With Gonchar, Ovechkin could clearly be seen re-enacting the knee-on-knee hit and trying to explain something to Gonchar, who missed Games 5 and 6 with a knee injury because of the Game 4 incident. Ovechkin later told reporters he was telling Gonchar he thought he couldn't avoid the hit on that play.
"I just tell him I don't want to hit him and I just said sorry," Ovechkin said. "I just explained to him what happened. We have good relations. I don't want to hit guys to get them injured."
Gonchar didn't want to make a big deal of it.
"We talked about it for a moment," the Pens veteran said. "He just said there was no chance he was able to avoid the hit."
When asked if all was well between the two Russian players, Gonchar said: "Why do you guys try to make up a story?"
Capitals injuries
Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said after the game that defenseman Mike Green and superstar winger Alex Ovechkin both played through injuries.
"Yep," Boudreau said when asked about Green being hurt. "But I'm not going to get into injury details tonight because that makes it look like a real excuse on why he played so bad. I don't want to use that as an excuse."
Ovechkin was pretty darn good despite a groin injury.
"He got 14 points in seven games playing against their best defensive players all the time," Boudreau said. "His play was what it was, magnificent. And he's another one that, if this was the regular season, wouldn't be playing. If you want to know how good he is, that's how good he is."
A brutal start
A 4-0 deficit early in the second period isn't even close to the way the Capitals had pictured Game 7.
"It certainly wasn't the way that I would have envisioned it or scripted it, whether we won or lost," Boudreau said. "I never would have thought that it would have ended up in a game like it was tonight."
The Caps players were also at a loss to explain it.
"I've never really seen anything like this, and I've never been a part of anything like this," said Caps blueliner Brian Pothier. "Every time we touched the puck, it seemed to explode. Every time they touched it, it was a goal. You have these nights during the regular season, but I've never experienced it in a Game 7 in such an emotional playoff series. …
"It's hard to put into words the performance tonight. I don't think it's because we weren't trying. Nerves? Overanxious? I'm not sure how you label it. But it definitely wasn't what we wanted."
Washington defenseman Tom Poti pointed to a Game 7 win in the first round and last season's Game 7 loss to Philadelphia as the kind of experience that should have prepared them for this.
So, why so flat?
"I don't know," Poti said. "We've been here before; we've had experience in this situation. There's no way to describe it. There's no excuses."
One big save
Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said Marc-Andre Fleury's brilliant breakaway save on Ovechkin early in the first period was huge.
"If that goes in, who knows where the game goes?" Orpik said. "It's kind of funny you bring that up. I was thinking myself right after, maybe that is the turning point in the game and it's three minutes in. But it's definitely something you look back on. It kind of seemed like after that, we really dictated the play."
Varly's fine
Don't throw rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov under the bus for this one. The kid's the real deal.
"He showed us that he's going to be a great goalie for a long time," Poti said. "He played unbelievable; he's the reason we got to this point and why we won the first series. He's an amazing goalie, an amazing young kid, and we're excited to have him on our side."
Boudreau yanked him after the fourth goal Wednesday night to save him.
"I thought with Simeon, after the third goal, I was thinking of pulling him because he looked very dejected. Maybe I should have called a timeout at that point," Boudreau said. "But after the fourth goal, the wind completely came out of his sails emotionally. He's been holding us and done so much since he took over in Game 2 [of the playoffs] and I just thought it poured out of him, so that's why I made the change then. I wish I had done it maybe one goal sooner."
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
