Minus Crosby, Penguins edge Capitals 3-2 to take 3-1 lead

All are suitable adjectives to describe Wednesday’s loss for the Capitals. The Penguins will never, ever win the physical battle against the Capitals because they’re not built to do that.

The Penguins look to overcome his absence and push the reigning Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals to the brink of elimination on Wednesday when the teams play Game 4 of their second-round series at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

Crosby suffered what’s believed to be the fourth concussion of his career Monday night against the Washington Capitals.

The Penguins are accustomed to dealing with injuries that there is not a team in the National Hockey League that is better equipped to deal with the loss of key personnel. Against those even strength shots in the playoffs, Holtby has posted a.773 save percentage, compared to.822 during the regular season. They ended up outshooting the Penguins 38-18.

The power play went 0-for-4, mustering five shots on Marc-Andre Fleury in 6:41. As he’s been all postseason, Fleury was sensational.

“We had good chances and we didn’t bury them”, Washington coach Barry Trotz said. “He’s really shown it this playoffs”.

Lemieux and Francis came up with an alignment called 1-4 Delay, which involved lining up four players at the blue line to stop the Capitals’ rush.

But Fleury alone didn’t win this game for the Penguins. He says it’s like “playing a little bit of Russian roulette”. The Penguins scored a total of three goals in their final three losses, another in a string of playoff failures that led to the firing of general manager Ray Shero and coach Dan Bylsma later that spring.

And most of all, the Penguins can’t get caught up in the hysteria surrounding the Crosby injury. Guentzel’s goal came when a crossing pass deflected off Washington defenseman Dmitry Orlov and by Braden Holtby. Some Penguins have hinted at their disapproval for Niskanen’s hit, and others have outright stated that they found it dirty in nature. There was Washington captain Alexander Ovechkin managing all of two shots while being held without a goal for the third straight game, then calling himself out afterward for his uninspired play. “It was deadlocked at zeroes for most of the game and we just got a couple of bounces”.

Schultz’s goal would end up being the difference in the game. The Capitals got 12 minutes of power play time to the Penguins 14 minutes.

With his team down a goal and two minutes left in the third period, Washington winger T.J. Oshie was whistled for a phantom high-stick on Nick Bonino in the corner.

Your father and grandfather could tell you stories.

“We win games different ways”, Sullivan said. “And our top guys, I thought, weren’t as good as they needed to be”.