WASHINGTON -- Sidney Crosby was asked whether Simeon Varlamov's save on him late in the second period was the best ever.
"No," he said. "And I choose not to remember any of them. You have to forget about it."
Don't look now …
An obvious area of concern if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins? Look no further than the power play -- and we use that term loosely. The Pens were 0-for-5 with the man advantage in Game 1 and have not scored a power-play goal since late in the third game of the opening round.
The Caps were 1-for-2 on the day, scoring on a 5-on-3, but it's safe to say that unless the Pens can make the Capitals pay for any lack of discipline by scoring the odd power-play goal, their chances of advancing go down dramatically.
The Caps, meanwhile, have been dominant on the penalty kill. They have not yielded a power-play marker at home since Game 1 of the first round and have killed off 32-of-36 opportunities in the playoffs.
Line changes
Interesting lineup decision by Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma to go back to struggling veteran winger Petr Sykora in favor of Miroslav Satan. Sykora was a healthy scratch for the final two games of the first round against Philadelphia, but was back in the lineup for Game 1 against Washington. He started playing on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Ruslan Fedotenko. Sykora has two goals in his last 21 contests. Sykora finished with one shot on net.
Line stays the same
Another positive for the Capitals coming out of Game 1 was the continued strong play of the Brooks Laich-David Steckel-Matt Bradley trio. They were put together before Game 5 of the Caps' first-round series against the New York Rangers when the Caps were trailing 3-1 and helped turn that series around. Saturday, it was Steckel's goal that evened the score at 1 and helped erase a poor start for the Capitals.
Check out what NHL writers Scott Burnside, E.J. Hradek and Pierre LeBrun and other members of ESPN.com's team have to say as they cover the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs. They'll be checking in from various sites all the way through the Cup finals.
ESPN.com Stanley Cup playoffs blog
