Pregame
A trio of NHL season debuts for the Penguins tonight as Danton Heinen, Ryan Graves and Joona Koppanen all get into their first game. Arturs Silovs maintains his part of playing every-other-game this season so far
by getting the nod in net.
The visiting Washington Capitals have the following lineup
First period
Washington takes the first penalty 1:05 into the game, the Penguins take advantage with a goal. Ben Kindel makes one heck of a cross-ice pass for his first NHL assist with Sidney Crosby on the receiving end. 1-0 Pens early.
In between Bryan Rust hitting the post a couple of times, Washington takes another penalty and in a bit of deja vu all over again, Crosby scores on them. This time from right in front after goalie Charlie Lindgren can’t cleanly snag an Erik Karlsson point shot. 2-0 good guys.
With penalties 2-0 and the score 2-0 on power play goals, surprise surprise the refs find a way to send Washington to the power play not long after, Blake Lizotte being on the receiving end of a weak call. The Pittsburgh penalty kill holds.
Then Lizotte gets out of the box, falls and hangs onto a Capitals’ stick and earns a makeup call. Refs just giving out the penalties tonight.
Shots go 16-7 PIT. Great first period, Caps looked drained from playing the night before, Pittsburgh was all gas and converted on two of their power play opportunities.
Second period
Washington starts out the period with five shots in a row and some pressure from their first line, the Pens survive. Then, gasp, Ryan Graves holds a puck inside the blue line and gets it down low. Tommy Novak sends a shot in, Lindgren drops the rebound like a vending machine spitting out change. Anthony Mantha’s right on the doorstep to tap it home. Tonight isn’t going to make Lindgren’s highlight reel. 3-0 Penguins.
Immediately after that, Mantha takes a high stick to the chops and Pittsburgh gets yet another power play. It’s unimpressive.
The Caps get on the board, they pull a puck off the wall and get it down low. Dylan Strome makes a great shoulder fake to help open Arturs Silovs up and then comes back against the grain with a great top corner, short-side shot. 3-1.
The Caps put the puck in the net again, Ryan Leonard in the backhand. The Pens don’t like it and challenge for off-sides. The broadcast can’t tell if the might have been off on entry, or when the puck might have come out of the zone and bounced back in off Tommy Novak’s skate. The refs find enough to agree, goal doesn’t stand.
But Washington comes right back and scores an undeniable goal anyways. 3-2 for sure this time, courtesy of Rasmus Sandin off a pass from Strome.
Crosby almost gets his hat trick but Erik Karlsson’s shot pass isn’t on target. At the other end a bit later, Alex Ovechkin nearly scores from in front.
Kindel hasn’t done much wrong this season but has a rookie moment by attempting a soft pass up the middle of the ice when he had other options. The Caps step in front, keep pushing and Tom Wilson knocks home a goal with only 3.6 seconds to play. Washington ties the game.
Well, that turned around, the Caps flip the script and outshoot the Pens 16-7 in the second and outscore them 3-0 to erase a 3-0 lead. Whatever was said in the Washington lockerroom during the first intermission worked.
Third period
Connor Clifton takes a penalty early on, Connor Dewar goes the other way on the PK but his stick breaks on the shot attempt. The crowd comes to life with outrage, not exactly warranted but nice to see. Dewar gets another chance and hits the post. Place would have exploded if he finished that one. Pittsburgh has to settle for killing the penalty.
They go right back to the power play when Kindel clears the puck over the glass in his own end. Strome gets too aggressive with a crosscheck to negate it. When it cycles through to the Pens’ brief power play, they strike. Karlsson turns the puck over but wins it. Malkin seams a pass down low and Bryan Rust chips it up and in. 4-3 Pittsburgh with 8:44 to go in regulation.
Washington lifts Lindgren for an extra attacker, he barely gets to the bench before Dewar sends in a long-range empty net goal. 5-3.
Some thoughts
- Considering the Caps: played last night in DC, traveled, presumably celebrated Alex Ovechkin’s 900th goal along the way, had a backup goalie in net…Everything pointed to what they call a ‘schedule loss’ with all the factors against.
- Then again, anyone with more than one career PIT/WSH game had to have known one team jumping out to a big lead early was NOT going to be bound to coast on to a straight forward win. That’s not how it usually goes in this rivalry.
- Is a 3-0 lead the new worst lead in hockey? The Pens blew it against Toronto in their last game, darn near had it happen tonight where they squandered it away before recovering in the third period. In a bizarre twist, Pittsburgh had a power play while up 3-0 in both games. Obviously teams can’t score on every power play each time but situationally that’s where you look back and wonder what could have been. On both nights the Pens also had a power play when it was 3-3. They didn’t score against Toronto and lost. They scored tonight in that situation and won.
- Speaking of that, big stick taps for the Pittsburgh PK. 3/3 tonight, and came up massive in the third period when the team took two penalties in about a five minute stretch. Massive turning point there to hold strong, and even draw a penalty while on the PK that led to the skill players getting out there and finding the eventual GWG. Excellent complimentary hockey from the different levels of the team, particularly Connor Dewar who was playing inspired.
- That third period was certainly some sort of litmus test for Pittsburgh. Time will tell how crucial it may end up becoming. If anything, the win helps the wheels from falling off — had the team blown 3-0 leads in two straight games that could be the start of a clear spiral and potentially very bad news for having to absorb multiple losses like that. Has to be some level of a positive that they were able to dig deep and come through, time will tell if this is some launching point for future success, if anything in the moment it feels like a relief to avoid potential disaster.
- I know the Pens’ brass likes Joona Koppanen because he’s big and can be used on the PK and as a center or wing, but man it would be nicer if they didn’t. And I get Avery Hayes is hurt and maybe you don’t want to bring Tristan Broz up for a very short, injury-created cameo when you only need a guy for a few days but there’s gotta be a more inspiring option than Koppanen. He’s not bad but he’s not anything besides there.
- Similarly it’s funny how Danton Heinen in the AHL in October was the leading scorer, back in the NHL tonight and is hardly noticeable.
- That said, the third member of the debuts, Ryan Graves — well brace yourself folks — was…good? Well, better than past versions anyways. Not a brand new player, still limited in ways but was making good decisions and able to make some good plays. Not meant to be faint praise and he won’t get his career turned around in the snap of the finger just thought it was a positive step to see some decent play out of him. If he can upgrade his level from disastrous to somewhat passable that would be a nice development.
- It wasn’t a pure line matching situation, but Dan Muse sure was comfortable playing his fourth line against the first line tonight. Some of that was good enough reason, Lizotte and especially Dewar had excellent games, though it’s difficult to overlook the skill differential on ice when the opponent has their top players thinking offense against fourth liners. It happened early in the second, even after Silovs froze the puck the Pens chose to let those players remain for a d-zone draw. They got away with it in that instance for not giving up a goal but you could also point to that strong WSH shift as starting the whole snowball of momentum against Pittsburgh that developed quickly over that period. Maybe Muse would do it all again the same if he had the chance, maybe it’s going to be in his own coaching evolution to change as he gains experience from situations like that.
- We saw some growing pains in real time tonight for Kindel in terms of his giveaway on the game-tying goal and then the mostly bad fortune of putting the puck over the glass, off-set by his beautiful pass play and overall good work lifting sticks and playing good hockey. Once in the third, Kindel extended his shift to keep the forecheck going as the vets peeled off for a line change and was able to help Malkin create a turnover in the offensive zone. Kindel’s game is so mature it’s the little things like he’s seemingly always doing that are making positive differences too. He got to over 20 minutes in ice time tonight (aided by 6 on the power play) and made the most of it. A few tough moments along the way, as is life for an 18-year old rookie in a prime spot in this league, but more tangible growth and success to go with it. The team’s winning games and obviously that helps a lot but it’s a joy to see a quality player like this start putting the pieces together and continue to get better right before our very eyes and in a clear way.
- Crosby did an Ovechkin tribute like a band playing another’s hits: 2 goals and 6 SOG on the night. Ovechkin return the favor with 2 assists on a Crosby impression.
Well, Pens/Caps games seemingly always deliver the drama and intensity over the years and that didn’t change a bit for their first meeting in 2025-26. Pittsburgh will gladly bank the win and start getting ready for a busy Saturday/Sunday of afternoon games coming up.
