Capitals lead, but Penguins like what they see after Game 1

By Mike Prisuta, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Sunday, May 3, 2009

WASHINGTON - MAY 02: Shaone Morrisonn battles in the crease with Sidney Crosby during Game One of the Eastern Conference Semifinal Round of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 2, 2009 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. (Photo by Len Redkoles/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, D.C — Round 1 went to Simeon Varlamov.

Round 1 went to Tomas Fleischmann and David Steckel.

Round 1 went to you know who — Alex Ovechkin.

Except that, following the Washington Capitals' 3-2 victory over the Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Saturday afternoon at Verizon Center, Sidney Crosby was neither gritting his teeth in anger nor clenching his fists in frustration, like he was when all that room service arrived that he hadn't ordered.

Varlamov, which apparently translates from Russian into "Ken Dryden" or "Frank Pietrangelo," made a miraculous, spectacular, unconscionable save on Crosby, and the Caps ultimately won the game.

But Crosby had his chances, as did the rest of the Pens.

"Thirty-six shots on net is pretty good," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said.

The Penguins would have had even more had they not failed repeatedly to get pucks on Varlamov when open looks presented themselves, similar to the first period against Martin Biron in Game 6 against Philadelphia.

This time, the problem wasn't rectified as rapidly or as satisfactorily.

You'll have that.

Crosby finished with six of the 36 shots, including one a mere seven seconds after the drop of the puck. Ovechkin countered with nine of Washington's 26.

Both were brilliant.

Each scored a goal and could easily have had another — Ovechkin blasted a post to Marc-Andre Fleury's right; Crosby got Varlamov-ed. Each also back-checked and took the body.

But Ovechkin's goal came while Washington was skating with a 5-on-3 advantage.

Assuming the Penguins can avoid similar subsequent predicaments, they have to like the way the matchups unfolded on the road.

Crosby initially saw a lot of the Nicklas Backstrom-Fleischmann-Alexander Semin line and, eventually, played significant shifts against the Steckel-Brooks Laich-Matt Bradley threesome. The Caps also seemed to prefer to get the defense pairing of Shaone Morrisonn and Mike Green on the ice against Crosby, Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz.

Ovechkin's line, a Red Army conglomerate that included Sergei Fedorov and Viktor Kozlov, played a lot against Jordan Staal, Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy and against defensemen Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi.

The Penguins wound up with 10 more shots on goal and a decided advantage in scoring chances, when you factor in all the missed opportunities. They won 53 percent of the faceoffs and committed 16 fewer turnovers; the Caps had a ghastly 22.

The Penguins also generated three more power-play opportunities than did the Caps.

That's less of an advantage given that the power play is now 0-for-Three-Cities since Game 3 of the Flyers series, but it's still a significant development in Crosby's estimation.

"We used our speed and created some good opportunities," he said. "And when you draw penalties, you keep some of their best players off the ice.

"Our discipline was there."

Yes, they're down one game to none.

But they've emerged comfortable with the potential matchups in this series, if they weren't already.

"It's comfortable having Jordan Staal," Bylsma said. "At times. I think our team's harder to deal with. given the three centermen we have and the three lines we have."

No matter which team happened to come out on top in the opener.