Plus: The third line was consistently good. Consisting of Milano-Strome-Phillips, they were fast, creative, and aggressive. They created the most scoring chances for the Caps.
Minus: The special teams were bad for the Caps. Two of the Pens goals came on that man disadvantage and the Pens had a handful of other choices they didn’t convert. Then the Caps PP looked like it did last season, very stagnant. There was some great new looks in the pre-season but for some reason we didn’t see that tonight.
Key Moment: The turning point was probably the Pens’ first goal. There was a faceoff in the Caps zone and off a win the puck went to Alexander Ovechkin who could have easily settled the puck but he fumbled it and it went to a Pens defensemen which led to the Pens first goal. After that the Pens rolled the rest of the period.
Caps Player of the Game: Unfortunately, no one stood out too much, but it’s probably Milano, one of the trio of that affective third line.
Final Thoughts: You can tell one team has played a NHL game already and one hasn’t. Caps certainly looked rusty as the game went on as the Penguins were more consistent. The big difference was the stick work. The Penguins did an excellent job at getting sticks on Caps high end scoring chances in both shots and passing. Two of the Penguins goals (both on the power play) were the results of pucks bouncing off Caps sticks then going in or right to a Penguin for the setup.