Washington Capitals must show discipline in Game 4

The Washington Capitals must be disciplined and focus on winning in Game 4.

The Washington Capitals could be feeling the aftermath of Game 3’s overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4. This could be either a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, the Capitals have a lot of confidence right now and they’ll be facing a depleted (but still quite dangerous) Penguins team. Even the most passionate Pittsburgh fan must admit both of these favor the Caps.

However, there will be a lot of bad blood in Game 4. The Penguins got a bit chippy in Game 3 after Matt Niskanen’s hit to Sidney Crosby, which gave their captain a concussion. And understandably so, no one likes seeing their captain go down with an injury.

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This could carry over into Game 4. Expect to see the Penguins go after Alex Ovechkin (who slashed Crosby during the play in question), Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov. Caps fans have seen Pittsburgh play a physical game before and know full well they’re capable of playing dirty. The Penguins have to be pretty motivated to win for their captain and retaliate both on the ice and on the scoreboard.

However, the Capitals need to be the bigger team because their objective is solely to win. They will surely face a lot of pressure and probably some questionable at best (perhaps even illegal) hits. Washington fell into this trap a bit against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Luckily, they didn’t make the Washington Capitals pay. But the Penguins are dangerous enough even without Crosby to make them pay.

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Game 4 will be a pivotal game in the second round. If the Capitals can play a composed and focused, yet intense, game, they should be able to come out on top and send the series back to Washington with the series split at two games each.

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