Rivalry with Capitals serves as backdrop to Penguins’ 1st crack at Metropolitan foe
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When the Pittsburgh Penguins failed to make the playoffs last year, an abundant number of contributing factors hinted at why that was the case.
Inconsistent goaltending, an under-achieving power play and bottom six, the inability to protect leads, etc. — the club’s deficiencies were well-documented.
Also prominent on the shortlist of shortcomings was the Penguins’ poor showing against Metropolitan divisional foes.
Against the Devils, Hurricanes and Islanders, the Penguins largely were outclassed, going a combined 2-8-2.
The Penguins handled themselves well against Columbus (3-0-1), Philadelphia (3-0) and Washington (2-0-1) but struggled against the playoff-caliber clubs in their division.
Upon arriving in Pittsburgh on June 1, new president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas was quick to identify the need for the Penguins to be more competitive in-division.
“I think that the major focus, No. 1, is inside our division,” Dubas said at the time. “That’s the way I always looked at things. Rather than try to stack ourselves up against all 31 other teams, let’s focus on our division. Let’s focus on trying to win our division. We play the most games there.
“That’s what’s going to set our playoff seeding. We’ve got to be inside the top three to lock ourselves in, and our goal is going to be to win the division.”
Following their season-opening loss to Chicago on Tuesday, the Penguins travel to Washington in the Capitals’ first contest of 2023-24.
In addition to offering the Penguins their first opportunity to accumulate points in-division, facing the Capitals brings another element given the teams’ history during the Sidney Crosby/Alex Ovechkin eras.
“I think it’s always special against Washington,” defenseman Marcus Pettersson said. “My feeling ever since getting here is there’s some extra juice for those games. Rivalry game, division rivals — we have a lot of division rivals that are really good teams right now. I think just that in of itself is going to be really crucial to gain success this year against division rivals.”
Pettersson joined the Penguins in 2018-19, a season after the Capitals eliminated the Penguins in the second round of the playoffs en route to winning their first Stanley Cup title.
Intense postseason matchups between the Penguins and Capitals in 2009, ’16 and ’17 — all of which the Penguins won on the way to Stanley Cup titles — highlighted the rivalry between the clubs that was personified in the battles featuring Crosby and Ovechkin.
Head to head, Crosby has gone 38-23-4 against Ovechkin in the regular season and 13-12 against him in the postseason.
With his goal Tuesday against the Blackhawks, Crosby has 1,503 career points in 1,191 games played. Ovechkin begins the year with 1,485 points in 1,347 games.
“I think being able to play a game like this on the road in a rivalry, a team that we’ve had some history with dating back a while if you ask (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang) — I think that’s only going to help get us in the right mindset to play the game the right way and get going on the right track here,” forward Bryan Rust said.
Penguins coach Mike Sullivan must put together a winning plan that will get the Penguins to finish more of their chances, convert on the power play and shore things up defensively to prevent another collapse akin to the loss suffered against Chicago.
“We have to try to dictate the terms in which the game is being played,” Sullivan said. “When our team’s at its very best, we control territory, and I think that’s going to be an important aspect. We talk about that a lot with our group, whether it’s inside or outside our division. The most important thing is, we’ve got to try to play to our strengths.”