Letang can possibly get back of defense and the Capitals take it away with a three-on-one going the other way.

However, the Penguins' defense in their own zone was not great, either. Just as Wilson was uncontested and screened for Chychrun's second goal, he was left even more alone for a screen and tip on the Capitals' fifth goal of the game, stacking even more momentum on top of the two goals in eight seconds that took place just 4:20 prior:

Two different times Wilson was just allowed to stand in front of a Penguins' goaltender, whether it was Nedeljkovic or Joel Blomqvist, who allowed three goals on 17 shots. And this time, it ended any hopes of possibly getting back into the game. The team had completely unraveled.

Sullivan's point about the team being itself is 100% justified because it didn't change throughout the game, not even on the Capitals' eighth and final goal of the game:

Once again, a defenseman gets caught deep. This time it's P.O Joseph after skating down and taking a shot. It gets blocked, no forward cycled back to cover the point, leaving Letang in a footrace with Brandon Duhaime.

One thing that transcends any sport is the ability to play complementary of one another. Defense has to be strong in front of the goaltender, and the latter needs to make the expected saves. The Penguins did neither in this game, with at least five goals being scored in which the overall team play completely collapsed and gave Washington, the current front-runner for the Presidents' Trophy and highest-scoring team in the league, easy chance after easy chance to put the puck in the net -- all without Alex Ovechkin being much of a factor.

"We chased offense," Sullivan said. "When you chase offense and you don't have a recognition of risk-reward, you wind up giving your opponents easy offense. As a result, that's what we get. We beat ourselves so many different ways."