After getting embarrassed by the Senators last night, the Penguins put forth a much better effort against the Capitals.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the effort amounted to nothing more than a sixth straight loss as the Penguins fell 1-0 to drop out of playoff contention.<\/p>\n
Jason Chimera scored the lone goal of the game on a breakaway when he took a pass from Joel Ward and beat Marc-Andre Fleury stick side.\u00a0 The play started with Evgeni Malkin losing the puck in the offensive zone.\u00a0 Paul Martin had cheated down the boards, expecting a pass from Malkin, and left defensive partner Zybnek Michalek to fend off a 2 on 1.\u00a0 Michalek did not realize Martin was trapped, and went after Joel Ward along the boards.\u00a0 Ward fed Chimera who cut up the center of the ice alone and scored his 14th goal of the season.<\/p>\n
The Penguins tried to counter in the second period, controlling most of the play and out shooting Washington 11-6, however, very few of the shots led to effective scoring chances.\u00a0 Eric Tangradi was able to power his way to the front of the net but free agent acquisition, Tomas Vokoun, stuffed him.<\/p>\n
The third period featured a barrage of chances from both sides.\u00a0 The Capitals, led by captain Alex Ovechkin, came out firing at Fleury.\u00a0 Alexander Semin missed two wide open chances to score and Fleury made a few excellent saves to keep the deficit at one.\u00a0 The Penguins, as they have in the midst of this losing streak, failed to score on the limited chances they were given.\u00a0 Dustin Jeffrey, returning to action after a setback to his ailing knee, had a small window to stuff in a rebound.\u00a0 Instead, the puck grazed off the post and went across the crease and,eventually, out of harm’s way.\u00a0 In the dying minutes of the game, the Penguins had a few chances to squeak out a goal.\u00a0 But, Vokoun shut the door and when the clock hit zero, the Penguins were replaced by the Capitals for eighth in the conference.<\/p>\n
The lack of offense has been nothing new to Pittsburgh who has scored just six goals in their last six games while surrendering nineteen goals in the process.\u00a0 At the same time, it is hard to score when Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Jordan Staal are all missing from the lineup.<\/p>\n
The Penguins did get a small bit of good news when Sidney Crosby decided to make the two game road trip with the team.\u00a0 Dan Bylsma announced that Crosby would be practicing on his own and would eventually hold a press conference to address the media.\u00a0 While there is still no timetable for Crosby’s return, the fact that he is skating again is encouraging that he could return this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After getting embarrassed by the Senators last night, the Penguins put forth a much better effort against the Capitals.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the effort amounted to nothing more than a sixth straight loss as the Penguins fell 1-0 to drop out of playoff contention. Jason Chimera scored the lone goal of the game on a breakaway when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-professional"],"yoast_head":"\n