POSTGAME NOTEBOOK: Pens 4, Caps 3

At Last -We waited nearly 11 months for the Caps and Penguins to get together and play some hockey, and although the game had some oddities, it did not disappoint. Pittsburgh came away with a 4-3 win on Super Bowl Sunday afternoon in the first meeting between the two heated Metropolitan Division rivals, the latest the Caps and Pens have ever faced one another for the first time in a season.

The two sides picked up right where they left off, as two of the elite teams in the league with a healthy dislike for one another, and there was an undercurrent of emotion roiling through all 60 minutes of Sunday's game.
"They're a real good hockey team," says Pens coach Mike Sullivan. "I think we're a pretty good hockey team. Anytime these teams play against one another, there is a lot of emotion. They're fun to be a part of. There are great competitors on both sides."

A national TV audience saw a spirited - if occasionally sloppy - affair that featured a total of 13 minor penalties, none of which had any direct effect on the seven goals scored in the game. Those penalties did have an effect on the game flow; the first penalty came in the game's first minute, and there were five of them whistled before the game was nine minutes old. Only a shade more than half (10:27) of the first period was played at 5-on-5, and ice time totals were all over the place.
Fourth lines were sparingly used. Brendan Leipsic finished with 4:31 in ice time, his lowest figure of the season. Linemate Nic Dowd logged a more representative 9:38, but more than half of it (5:07) came while Washington was shorthanded.
Turnovers led directly to each of Pittsburgh's first three goals, the first of which came from fourth liner Sam Lafferty, whose 5:41 ice time total was lowest among the 18 Pittsburgh skaters. Lafferty's goal was his first in 17 games, and the point was his first in 16.
Washington winger Richard Panik skated only three shifts totaling 59 seconds in the first period, but he made a nice pass to set up the first of Lars Eller's two goals on one of them. Speaking of Eller, he was in beast mode all afternoon, and it was no exaggeration to say that something seemed to happen every time he was on the ice. In a span of five straight Eller shifts in the first period, something did happen; either a goal was scored or a penalty was taken by one side or the other.
Feeding Pittsburgh's ever dangerous transition game didn't help the Caps, nor did Washington's propensity to hit posts and miss nets on a number of glorious scoring opportunities. But once the Caps started to play to their identity in the third period, once they get in on the forecheck and exerted their physicality, forcing Pittsburgh defensemen to make hurried plays, they began to tilt the ice and put the visitors in scramble mode.

"They pressed," says Sullivan of the Caps. "They pushed. They were down a couple of goals and they ended up getting that second goal, and it gave their bench a boost. This game is so much about momentum, and they had it in the third period. We got on our heels a little bit. I thought we did a better job of pushing back in this one than we did in the last one against Philly, but that's certainly an area that we'll work on and try to get better."
Was it the missed offensive opportunities or the early turnovers that did the Caps in on this afternoon?
"A bit of both, I think," says Eller. "I think two of their three [sic] goals are coming off of mistakes of ours, but I think we put ourselves in a bad spot by not executing a pass, or not executing a breakout, and then we pay for that. The thing is, we can control that ourselves and improve in that, and then I think we've just got to play the whole game like we did in the third, with physicality and determination. Then we'll be fine. We've got three more games against them."
When it was over, the Caps were obviously displeased with the result, but they seemed confident that they had come away with something from this game that will benefit them going forward.
"I knew for sure we were going to take something from this afternoon's game, and that will be the case," says Caps coach Todd Reirden. "We'll review that as a staff and continue to get better. Now we've got a little bit of something to draw upon, in terms of games that are at that type of a level and heading into these last 30 games."
Those last 30 games include three against Pittsburgh, so the wait won't be nearly as long this time around. In three weeks, the Caps and Pens will meet again here in D.C., and they have two games in Pittsburgh next month, both of which are matinees as well.

Busted Afternoon - In the aftermath of Sunday afternoon's loss, Washington winger Tom Wilson was asked what changed in the third period that enabled his team to make such a strong late push in the game.
"I think we got fed up a little bit," says Wilson. "We need to come out a little bit stronger. But these are the games where you kind of come together, and you learn from it. A couple of breaks here and there don't go our way, and it just seemed a bit of a frustrating game, and we did our best to try and turn the tide, just a little bit late, I think. Guys were kind of hoping there was another period there, but at least we will have a couple more [with the Pens] throughout the rest of the year. That's what a rivalry is for; it was a good, heated third period there."
It was, indeed, and Wilson played a larger part in it. He finished the game with a single-game career high of 13 hits, and he delivered nine of those body blows in his eight third-period shifts, totaling less than seven minutes in ice time.
Washington finished with 47 hits - tied for the second most hits the Caps have delivered in any game since 2010-11 - on Sunday, and 22 of those hits were laid in the game's final frame.
With Sunday's loss, the Caps are now 3-3-1 in afternoon games this season. It's a small sample size, to be sure, but all three of their remaining games with Pittsburgh are also afternoon games, and there are usually a fair amount of afternoon games in the early rounds of the playoffs, too.
A closer look at the Caps' performance in afternoon games is somewhat revealing. In each of the three afternoon victories, Washington rallied from a deficit of two or more goals down to win. In the case of a Jan. 5 win over San Jose and a Jan. 18 win over the Islanders, those were somewhat rare and historic wins in terms of the late comebacks needed for the two points. Late Washington surges fell short in each of the three losses.
Bottom line, the Caps typically don't start on time in these afternoon games. They've given up a dozen first-period goals while scoring only five of their own in the first period of those seven matinee matches. They've been outscored 10-6 in the second period of those games. And they've owned a 14-4 advantage in the third period and overtime of those games.
Clearly, it's a matter of getting everyone ready to go from puck drop. The Caps will have a handful of afternoon dress rehearsals to try to get it right between now and the start of the playoffs.
By The Numbers - John Carlson led the Caps with 23:32 in ice time … Carlson and Alex Ovechkin led the Caps with four shots on net each … Wilson, Ovechkin and Kempny each had two blocked shots to lead the Caps.