Decent Start Goes Pfft, Penguins Defense Dissolves in Humbling 8-3 Loss to Caps
In their first game following the 4 Nations Face-Off, our Pittsburgh Penguins played a strong, dare I say dominating at times, opening 20 minutes.
After gifting an early goal to Capitals rookie Ethan Frank on a team kerfuffle, the Pens tied it late in the first period on a power-play goal by Kris Letang, thanks to a terrific play off the wall and feed by Evgeni Malkin.
The Caps retook the lead early in the second on a goal off the rush by defenseman Martin Fehervary, but the Pens knotted the score again on a vintage backhander through the wickets by Sidney Crosby.
Then, to bend the lyrics of the old Chicago hit, Lowdown, “the hockey team I was rooting for fell apart and died.”
Taking full advantage of what I’ll politely term defensive lapses, Caps d-man Jakob Chychrun scored twice within a four-minute span. When hulking Aliaksei Protas struck eight seconds later off the rush, Mike Sullivan pulled harried starter Alex Nedeljkovic in favor of Joel Blomqvist.