POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Pens 4, Caps 2

Help Your Self -Slightly less than a month after they met for the first time this season, the Caps and the Pittsburgh Penguins renewed their rivalry once again on Friday night at Capital One Arena. While Washington roared past the Pens 6-1 in their first meeting here on Nov. 14, the Pens returned the favor on Friday, skating away with a 4-2 win.

Pittsburgh was finishing a five-game road swing that included cross-country travel and the Caps were concluding a season-long four-game homestand. Both teams came into the contest with three days between games. The Pens were fresher and had more oomph to their game over 60 minutes while the Caps spent the night trying to keep up, on the ice and on the scoreboard.
A third of the way into the 2021-22 season, the Caps haven't played many bad periods or games to this point. They've earned points in 22 of their 27 games to this point, but the Caps weren't at their best on Friday night.
"We just weren't sharp in a lot of the plays we were making," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie. "I thought mentally we were just a step behind. When you play a good team and you're not playing your best, they're going to take advantage of your mistakes. We shot ourselves in the foot quite a bit. And when we did get some chances and got some breaks, we weren't able to put it in the back of the net, and sometimes weren't able to get a shot off."
Pittsburgh began generating some rush chances early in the game, and the Caps dodged some early trouble when Evan Rodrigues rang a shot off the right post on a breakaway before the game was five minutes old. But as Oshie mentioned, the Caps did shoot themselves in the foot quite a bit.
The Pens took a 1-0 lead late in the first on a goal that just can't happen. Pens defenseman Mike Matheson had the puck in a 1-on-5 situation in Washington ice, waiting for his teammates to complete a line change. Oshie put a hit on him but didn't shake the puck loose, and the other four Caps on the ice occupied space - but not the right space. Danton Heinen came off the bench and cruised right into the high slot, scoring from there after taking a tee-up feed from John Marino.
Pittsburgh's second goal came on a bad bounce for the Caps. Brock McGinn's shot from the left half-wall clanked off Evgeny Kuznetsov's skate and eluded Ilya Samsonov on the short side to make it 2-0 just ahead of the midpoint of the middle period.
The Pens netted what would prove to be the game-winner minutes later in transition. Washington turned the puck over in neutral ice and Sidney Crosby set up Caps killer Kasperi Kapanen on a short ice rush, the latter scoring from inside the left circle to make it a 3-0 game.
Washington had a pair of power plays soon after, but it wasn't able to solve the League's top penalty-killing outfit. The Caps were also a bit too pass-happy at times; they tried to make one extra play instead of getting pucks to the net and they didn't pose much of an offensive threat at all in the game's first 40 minutes.
Kuznetsov scored in the third to cut the lead to 3-1, and Lars Eller made it a one-goal game late in the third with Samsonov pulled for an extra attacker, but Jeff Carter's empty-netter sealed it for the Penguins.
"There are things that I think are definitely within our control on how we play the game," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "Pittsburgh doesn't give up a lot offensively, so you've got to grind it out and fight for 10 even-strength scoring chances. The problem when I look back on the game, is that we probably gave up 15 to 17 even-strength scoring chances, and a lot of them were self-inflicted with how we played the game.
"There are definitely things that we can do better, and it's a quick turnaround, so that's good. We get back on the ice [Saturday in Buffalo] and try to get back on track."
Down And Out - The Caps lost a pair of key cogs in the second period of Friday's game. Defenseman Martin Fehervary took a high hit from McGinn and left the game midway through the second with an upper body injury. Later in the frame, the Caps lost Tom Wilson to an upper body injury when the winger lost his footing on a rush attempt and went careening into the Pens' net and Pittsburgh goaltender Tristan Jarry.
Washington started the night with five regulars out of its lineup for varying injuries and maladies.
I Can Help - Caps captain Alex Ovechkin picked up the primary helpers on both Washington goals, running his team-leading assist total to 23 on the season. He is tied for third in the NHL in assists with Colorado's Nazem Kadri and the Rangers' Artem Panarin.
Now in his 17th NHL season, Ovechkin set his career high in helpers when he had 59 of them in 2009-10. He had at least 46 assists in each of his first six seasons in the League, averaging 52 of them per season and racking up more than half of his career total - 313 of 613 - in that span.
Since he had 53 helpers in 2010-11, has cracked the 30-assist plateau just three times since. He did so in consecutive seasons from 2016-17 through 2018-19. Over the last 10 seasons, Ovechkin has averaged 28 assists per season. His rate of 2.3 assists per 60 minutes in 2021-22 matches his career best helper rate from 2009-10.
By The Numbers - John Carlson led the Caps with 27:07 in ice time … Kuznetsov led the Caps with five shots on net and Ovechkin led the way with seven shot attempts … Wilson led the Caps with six hits … Justin Schultz and Matt Irwin each blocked a pair of shots to lead the Capitals.