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Statement Win for the Penguins vs the Capitals


hf101

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It seems every year there is a Statement game that turns the tide on the Penguins season and months from now I believe this game will be it.  Wilson and Ovechkin provided the fuel and the Pens played one of the best total team efforts in a game that I have watched this season.  Wilson sparked it all with TKO against Oleksiak who dropped his gloves, but I'd have liked for Wilson to have gotten an instigator on the play.  This all prompted some conversation between Crosby and Ovechkin.

 

Oleksiak didn't return to the game which forced the Penguins to play 5-defensemen with Letang playing over 30 min in regulation.  There were some key defensive plays including a remarkable play by Petterson, great goaltending and a bit of luck in this one which sent Ovie to the locker room with a shredded stick and a 2-1 loss.    

 

This game was probably the best entertaining game I've watched all season.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Well, as always, given the rosters involved and the divisional opponent status, these games between Pitts and Wash are always big deals and a win for either side can always be considered significant.

A very emotionally charged game (for various reasons) the Pens walking away with the W solidified their charge back to the top of the division, though I don't know if I would call this one particular game, as big a deal as it is, necessarily THE statement game.

The Pens had been floundering most of the season so far in the middle, and most recently at the bottom of the Metro division, but their charge started some time back with huge wins over Columbus, Winnipeg, and the team with possibly the single best line in hockey, the Colorado Avalanche.

Obviously, beating the Caps is huge for them as they zero in on the top of the division (and the Caps who occupy that spot), but Pens beating the Caps? Cmon...that is OLD news...been going on for YEARS! :biggrin:

Anyways, for as much as people try to discount the Penguins, and indeed, when they are going bad it is easy to do so, I've learned a while back that as long as they can still ice the roster that they do, they are never out of things.
On top of that, the Metro is far from a "lock-down" division (as evidenced by the constant juggling of teams and their positions), so any team with any sort of reasonable run has a shot at the top.

 

Big, big win at any rate.....but pre-season, I had the Pens, Caps, and Jackets at the top of this division and I stand by that.
Jackets shouldn't be going away anytime soon, the Caps are the champs so they will hang around, and now, finally, here come the Pens.

Time for teams like the Islanders, Rangers, and MAYBE the Hurricanes to just start thinking about wild card spots and fending each other off and whatever teams aren't in the top three in their sister Atlantic division.

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It seems like a pattern with the Pens the past few years to come out of the gate really slow. Then come the turn of the year they seem to turn it on.  Not something that I like seeing from a so called contending team.  

 

 

Be that as it may, that was quite the game last night.  Great coudos to Marcus Petterson for the clear off the line.

 

 

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