Posted by Scott Burnside
PITTSBURGH -- Guess the Pittsburgh Penguins are taking a page from the Washington Capitals' playoff book: play lousy to start and hope things turn out OK at the end.
Wacky start, to be sure. For some reason, Marc-Andre Fleury released his stick behind the net and then stumbled awkwardly as a Mike Green dump-in shot caromed off the end boards, past the fumbling goalie and out to Alex Ovechkin, who -- now this was a shocker -- drove the puck past two bewildered Penguins defensemen and Fleury.
Ugly.
And how about Ovechkin, always in the right spot, with his eighth of the postseason and fourth in the last four periods of play? That was his only shot in the period, a moral victory for the Pens.
Thought the Penguins looked collectively like a bag of toys for most of the first period, missing passes and unable to generate any offensive pressure around rookie netminder Simeon Varlamov.
The Caps did have a couple of decent chances on their lone power play of the first and Fleury bounced back and looked sharp after his "mishap" on the goal.
As the period moved along, though, I thought the Penguins started to turn it up a bit. Evgeni Malkin, the subject of much debate since the series started, made a couple of nice plays, once racing ahead of the Caps' defenders to move in alone. But he was bothered by rookie Tyler Sloan, playing in just his second playoff game, and Varlamov made a nice pad save.
Sidney Crosby made a great move to break in late in the period, but couldn't get the shot on goal. The Pens drew a penalty on that rush, though, as Milan Jurcina pushed the net off its moorings; that power play will carry into the second period.
Best chance for the Pens might have been on the power play, when Crosby fed Chris Kunitz at the left faceoff dot; instead of shooting right away, Kunitz waited and his shot deflected off Jurcina's stick. Talk about snake-bit.
Interesting lineup decisions again by Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma, who has once again yanked Petr Sykora and inserted Miroslav Satan, who actually had a couple of decent chances. Kris Letang is in the lineup even though he looked pretty banged up at the end of Game 2 and had a chance near the end of the period, too.
John Erskine is still out for the Caps, which explains why Sloan is in. Eric Fehr is out and Michael Nylander is in. The big center with the big contract took an offensive-zone penalty in the first, which won't make Caps coach Bruce Boudreau very happy.
ESPN.com Stanley Cup playoffs blog
