Empty Thoughts: Penguins 5, Capitals 4 (OT)

Observations from the Penguins’ 5-4 overtime win against the Capitals:

First things first, there was no update on injured Penguins defensemen Marcus Pettersson and Juuso Riikola. Coach Mike Sullivan said each was being evaluated for undisclosed ailments after the game.

Pettersson was injured when Capitals forward T.J. Oshie hit him violently from a blind angle at 16:35 of the second period:

Oshie was initially given a major penalty for interference but a review by officials changed it to a minor penalty.

As for Riikola, it wasn’t clear how he was injured. He finished the second period — playing the final shift of the period, in fact — and didn’t return for the third period.

That left the Penguins’ remaining four defensemen — Brian Dumoulin, Kris Letang, John Marino and Chad Ruhwedel — to play the final 20-plus minutes. They did a pretty effective job buttoning things down against a pretty potent Capitals offense. And did so with Marino and Ruhwedel, each right-handed shots, alternating to their off sides to make things easier for one another.

In the third period and overtime combined, the Penguins outshot the Capitals, 15-8.

“I barely noticed,” goaltender Casey DeSmith said via video conference. “That’s how good of a job they did. I can’t imagine how tired they were. That’s really tough rolling with just four. Even five is tough. That was a huge character win for everybody, especially the (defensemen). They were the biggest part of it.”

Should Pettersson or Riikola miss any substantial time, the Penguins are already in a hole with regards to their defensive depth. Mike Matheson and Zach Trotman are each already on injured reserve. And considering Matheson, Pettersson and Riikola are all left-handers, the Penguins’ ship could be listing to the port side.

That brings us to Cody Ceci.

When the Penguins signed him in October, the public reaction ranged from confusion to anger. Why would an aggressive offensive team sign a defensive defenseman who has struggled in recent years?

Because the Penguins learned a hard lesson on the value of depth last season, particularly on defense.

In 2019-20, the Penguins saw — in no particular order — Letang, Dumoulin, Marino, Jack Johnson, Trotman and Justin Schultz each miss time because of maladies. They were forced to dress 10 defensemen over the course of 69 regular season games.

So with that in hindsight, as they entered the 2020-21 season with the backdrop of a crippling global pandemic that could impact the roster in a variety of ways, the Penguins added Ceci, Matheson and a handful of prospects.

Sure, Ceci has some significant deficiencies to his game. That’s why the right-hander has been a healthy scratch the past three games. And with so many left-handed defensemen injured, southpaw Pierre-Olivier Joseph, one of the team’s top prospects, could be pressed into making his NHL debut.

Throw in the fact that Ceci is still adjusting to a new team with a new assistant coach with Todd Reirden who is trying to establish a new scheme on the blue line and there is plenty of reason to be leery of Ceci being in the lineup.

But he’s a pretty good option given the severity of the circumstances.

The Penguins knew something like this could happen … again. That’s why they signed Ceci. They have a far better chance of battling through this adversity with Ceci than without him.

What happened

Washington took the game’s first lead 4:55 into regulation. Capitals forward Richard Panik corralled a blocked shot at his own right point and fed a pass to the blue line for Oshie who raced the puck through the neutral zone into the Penguins’ zone on the left wing. Pulling up at the point, Oshie allowed things to develop and zipped a cross-ice pass to the opposite wing for oncoming forward Lars Eller who flicked a rising wrister from the right circle over DeSmith’s left shoulder on the near side for his first goal of the season. Oshie and Panik collected assists.

The Penguins tied the game at 16:52 of the first period. Claiming a loose puck at his own right point, Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen surged through the neutral zone, gained the offensive blue line and cut to the Capitals’ right circle where he unleashed a high wrister to the far side that goaltender Vitek Vanecek stopped initially. On the ensuing rebound, Penguins forwards Teddy Blueger and Colton Sceviour each jabbed at the puck with Sceviour eventually getting credit for his second goal of the season. Blueger and Kapanen each netted assists.

The Capitals wasted little time in responding. To be precise, they wasted all of six seconds. Off the ensuing faceoff, Sceviour actually beat Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom but Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin was able to jump on the puck, gained the offensive zone and distributed a pass to the right wing for forward Tom Wilson who lifted a pedestrian wrister to the far side that glanced off of DeSmith’s right shoulder and fluttered into the cage for his second goal. Ovechkin and Backstrom had assists.

It became a 3-1 game late in the period at the 19:43 mark. Collecting a loose puck in the neutral zone, Capitals defenseman John Carlson took advantage of a botched line change by the Penguins and pushed play up the right wing into the offensive zone. Bulling through a check attempt by Penguins forward Brandon Tanev, Carlson fed a backhand pass to the front of the crease where Wilson was able to fend off Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin and tapped a forehand shot through DeSmith’s five hole. The lone assist went to Carlson.

A five-on-three power-play goal at 5:45 of the second pulled the Penguins within one. As the Capitals tried to clear the puck, DeSmith took advantage of the long change required during second periods and zipped the puck back up ice on the left wing for forward Bryan Rust. Gaining the offensive zone, Rust left a drop pass for forward Evgeni Malkin at the left point. Malkin surveyed the zone and fed a forehand pass to forward Sidney Crosby who backpedaled to the right circle. Crosby snapped the puck to the left of the cage for Rust. Allowing Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen to stumble out of position, Rust slid a pass to the right of the crease where forward Jake Guentzel slammed in his first goal. Assists were credited to Rust and Crosby.

The Capitals took a 4-2 lead at the 8:16 mark of the second. Controlling the puck on the left wing, Capitals forward Jakub Vrana chucked a wrister that ex-Penguins forward Daniel Sprong redirected on net. DeSmith made the initial save but allowed a rebound to his left which Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov cleaned up for his first goal. Sprong and Vrana had assists.

Another display of slick puckhandling by DeSmith led to the Penguins’ third goal at 15:07 of the second. While killing a five-on-three power play, DeSmith collected a dump-in from the neutral zone by Kuznetsov, dropped the puck to the right of the cage and flung it up ice for Blueger, springing him on a breakaway. Fending off a backcheck from Ovechkin, Blueger attacked the net and coolly slid a backhand through Vanecek’s five hole. DeSmith had the only assist.

Another power-play goal at 17:15 of the second made it a 4-4 game. From center point, Letang one-touched a pass to the right half wall where Malkin unleashed a one-timer that beat Vanecek’s blocker on the far side for his first goal of the season. Letang and Crosby collected assists.

After a scoreless third period, Crosby’s third goal of the season secured victory. Guentzel created the play by gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, thanks in part to a bank pass to himself off the boards. Setting up shop in the right circle, Guentzel fed a pass to above the circle for Letang who chopped a one-timer on net. Vanecek made the initial save but couldn’t prevent Crosby from collecting it and tucking a forehand shot into the cage. Letang and Guentzel had assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins led in shots, 30-26.

• Kuznetsov led the game with six shots.

• Guentzel and Letang each led the Penguins with four shots.

• Letang led the game with 28:14 of ice time on 36 shifts.

• Carlson led the Capitals with 22:10 of ice time on 27 shifts.

• The Penguins controlled faceoffs, 39-23 (63%).

• Crosby was dominant in the faceoff circle, going 16 for 19 (84%).

• Eller was 9 for 18 (50%)

• Malkin, Marino, Pettersson, Ruhwedel, Penguins forward Brandon Tanev, Capitals defensemen Brenden Dillon, Dmitry Orlov, Carlson and forward Carl Hagelin each led the game with two blocked shots.

Randomly speaking

• So much of this season — not just the Penguins, the entire NHL — just feels random. Frankly, a lot of what is ongoing on the ice is chaos. That’s due to teams not having a true training camp or a preseason after a lengthy layoff.

It’s like a bag of wet firecrackers. Some will fizzle. Others will pop.

The hockey has been sloppy and disorganized. But really fun.

• Regarding Oshie’s hit, it wasn’t legal. That’s why he got a minor penalty. If it rises to the level of supplemental discipline, it’s a complete guess given how unpredictable the NHL’s Department of Player Safety is. In the early days of the season, that department has been pretty aggressive in doling out quite a few fines around the league.

• Kapanen made his long-awaited debut with the Penguins and he was decent, albeit in a fourth-line role. Given that Monday was Kapanen’s first practice with the Penguins — and first practice of any type since August with the Maple Leafs — the Penguins opted to give him a lesser role than to drop him into a demanding assignment such as being Crosby’s winger.

Kapanen created the sequence that led to the Penguins’ first goal and even drew a penalty that led to their second goal. His skating was very evident and he wasn’t afraid to get involved physically. All things considered, it was a promising start.

On 16 shifts, Kapanen logged 10:02 of ice time and had two shots on two attempts.

• DeSmith had quite a game. He gave up some goals that were a little weak. At the same time, he came up with some remarkable saves, including on a three-on-none sequence at 3:22 of the second period when he stuffed Hagelin:

And when he wasn’t trying to stop the puck, he was flashing some pretty impressive stick handling that would impress Martin Brodeur.

• The Penguins had a rotten first period for the fourth consecutive game. For whatever reason, they don’t get things going until the second period. That’s a bad modus operandi.

• Malkin got a goal finally, and that’s huge for his momentum. But his line, with Rust and Jason Zucker, still looked really flat at five-on-five situations.

• Sceviour has been a pretty useful player to this point. Not bad for a guy who was seen as a “throw-in” from a trade this past offseason.

• The movement on the Penguins’ power play is something. They’ve always had the talent to do that but things got stagnant the last few seasons, particularly after the departure of forward Phil Kessel in 2019. It’s not just puck movement but players moving to different places on the ice. There aren’t “set” positions with so-and-so in the right circle or whoever in the net front. Reirden has taken over this group and gotten the incumbent players to adapt to slightly different deployments.

• Wilson is many things, good and bad. But one aspect of his game that doesn’t get nearly enough attention is his speed. He can motor for a large mammal.

• Ovechkin looked rather ordinary over the past two games. Given the circumstances this season has started under, he deserves the benefit of the doubt that he’ll eventually get his game back up to the elite level that he usually offers.

• The Capitals look like a really talented bundle of players who are trying to figure out what their identity is under new coach Peter Laviolette. They just look off right now. Perhaps a few more weeks of refinement will get that squad on track.

Historically speaking

• Blueger’s goal was only the third three-on-five short-handed goal in franchise history.

The first was scored by forward Mario Lemieux in a 7-5 road win against the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 13, 1988. He had a tidy one-goal, five-assist effort that night in the Great Western Forum.

The second was scored by forward Matt Cooke in a 6-4 road win against the Philadelphia Flyers, Feb. 18, 2012. Cooke also had a multi-point effort that night with two goals and an assist at the Wells Fargo Center.

• Kapanen was the first former first-round pick of the Penguins to make his debut with the team since defenseman Derrick Pouliot (No. 8 overall pick in 2012). During a 3-1 home win against the Florida Panthers on Dec. 20, 2014, Pouliot scored the game-winning goal on his first career shot.

• Kapanen became the sixth player to wear No. 42 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Tuomas Gronman, Dustin Jeffrey, Nick Johnson, Corey Potter, Dylan Reese

• The Penguins’ last regular season overtime win against the Capitals was a 7-6 home victory in the 2017-18 season opener on Oct. 4, 2017. Letang had the winning goal.

• Guentzel (204 points) surpassed forward Paul Gardner (203) for 41st place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Crosby (1,268 points) surpassed Hockey Hall of Fame Jean Ratelle (1,267) for 38th place on the NHL’s career scoring list.

• DeSmith’s assist was the first point of his career.

Publicly speaking

• Blueger spoke about what needed to be done by the forwards with only four defensemen in the third period and beyond:

“We just tried to be a little bit more responsible. Just make sure we always have a guy reload for the backcheck. Anytime the (defensemen) go down the wall or there’s a 50-50 puck, make sure we have a forward above the play to kind of try to eliminate odd-man rushes as much as we can.”

• DeSmith cited good fortune in his pass to Blueger:

“I was just trying to get it up the ice. Teddy was in the right place at the right time. That just worked out great. I was very lucky. But I’ll take it.”

• DeSmith spoke about his play leading to Guentzel’s goal:

“On Jake’s goal, I just saw both their (defensemen) heading to the bench. So I figured, we had a little bit of trouble on zone entries on the first part of that power-play (opportunity). So I just sent it up. And (Rust) did a great job of getting onside. Then we set it up and they made a great play and scored.”

• Sullivan spoke about using Kapanen on the fourth line:

“It’s not an easy thing when you’ve been in quarantine and you’ve been skating by yourself back home … but not being in a team environment for a long time. He’s only had two practices, once with the taxi squad and one team practice. That’s a tough challenge for a player. We didn’t want to put him in a difficult circumstance. That’s why we started him on the fourth line. He got a few shifts with Sid’s line. He had the odd shift with (Malkin’s) line. We tried to manage his minutes.

“Having missed all of training camp, it just kind of set him back. We’re going to have to find creative ways to get him up to speed. This was one way we talked about that we think can expedite the process. I thought he played pretty well. You can see his explosive skating ability. He ends up helping out on one of the goals we get. He handles the puck well, he’s a good playmaker, he’s got a good shot. We just have to make sure that we slowly but surely here get him in shape to the point that we can put him in a position to succeed.”

• Eller was blunt on what Blueger’s goal meant:

“Today, we really paid for our mistakes in the second period. We made a couple and we weren’t sharp on the execution. You can’t sleep on this team. They scored two and they’re back in the game. They shouldn’t have been. We should have closed the game when we were up on a five-on-three power play. We just let them back in the game. The mistakes really cost us today.”

Visually speaking

-Game summary.

-Event summary.

-Highlights:

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