Capitals, Jets push Penguins and Preds to the brink

Washington capitals do not need a history lesson. Neither Winnipeg Jets in this regard.

The capitals are well aware of their propensity for opportunity after the opportunity eludes, often at the hands of Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh penguins.

And just in case, when Alex Ovechkin and his teammates forget about their play-off mistakes, they only need to step in front of the camera or microphone, where the same questions are asked year after year.

Work that in the past was too big. Four previous times in the era of Ovechkin - including in 2009 and 2017 against Pittsburgh - "Capitals" won three games in the second round of the playoffs. This is the fourth one, which turned out to be elusive.

Defending Champion Penguins Pushed to Brink of Elimination

Saving the games in the capital of Washington - and perhaps the decisive advantage in the playoffs - was the result of a 22-year-old recruit not burdened with torture in the history of the organization's post-season. Jakub Vrana was 2 years old, when the last time the capital passed the second round. He was a scratch in the first round of this postseason. He hardly saw the ice at the beginning of this series. He was a hero on Saturday night.

In the related third period, Vrana followed Alex Ovechkin on the ice, and after Ovechkin descended to the right of the Pittsburgh Penguins player, Matt Murray, in order to get him out of the position, Ovechkin easily put a pass into the slot for Vrana who knocked the puck into the wide open net , as if it was not important. He tried to maintain this composure when he stood in front of the reporters in the locker room after the game, but then showed youth and abundance, which made him an important part of this "Capital" team.

Washington Capitals moments in their playoff rivalry with the Pittsburgh Penguins

In this series of Penguins-Capitals there can be fights that make Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin similar in that they are tied to the hip joint. They can not escape from each other, on the ice or in the form of a conversation. Sid and Ovi joined the league together in 2005. They are very different players, and they had a very excellent career Hall of Fame, but in a sense they are inseparable.

Ovechkin has 1112 career points; Crosby has 1116 people.

As they arrived in the league, the Crosby Penguins accumulated 1,273 points in the regular season standings; In the capitals of Ovechkin accumulated 1253 people.

It is tempting to blame the failures in the postseason period of the Capitals on Ovechkin ("he's a loser!") And the temptation to completely release him. Both would be reductive and lazy. But there is a fundamental difference between Crosby and Ovechkin, and this manifested itself in the spring.

Crosby is a hockey sponge. He always watches the games. He remains after practice at all seasons to turn his weaknesses into strengths, even when no one has seen weaknesses. He loves playing as a kid loves his favorite toy. He takes it everywhere. It concerns all its parts. He can not imagine a day without him.

Ovechkin is not like that. It is quite competitive on the ice, but it may seem to him indifferent. He was never known as an excellent practitioner. He often appears on the Caps site, unaware of what happened in the league the day before.

Every time the penguins take ice, they know that their captain has done everything. Crosby is not just the most complete player of his generation; he is the most complete player he could be. Tim Duncan, his Brady. His attitude forms the whole of his franchise.

The penguins are falling in line for Crosby. Capitals must fall in line around Ovechkin. This does not keep Capital from winning the Cup, but this makes them difficult. In the playoffs, the difference between winning and losing is so thin. The whole series can end with a bounce rebound on two-on-one, which happened only because someone finished the check and the puck jumped in the right direction, and even the winning team does not know exactly why she won. But it certainly helps to understand that you have done everything you could have done before that moment.

When the team repeatedly loses in the postseason, we often say - or imply - that they are chokers: the pressure has reached them. Sometimes it's true, and the story of the postseason in Capitals is filled with so many collapses that it's easy to label their choker.

More often, however, there are other reasons for repeated failures after the season, in sports: injuries, luck, hot goalkeeper, repeatedly stumbling upon a super-team. And sometimes what seems suffocating is actually a team that is exposed. This, like everything that happened to Ovechkin and the capitals. The caps were very similar to their star: good enough to dominate the winter, but not full enough to win in the spring.

And that brings us to the Caps-Pens series this year. The capitals are in a rare position: they have experience in the postseason and an advantage on the ice, but they still lost. Perhaps this puts them in the right mental place to finally defeat the penguins. Perhaps these other factors - injuries, luck, hot goalkeeper - are finally on their side. Maybe Ovechkin has changed, slightly, or maybe it does not matter. Maybe the capital can do this year. A lot of strange things happened, especially in the playoffs of hockey. I'm sure Ovechkin's team is confident that they will win. But the Crosby team knows that this is possible.

Penguins To Face Washington Capitals In Round 2 Of Playoffs

For the third consecutive postseason it will be the Washington capitals and the Pittsburgh penguins in the semifinals of the capital division.

"Here we go," - said the center Nicklas Backstrom after the "Capitals" liquidated the "Columbus Blue Jackets" in victory 6-3 in Game 6 on Monday evening. Penguins also won in six games, destroying the Philadelphia flyers on Sunday.

Backstrom was asked whether the Capitals enter this autopsy as an outsider, despite winning the Metro division.

"Yes, but it does not really matter if we are outsiders or not," he said. "They won the Stanley Cup two years in a row. Good for them. We will play in the second round against them. It will be fun".

In 2009, the penguins won an epic series of seven games, in which the famous game 2 was presented, in which Alex Ovechkin and Crosby played tricks. The penguins captured game 7 in D.C., 6-2. In 2016, penguins replaced Capital in six games after losing the game 1 on the road in overtime. In 2017, rivals again went to seven games, and the winner of the "Penguins" won the game 7 in Washington with a score of 2: 0.

For this edition of the post-season rivalry, the capitals will again have their home ice. They will have Ovechkin and Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and goalkeeper Braden Holtby, as in the last two playoffs. This leads to an obvious question: how can this be otherwise for capitals, when so many seem strangely familiar?

"We knew that the chances were that we would need to go through them at some point. We were well prepared. We used a year to improve our team, "said Holtby, who was impressive in creating 35 saves in Game 6.

Winger T.J. Oshima believes that Holtby is locked up, and the defense improved before him, this time the result may be different.

"Defensively, we understand better the correct reading a little. Defensively, we are a bit more responsible. I think that in previous years our line was rather complicated. It seemed like we somehow left with good players reading, but at times Pittsburgh can use it when you're not sharp at your own end, with how they see the ice. I think that we are a little more responsible at our own end, and I hope this can deter their crime, "said Oshi,

Over the past two seasons, Washington and Pittsburgh were set to collide in the second round due to the NHL playoffs format, what Captain coach Barry Trotz complained about in the NHL National game earlier this season.

"I think the format worked well and I'm not going to go against the league, but when you win the Presidents Trophy, you will not need to play the second [best] team in the second round," Trotz said.

If the Stanley Cup playoffs were replaced after the first round, the penguins (100 points) faced Tempa Bay Lightning (113 points), and in Capital (105 points) would face the winner of the Boston Bruins (112 points) and Toronto Maple leaves (105 points).

But this is not a format. Bracket says it's "Capitals against penguins," again. And Ovechkin said he was ready.