The Capitals won a Stanley Cup playoff game Monday night, by a 3-2 count in overtime over the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena, because of one sickening sequence. Accept no substitute explanations, justifications or vomitations from the mouth of Barry Trotz or anyone else.
It sure wasn't because of Washington's fortunate bounce on an early five-on-three for the lone goal of the first two periods.
It sure wasn't Braden Holtby finally finding his form against this particular opponent, given that he nearly was the central figure in the greatest gag in the history of a franchise that's done little but gag each spring.
It sure wasn't because of yet another big break in overtime when Trevor Daley was whistled for holding without, you know, holding.
Or that, Marcus Johansson, the non-victim of that non-hold, split Daley and Olli Maatta only because he flagrantly grabbed the puck with his hand, an identical infraction to one which Evgeni Malkin earlier had been sent to the box:
If this had been college hoops, he'd have been whistled for traveling. Maybe even in the NBA.
Here's Rule 67.2 from the NHL book: "A player shall be permitted to catch the puck out of the air but must immediately place it or knock it down to the ice. If he catches it and skates with it, either to avoid a check or to gain a territorial advantage over his opponent, a minor penalty shall be assessed for 'closing his hand on the puck.' ”
But that wasn't what won this, either. And it wasn't even the Penguins' miserable luck to the 180-degree extreme, from Bryan Rust somehow whiffing on this in the first ...
... to Chris Kunitz's apparent goal in the second being waved off after it had already been reviewed and confirmed to the crowd ...
... to Patric Hornqvist accidentally crushing Conor Sheary's cheekbone:
All of the above were factors, sure, but only to an extent. That goes for the officiating, too, which was abysmal both ways. None decided the game.
And thus, I dare say at the risk of antagonizing the easily antagonized denizens of the District of Columbia, the Capitals still have absolutely no answers as to how to beat their arch-nemesis. Because that concurrence of extraordinary events, coupled with the Penguins finally matching Washington in possession form from front to finish ... that won't happen again.
And you know what else won't happen again?
Matt Niskanen won't have another chance to maliciously ram his stick into the face of an unsuspecting, tumbling Sidney Crosby, costing the Penguins' captain a tooth or two, his momentary consciousness and, at least possibly, another concussion.
Check that: Niskanen shouldn't have that chance. Because even if Crosby returns, the NHL's Department of Player Safety, the most oxymoronic name in the history of oxymoronic names, absolutely must suspend Niskanen for the final four potential games of this series, if not longer.
Some infractions are open to debate. This isn't. This is an attempt to injure:
It's actually a triple-assault, one after the other, though the high stick up there by Ovechkin -- right at Crosby's head, no less -- went unpenalized and, as a result, unquestionably will go ignored. As did Ovechkin kicking the back of Crosby's left skate, one of his voluminous slew-foots already in this series.
Niskanen's a smart guy. I got to know him quite well over his years in Pittsburgh. He's as aware of his surroundings, his circumstances as any defenseman I've covered here. He basically remade himself in that mold after the Penguins rescued him from being a regular scratch in Dallas.
As Crosby's storming toward the crease up there, Ovechkin's stick/kick causes him to lose his balance, no small feat given his strength on skates, and begin falling. That's when Niskanen raises both of his hands, stick up front, toward Crosby's head.
Let me repeat: He raised his stick as Crosby's head was coming his way. In a forceful posture.
There is no human purpose for that, much less a hockey purpose.
The referees called a five-minute major for crosschecking, which was at least adequate, though it easily could have qualified as a match penalty for intent to injure, a call that mandates a hearing with the league. But again, that shouldn't matter. A hearing and a suspension absolutely must follow.
Not because Niskanen is significant to this series. He wasn't before, when he was getting burned all about the ice, primarily by Crosby, and he wouldn't be going forward.
No, he needs to get suspended for the simple reason that there can't be a precedent where one team is getting dominated by a single superstar in a series, and that team's solution to that problem is to knock that player out of a game or even a series.
I'm trying to find nice ways to say this. Can you tell?
But that's what this act is. It's an intentional act to injure. It's a major for crosschecking, which means the referees saw it as something other than accidental. It's an immediate ejection, which is further validation. And if the league doesn't come down on Niskanen with full weight, independent of precedent -- his long history of being about as tough as a Tempur-Pedic mattress shouldn't benefit him in any way -- then it'll set the stage for this to be a right-out-in-the-open tactic to take a playoff series.
Which would be garbage.
Or garage, take your pick.
This is from the Washington Post's hockey beat writer, after the game:
Indication right now is that Matt Niskanen is unlikely to receive any additional discipline from the league for his cross check on Crosby.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) May 2, 2017
“It’s obviously gut-wrenching,” Kunitz said. “You know it’s the best player in the world playing in his prime. He’s just dominating games. It’s one of those things that, you look at it once, you see what actually happened. I think the next thing is watching how deliberate it was watching when the guy cross-checks him in the face. I thought all that was kind of out of this league, but I guess not.”
"I thought it was really a hockey play," Trotz began after the inevitable first question of his press conference. And yeah, he kept a straight face. "If you look at it, Sid’s coming across. Holts throws his stick out there. He gets split. He’s coming down. Nisky goes to the back post. That’s where the puck is going. He just sort of ran into him. Unfortunately, Sid got injured there. It’s just hockey. A hockey play. Unfortunately, he got hurt.”
Dear God. That's verbatim, too.
“Absolutely not. It wasn’t intentional,” Niskanen answered about the cross-check. “I’ve seen the replay. In super slo-mo, it looks really bad. I caught him high. He’s coming across trying to score. As he’s doing that, he’s getting lower and lower, and when it’s happening that fast, you know, my stick and his head collided. I wasn’t extending trying to hit him in the head. It happened quickly.”
His stick and Crosby's head collided.
You know, for all the ways anyone could reply to those remarks, here's my preference: No one on the Washington side argued at the time of the call. Not a soul. Not Trotz. Not the team's leaders. Not even the typically chatty Niskanen, who simply exited the ice with none of his teammates making so much as casual eye contact by the door.
They had to be embarrassed, the Capitals did. At least that's how they behaved in the moment.
They might even have been shaken. No kidding here. Because anyone who was inside this building know that not only did the place stay almost creepy-silent for the remainder of the period, but the play from both sides slowed to a near-standstill. The worst of Washington's bruisers suddenly were turning away from easy checks.
