Stanley Cup Playoffs: Washington Capitals vs. Pittsburgh Penguins 2nd Round Preview

Preview of the Washington Capitals vs, Pittsburgh Penguins Round 2 Stanley Cup Playoffs match-up. This match-up is much more than Ovechkin vs. Crosby as most of the media hype seems to suggest.

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Sports

Tags:

• hockey
• nhl
• stanley cup
• washington
• capitals
• pittsburgh
• penguins
• ovechkin
• crosby
• malkin
• semin
• playoffs
• preview
• match-up
• matchup
• varlamov
• ice hockey
• puck
• analysis

[SteveDangle]

It's living up to the hype right now! Realluy in-depth, dude. I feel like Sid is the best Penguin these playoffs, but then again, hindsight is 20/20.

[ruff3651]

I wanna say its Billy Guerin. He isnt showing up on in the box score as much as he is used to but he is playing very gritty hockey.

Games 3 and 4 (and parts of game 5) the Penguins were really able to hold onto the puck because of board play from Guerin and Jordan Staal. When OV doesnt have the puck, he cant score.

The Pens are just winning more of the little battles that make up a hockey game.

Okay OV probably could find a way to score without the puck anyway.

[PuckSensei]

Guerin has been great, but to say that he's been the best Penguin in these playoffs is pretty darn redunkulous, IMO.

[PuckSensei]

My 20/20 hindsight is telling me that the title of the best player in the playoffs has swung back to Malkin now.

Will be interesting to see if the Wings can shut him down again, like they did last year.

[PuckSensei]

To follow up, it's the same old BS. When a Euro player struggles those who are biased against Euros come out with this bologna. You don't hear the same when a North American player tanks in the playoffs. The particular player may take a lot of grief, but you don't here these idiotic generalizations. I find this rather annoying.

Another example for you (and I know he's not Canadian, but still a North American)... Eric Cole has scored exactly ZERO goals in his last 30 playoff games. 30!

[PuckSensei]

What says you now? Malkin has been incredible lately and has played at a level few have ever achieved.

The whole Canadian players bring a higher level of commitment to the playoffs malarkey is getting really old. It's simply not true because I can cite tons of examples to the contrary, both in terms of Euro players performing great (just look at the most Euro team in the NHL, Detroit) and of Canadian players underperforming. For example, Eric Staal who was great up until the last series.

[shmelty33]

i agree

SteveDangle

[shmelty33]

yes during the season malkin was better point wise. but during the playoffs(when it counts)

sydney crosby is getting the job done.

Canadian players bring a higher level of performance in the playoffs then any other country. i make an exception for alex thegr8 hes is the greatest player in the nhl. and i hope i can come close to the level of play that he creates when i play the show.

[PuckSensei]

I disagree a bit. The Caps played only 1 bad game vs. Rangers and it was game 7, which they ended up winning. They dominated the Rangers in the first 4 games and were down 1-3 only due to Lundqvist standing on his head.

Incidentally, so far in this series I believe that the Caps have been outplayed in all 4 games and are at 2-2 only thanks to Varly. This goes especially for game 3 when they were just horrible. If Theo was in net Pitt could have easily scored 8 or 9 in that one.

[PuckSensei]

You're right. I thought about that after. Here are my predictions for all the series that I made before round 2 started:

Caps over Pitt in 7, Det over Ana in 7, Chi over Van in 7, Bos over Car in 7.