Capitals vs Penguins: A Rivalry worthy of Super Sunday

The Washington Capitals will be finally facing off with the Pittsburgh Penguins for the first time this season, nothing like starting their season series at the conclusion of the football season on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Washington Capitals bounced back after a sloppy loss to the Predators with a win against the Senators who they dominated earlier in the month, this game was much closer than anticipated with a 5-3 final.

While the Capitals are continuing to win there are issues which need to be addressed moving forward.

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The Capitals started the scoring versus the Senators on the back of their second line who is clicking over the last few games. First, Washington got a goal by TJ Oshie followed up by a deceptive goal by Evgeny Kuznetsov which no one other than Kuzy knew went in not until an overhead view revealed the pucks path. By all accounts it looked like the Washington Capitals were on their way to a repeat from earlier in the month where they won big 6-1.

Just as it appeared the Washington Capitals were rolling, one of their issues this season creeped into the party as they would allow another shorthanded goal to bring the game back closer than it should have been. This break for the Senators would only last a few minutes when Alex Ovechkin would tie Mark Messier for 8th place on the goal list with a patented snip from the circles. Again one of the Capitals problem areas popped in.

Approximately a minute later the Senators would take advantage of relaxed Washington Capitals defense with a score to bring it back to a one score game. This wouldn’t be the only occurance for this situation to play out, as the Capitals would again gain back their two goal lead on their own shorty on the stick of speedy Carl Hagelin from a nice Lars Eller feed.

But again would allow the Senators to score on a well set screen in front of Ilya Samsonov a little over a minute later. The Capitals pulled away late in the game though on a power play with an empty net by none other than their captain. With the two goal performance Ovechkin moved solely into 8th place moving Messier down to 9th all time.

For the Washington Capitals to make a deep playoff run they will need to address the slips in their team defense which constantly allows shorthanded goals and quick strike answering scores. Both of these tendencies will only apply unnecessary pressure on the team to play perfect at all other points in games.

Currently the Capitals are tied with the league lead in shorthanded goals allowed with 9, the other team being the last place Detroit Red Wings. They will get an opportunity to prove to the league and themselves they can turn around quickly and fix these issues with an old rivalry.

Next the Washington Capitals will be meeting the Pittsburgh Penguins on Super Bowl Sunday as a prelim for the NFL Championship. The NHL couldn’t have found a better time to have these two meet for the first time this year, as this is one of the longest running current rivalries in hockey that even the casual fan would love to watch.

Again the seemingly forever going match up between Ovechkin and Crosby will continue, as it should with both teams accounting for the top two slots in the Metropolitan division and both playing hot at the same time.

We all know the unforgettable playoff history for these two when facing each other, as the Washington Capitals didn’t break that curse until the second round of the Stanley Cup season in 2017-18. But even their regular season history plays out in the favor of the Penguins as they hold a 56.4% winning percentage against the Capitals. However, this could be different from just a few different bounces of the puck as the goal differential is only 17 goals in the Penguins favor over the course of 225 games played.

Next. Samsonov or Holtby, Capitals no. 1 goalie?. dark

Perhaps we can witness another meeting like the dueling hat trick affair from almost 11 years ago, all the pieces are falling in place for a game of this magnitude.

The #1 and #2 team in the division, responsible for 3 of the last 4 Stanley Cup winners, will meet with one captain flying up the record books while the other recently came back from a long injury layoff to put up a four point performance. The script is already written for the movie but what plot twist is in store, here is how to follow the blockbuster that is Capitals vs. Penguins:

Date: Sunday. February 2nd
Time: 12:30 pm EST
Where: Capital One Arena
TV Broadcast: NBC
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Caps Radio 24/7
Live Streaming: ESPN+ has a free 7-day trial that includes live streaming for this game on all your smart devices! Besides NHL games, ESPN+ features a selection of live games from MLB, MLS, Serie A, FA Cup, and EFL. Get in on the action with Live UFC Fight Nights, 30+ Top Rank Boxing cards, Grand Slam tennis from Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open.

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