"We've got to find some goals for him, too" says Caps coach Barry Trotz of Holtby. "We can't just put it on Braden Holtby. We've got to find some goals in our room right now, and we haven't found enough."
That's absolutely true. The Caps have scored on 2.3 percent of their shot attempts in this series while Pittsburgh has cashed in on 9.3 of its shot tries.
"He's been our best player," says Penguins coach Mike Sullivan of his goaltender, who is now 6-1 in the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs while subbing for the injured Matt Murray. "In the first series, in the first two games here, he has made timely saves for us, especially in that first period. I don't know what else I can say."
A dominant first period in which the Caps owned a 35-8 advantage in shot attempts, a 16-5 bulge in shots on goal, a 17-7 margin in hits and a 15-5 lead in face-off wins produced nothing in the way of red lights for Washington. Fleury was excellent, but the Caps' decision-making and patience could have been better, too.
Pittsburgh is nothing if not opportunistic. The Caps have spent much of the first 120 minutes of this series possessing the puck in the Penguins end of the ice, only to pound it right into Pittsburgh sticks and shin pads nearly as often as they've tested Fleury. Meanwhile, the patient Pens have merely waited for their opportunities, and more to the point, they've continuously cashed in on them.