Aside from not trying quite hard enough, forgetting to use their superior size to impose their will and allowing the pretty-skating Pittsburgh Penguins to dictate the strategic style of play in their series, the Washington Capitals are doing just dandy so far.
If they keep at it, they can be on vacation in two weeks or less.
It doesn’t have to be this way. But it is so far.
This series, which may turn out to be the de facto Stanley Cup finals, is tied 1-1 in games. But at least Capitals Coach Barry Trotz never kids himself. “We have to be better. Waybetter,” he said after a 2-1 loss in Game 2 Saturday night in which the Caps had five shots in the first 34 minutes.
“We were getting embarrassed out there,” said veteran forward Justin Williams, one of the embarrass-ees.
In the third period, the Caps awoke — oh, joy — a frequent sight in the second half of their runaway 120-point season when they often spotted their foes the first goal and set their alarm clocks for the intermission after the first period; except for the nights, like Saturday, when their bell didn’t sound until they started fussing at each other to get to work after the second period.
You would think that a realistic hope of winning the first Stanley Cup in Washington history, and erasing 30-plus years of spring playoff ignominies, would focus the mind wonderfully. But it hasn’t.
Over and over, all season, Trotz has praised the Caps for their variety of talents, their combination of size, speed, skills and muscle, their ability to play any style game — that is, if they are willing to buckle down and do it. The team’s roster was rebuilt with this flexibility in mind, because the four rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs almost always demand an adjustment from round to round.
Sometimes, you have to go thuggish against the thugs, as in the Caps’ six-game win over Philadelphia. But sometimes, and that time is now, you have to realize that, while you’re deft and fast, you’re not quite as nimble and swift as the Penguins. But you are much, much bigger. To illustrate, Pittsburgh has only two players within 32 pounds of Alex Ovechkin’s 239. The Caps have 11 players over 208 pounds. The Penguins have three. Let that sink in.
So, here’s a tattoo suggestion for an off-day: Dump and Chase. Or, as Karl Alzner put it, “Chip and hit.”
“You have to play the game that is given to you,” Trotz said after Saturday’s loss with a familiar exasperation in his voice. Because he has so many gifted skill players and realizes he needs to give them creative latitude especially in the more wide-open regular season, Trotz picks his spots to say, “Keep it simple.” For years he had no choice in Nashville. Dump, chase and hit.
But sometimes, and especially against these hot Penguins, who have won 19 of their past 23 games, you have to think “simple” first — forecheck, bodies in the crease, get gritty — and keep the tempting idea of “gorgeous play” in the back of your mind for the moment when it appears.
“We skate into a hornets’ nest at the blue line,” Trotz said. “There’s no play at the blue line, but we try to make one. They poke it away, and then you’re on the backside of people.”
The result? The Caps try to “go East-West” with cross-rink passes at full speed, but the Penguins end up “going North” toward the Caps’ goal after they deflect or intercept. That’s how the Caps could get outshot by a mind-numbing 22-5 with 5 minutes 12 seconds left in the second period.
“Five shots in [almost] two periods?” Alzner asked incredulously.
Nicklas Backstrom shook his head: “And they only had five defensemen” after Olli Maatta was injured by a Brooks Orpik hit to the head which probably will, and probably should, result in a suspension. Shorthanded, the Penguins played multi-skilled Kris Letang for 35:22, 8:35 more than any other player. Yet the Caps waited to make those defensemen retreat behind their own goal, facing the glass as large Caps bore down on them to smash and muck the puck away.
How did the Caps dominate play in the third period? You guessed it. “We got simple. Without a doubt, that’s why,” Alzner said. “Get the puck in deep. Finish checks. Cycle
“The key to winning [in the playoffs] is the team that wears you down over time. Leave a mark on a team. Make them pay the price. We haven’t done that enough or we’ve tried to do it too cautiously. It’s a simple game. Get it, throw it in deep. Then show some good sacrifice.”
Even that style isn’t as simple as it sounds. “We need to drop it in smarter, not right to their player,” Backstrom said. Maybe the Penguins have studied those Caps tendencies, too.
The Caps are enormously likeable, until they are suddenly frustrating. But that’s a natural byproduct of having such a range of talents, like their leading scorer Evgeny Kuznetsov, raised in the big-ice Russian style where “you dump the puck in once and you are benched.”
Many will wonder how the Caps, to a man, thought that the Penguins showed more energy. “They came in desperately,” Williams said. “We didn’t answer until the third period. Too late.”
“That’s what you see in the playoffs a lot,” Trotz said, referring to a team facing a potential two-game deficit. “They were more desperate on the battle. Maybe only five or 10 percent more. But it’s a big number when it goes right through the lineup” on every contested puck. And there are hundreds.
The Caps better not wait until they face a possible two-game deficit to get desperate. Immediately, in Game 3 in Pitsburgh on Monday, would be much wiser. “We need more inspiration, a little passion next game,” Backstrom said.
Playoff series, in every sport, evolve as they go. On the surface, this one’s even and could be long and thrilling. “They’ll own a period, we’ll own a period,” Trotz said. “We can be better.”
But right now, the Penguins seem calm. They got the split they needed in D.C. They reestablished the momentum of their 19-4 run since March 8. The Caps reminded everyone of their inability to find the “On” button since that date – 12-12. And the Penguins have managed it despite an invisible star in Sidney Crosby. Where is he? About to reappear?
“Listen,” Penguins Coach Mike Sullivan said, “these are two really good hockey teams going at each other.”
Listen, one of them better start playing harder sooner. And, remember, the first rule of writing and the first rule of playoff hockey are often the same: Keep it simple, stupid.