Penguins: Finish the Capitals

The Pittsburgh Penguins are looking to finish off the Presidents’ Trophy winners in Game 5 tonight at 7:15 pm (NBC) at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Pittsburgh will look to try to build momentum from game four to tonight after pulling out a 3-2 overtime win without the services of defenseman Kris Letang.

Yesterday, the Penguins held a full team practice.  Everyone was there except for Bryan Rust.

Here is what we expect the forward lines and defensive pairs to look like in tonight’s contest:

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Eric Fehr will return to the lineup after missing game four with an unknown injury, Letang returns from a one-game suspension, and Oscar Sundqvist will replace Rust if he cannot play.  Defenseman Olli Maatta will not play after resuming his skating yesterday with the team.

On the flip side, the Washington Capitals are in a win-or-go-home situation, and head coach Barry Trotz shuffled the lines to try to create a spark.  He reunited Evgeny Kuznetsov with Alex Ovechkin and TJ Oshie, created an all-Swedish second line, and bumped Justin Williams to the third line.

Forward Mike Richards was not at practice due to an illness, but Trotz expects that Richards will be in the lineup tonight.

The Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Oshie (“TKO Line”) reunion played together for almost a quarter of the season to start the year.

Karl Alzner missed practice as a maintenance day, but he will play tonight.

Keys to the Game

Speed, speed, and more speed

The Penguins thrive on their speed, and in games three and four, they tried to match Washington’s physicality.  Although they walked away from CONSOL Energy Center with two wins, the Capitals had the edge in play in those games.

Match Washington’s desperation

If the Penguins do not match Washington’s desperation and urgency, then they will lose tonight.  The Capitals will play their best game of the series tonight, and the Penguins need to be prepared to combat and thwart any Washington attack.

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Low attack

The Penguins have thrived this series by generating high-quality chances below the hashmarks by getting the puck below the goal line and forechecking the Capitals’ defensemen.  The Capitals will be without fellow blue liner Brooks Orpik, and the Penguins will try to take advantage of that for the third time in the series.