Ovechkin, Crosby, the captains; Capitals, Penguins, the rivalry. It’s back. Need we say more? (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)Capitals 6, Penguins 3: What’s up, NHL scheduling computer? It’s kind of ridiculous that the Capitals had to wait eight months to get their first crack at their biggest rivals since last summer’s epic but painful playoff series. But that wait was over last night: in a game overflowing with sex appeal, the visiting Caps blew the doors off the Mellon Arena in the third period, scoring three unanswered to win 6-3, and pushing their regular season undefeated streak against the Pens to five games.
The obvious Ovechkin versus Crosby framework was one-sided — our favorite Russiangtonian tickled the twine with a wicked wrister, set up another score with a fantastic through-the-legs handle and move to the goal, iced the game with an empty-netter, and was as involved as ever; the Canadian was much less impressive, scoring a flukey goal and often drifting. But for all the totally justifiable hype brought on the matchup by the league’s two most prominent stars, the game itself was as potent an argument for people who haven’t been watching the Capitals this season to do so. Surely, newbies must have been impressed with Tomas Fleischmann’s play. Fleischmann scored the eventual game-winner on the break after Alex Semin’s beautiful saucer pass two and a half minutes into the third, set up Nicklas Backstrom’s goal but a minute later, and even executed a nice hit on Kris Letang. The Penguins may be the defending champs (bah — still feels gross to admit), but it’s really hard to not be excited by the Caps’ depth and puck-sharing — 11 of the 18 skaters who suited up for Washington had at least one point. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, only had five players register a goal or an assist. Washington was just the better team last night. Hey, even those just tuning in saw a somewhat competent performance from Jose Theodore, who faced double-digit shots in each period and rebounded from a very shaky start to put in an honest night’s shift.
The most exciting thing? Rewarding our four-month patience, the Caps and Pens will see each other three more times before the playoffs start, beginning with February 7th’s nationally-televised Game of the Week. Yup, that’s Super Bowl Sunday — but we’re more excited about the hockey game. Aren’t you?
