The best description of the Penguins-Capitals “rivalry,” if it can even be termed as such, came from Twitter earlier this week. One user simply said that all previews of the series should be replaced with a looped video of Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown.
After watching Game 1, and seeing the Penguins find yet another way to twist the knife on Washington, that characterization seems to fit perfectly. Only a viewer watching their first-ever Penguins-Capitals playoff game could have been surprised by the outcome.
Washington didn’t dominate the first 40 minutes like they did for most of last year’s series. A goal 17 seconds in gave them the lead, and then they traded chances with the Penguins in about as entertaining of a 1-0 game as you could ask for. After that, Alex Ovechkin, who had missed a yawning open net earlier in the game, seemingly redeemed himself by picking a corner on Matt Murray and staking his Caps to a 2-0 lead with not even 30 seconds gone in the third period.
Since one of the stranger elements of the Penguins’ postseason dominance has been the fact that Washington usually wins Game 1 before things go south, this was more or less playing to script. Evidently these Penguins decided to send a clear message that this series would be more of the same agony a game earlier than normal.
In just under five minutes, that 2-0 deficit turned into a 3-2 Penguins lead. Patric Hornqvist, Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel tallied rapid-fire goals, and that was that. Washington fired plenty of pucks for the rest of the period, but Murray was more than up to the task.
Caps fans questioning whether or not the universe has it out for them could hardly be blamed. And yet, they had to know that this was probably going to happen. This is what the Penguins do. They look like they’re on the ropes, then they come out firing with the kind of quick strike ability no other team in the league can match.
Washington partisans say it was only one game. Ovechkin can say all the right things in the postgame. There can be public professions of confidence in Braden Holtby, despite the fact that two of the Penguins’ three goals were suspect, at best. Barry Trotz can say whatever he wants, too. None of it matters.
Deep down, they all know.
Everyone in Washington knows that Evgeni Malkin is very likely to play Sunday. They know that the Penguins will be greatly enhanced by his presence. They know that their team has already surrendered home-ice advantage in excruciating fashion, and faces the very real possibility of going to Pittsburgh down two games to none.
Perhaps most of all, they know that the more things change in this series, the more they stay the same. The narratives surrounding both teams can be different, some of the names on the backs of the jerseys can be new, but the outcome always ends up the same — the Penguins move on, and the Capitals move home for the summer.
Washington was something of a pleasant surprise this year, and people thought that maybe, just maybe, having less pressure on them would lead to a different result in the playoffs. That certainly doesn’t appear to be the case. If the Penguins win Sunday afternoon, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Washington get swept. Holtby might already been mentally broken, and to a man, the Caps have to be thinking, “What do we have to do to beat this team?”
I’ve got some bad news for you, fellas. If history is any indication, there isn’t an answer to that question, because they can’t.
Chris Mueller is the co-host of the ‘Starkey & Mueller Show’ from 2-6 p.m. weekdays on 93.7 The Fan.