Yes, earlier this week the Caps blew out the Vancouver Canucks by a score of five to one. Yes, they set a team record by only allowing their opponent to take ten shots in that game. But that doesn’t mean the Caps are a great team this year, because, as the Vancouver Sun reports, the Vancouver Canucks “weren’t, obviously, ready.”

No. The real test of greatness for the Washington Capitals will be, as it has been since 2005: can Alex Ovechkin’s Capitals beat Sidney Crosby’s Penguins? Last night both Ovechkin and Crosby were upstaged early by Evgenei Malkin, who scored three points as the Penguins took an early 3-0 lead in Pittsburgh.

Ovechkin responded by hitting Malkin with five clean, legal, crushing bodychecks. Crosby tried to join in the toughness by hitting Alexander Semin in the face with his hockey stick, but Semin responded and Pittsburgh defenseman Hal Gill had to take a penalty to defend the superstar.

Then the Caps scored four straight goals and beat the Penguins for the second time since Crosby and Ovechkin joined the league. It was the first Caps victory for which Crosby was healthy. This is not the Stanley Cup, and it doesn’t prove that this Caps team will be immortalized, but the Caps have upped their Pittsburgh record to 2-10-1 in the Crosby-Ovechkin era, and this is cause for at least mild relief, if not a little bit of outright celebration.