The Penguins and Washington Capitals are facing off in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series Thursday at the Verizon Center in Washington. Here’s some analysis from the scene.
First period: The Penguins got off to a better start there than they did in any of the five games against Columbus, but of course that’s not saying much. They were able to effectively set up some offensive zone time, and pin the Capitals deep.
That being said, the Penguins only had a handful of actual scoring chances, and Washington overall did a pretty good job of defending in their own zone and not letting the Penguins get too many chances close to the net.