Power play falters as Penguins fall to Capitals

The Penguins don’t like Tom Wilson.

And considering how often the Washington Capitals power forward has injured several of their teammates, how could they?

More often than not, the Penguins have turned the other cheek when he has dropped a member of the club. At least on the occasions Wilson hasn’t induced trauma to that cheek with a reckless shoulder or a right cross.

Sure enough, Wilson hurt the Penguins again Thursday.

But in different fashion.

He put them on the power play.

With Wilson taking one of four penalties assessed to his team, the Penguins were granted four power-play opportunities at Capital One Arena in Washington.

The end result?

No power-play goals, a mere four shots on net with the man advantage and a 5-2 road loss.

In contrast, the Capitals were 1 for 3 on their power play, with the lone conversion being the winning score from, of all people, Wilson.

The Penguins actually controlled the puck thoroughly in the Capitals zone on the man advantage. But given how often they passed around the perimeter, it almost appeared they were running a scheme devised by Norman Dale.

”We had a significant amount of (offensive) zone time,” coach Mike Sullivan said via video conference. “It didn’t translate into as many plays at the net that I think we could have.

“We had opportunities to put the puck at the net a little bit more. We could have generated a little bit more.”

After forward Nicklas Backstrom scored his ninth goal to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead 11 minutes, 20 seconds into regulation, the Penguins were granted two power-play opportunities in the first period, the second coming after Wilson was tagged for interference at the 15:27 mark of the first period for hammering Penguins forward Mark Jankowski with a late hit in the neutral zone a few seconds after Jankowski had swatted a puck away.

The NHL’s threshold for a late hit is 0.6 seconds after a player releases a puck. While no official timing was available for Wilson’s check, it might as well have been clocked with a calendar.

Jankowski left the game but returned by the start of the second period.

The Penguins’ response to Wilson did not differ from most of his previous transgressions against them.

“Teams are going to try to play physical against us,” Sullivan said. “They always do. We’re just going to try to play the game that gives us the best chance to win.”

At 3:18 of the third period, Capitals forward T.J. Oshie scored his fifth goal on a dazzling individual effort, beating Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson, then goaltender Tristan Jarry on a backhander.

Only 62 seconds later, the Penguins got their lone special teams goal, a short-handed score by forward Brandon Tanev, his fifth of the season.

A determined effort by Penguins forward Jake Guentzel made it a 2-2 contest at 7:22 of third. Fending off a check from the right corner of the offensive zone, Guentzel drove to the net and jammed in a forehand shot through goaltender Vitek Vanecek’s legs for his seventh score.

A power-play goal by Wilson, his seventh, at 12:40 of the third was the difference. He was able to score on a redirection from the slot thanks in part to Penguins defenseman Kris Letang losing his stick on the sequence.

“Obviously, (the forwards would) like to give him a stick in that situation,” said Tanev, one of the team’s top penalty killers. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and they capitalized on the situation.“

Empty net goals by ex-Penguins forward Carl Hagelin (his second at 18:38) and forward Lars Eller (his third at 19:08) secured victory.

Jarry took the loss after making 30 saves on 33 shots.

Meanwhile, his teammates will try to figure out how to get more shots on the power play.

“It’s not the work ethic,” Guentzel said. “It’s just, I think sometimes we’re looking to pass it into the net or making that extra pass instead of just throwing it on net and breaking down coverage and trying to get one that way.

“We’ve got to get back to work on it and start shooting the puck.”