NHL postseason Round 2 quick hits: Capitals vs. Penguins

Vitals
Pittsburgh: 48-26-8 regular season, 4-1-0 in five games played in Round 1
Washington: 56-18-8 regular season, 4-2-0 in six games played in Round 1

Season Series
Pittsburgh took three of five contests during the 2015-2016 campaign, including a 4-3 overtime victory at the Verizon Center on April 7.

Playoff History
The most recent postseason meeting between these teams was in 2009, which the Penguins won in seven games en route to winning the Stanley Cup.

Looking at the Round 2 Matchup
While advertisements for the series don’t necessarily elude to it, there is more to this matchup than the “Sid versus Ovi” story line. Although to be fair, the excitement surrounding the playoff rematch between the two is definitely warranted, especially when remembering that both players notched hat tricks in the ’09 series.

Looking at the current teams, both have depth up front and reliable corps on their respective blue lines — even though Washington’s Brooks Orpik missed the later part of Round 1 with an injury and is questionable for Round 2 play. The biggest difference in the matchup is what each squad has between the pipes. The Pens will probably continue putting the workload on Matt Murray with Marc-Andre Fleury still dealing with concussion symptoms, while the Caps continue to have consistently stellar performances from Braden Holtby.

Special teams could be the determining factor in who takes this highly anticipated series. As NHL.com points out, both teams were strong on the penalty kill in Round 1, with Pittsburgh killing 89.5 percent of penalties and Washington killing 95.8 percent. Both teams also produce on the man advantage in spurts, with Pittsburgh going 8-for-21 in Round 1 and Washington going 8-for-27 — although the Caps also went 5-for-9 in their Game 3, 6-1 smackdown of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Long story short, unless one team completely loses its mojo, this promises to be another seven-game event.

Quotables
“They’ve done a great job with their goaltender of putting defense in front of him who are willing to block shots, but play that all-around game. They’re not one dimensional.” —Penguins forward Chris Kunitz on the current Capitals team (via The Washington Post)