WASHINGTON -- The Penguins' penalty kill hasn't exactly been a strong suit for the team this season, and that's been especially true for much of this seven-game losing streak.
The Penguins' penalty-kill ranked 28th in the league with a 71.1% success rate before Saturday's game against the Kraken at PPG Paints Arena. They had allowed 11 goals on 38 short-handed attempts, a rate that had them on pace to allow 82 power plays over the course of the season, per historian Bob Grove. For context, the Penguins allowed just 33 all of last season. Those results were a direct result of the team allowing a concerning amount of scoring chances, including the highest rate of shots on goal of any team while shorthanded.
That changed in that game against the Kraken. They went 3-for-3 on the penalty kill and only allowed three shots on goal total over those six minutes. They allowed just four unblocked shot attempts overall, and they were all mid- to long-range shots. They excelled at preventing the Kraken from getting shots off in the high-danger areas.
I asked Marcus Pettersson after the Penguins' morning skate here in Washington on Wednesday what he thought was the key to the Penguins seemingly taking a step forward on the penalty kill last game.
"Just our aggressiveness," he said. "I think when we chase them up the ice and put pressure on them I think that's when we're at our best, that's what we've been talking about. So just pressure on the puck sacrificing our bodies for each other, that's going to get us going on the kill."
Ryan Poehling added that he thinks the biggest thing was just sticking to the game plan.
"We knew that we were struggling a bit," Poehling told me. "We had a big meeting against Seattle, and I think we did well that game. It just kind of came from that. I think we're all on the same page and we fixed a few things that we needed to work on. So I think when everyone's working together, it makes it easier."
If there's a team out there that should provide a real test for the Penguins' penalty kill, it's the Capitals.
"They've got weapons," Pettersson observed of the Capitals' power play.
The Capitals rank sixth on the man advantage this season with a 27.1% success rate and average .93 power play goals per game this season. Breaking down how the Capitals have had that level of success, it's not so much a matter of getting more shot attempts or shots on goal than other teams. Their rate of shots attempts per 60 minutes is 105.22, good enough for 11th in the league. Their rate of shots on goal is 49.1 per 60 minutes of power play time, only 24th in the league. But the shots they do get are dangerous: 20.63% of their shots on the power play go in, the fourth-best shooting percentage of any team's power play this season.
Washington's power play has a different look than previous years with Nick Backstrom on the mend from hip resurfacing surgery. Both T.J. Oshie and John Carlson are expected to be sidelined with injuries in Wednesday's game as well.
Regardless of those changes, it doesn't change the fact that the Capitals' power play is always a threat with Alex Ovechkin at the left circle.
"I think anytime you play this team, regardless of what their numbers are in any given year, they're always a dangerous power play with the personnel group that they have," Mike Sullivan told me. "I think it goes without saying that they have one of the greatest goal-scorers of all time that we've got to be aware of on the power play, and five-on-five, but in particular on the power play. He might be the most dangerous one-time threat on that backside in the league, so we're certainly going to have to be aware of him. We've got a big challenge ahead of us."
Poehling said that Wednesday's game will be "one of the bigger tests" for the Penguins' penalty kill.
"We've obviously got to take care of Ovechkin over there," he said. "I mean, he's got five power play goals in the year and he's a big part of why they're so successful. So I think if we can do that and keep the pressure up ice we'll do a good job."
It seems like anyone who has watched even one game of Capitals hockey is aware of the threat that Ovechkin presents. If you give him time and space at the left circle, a one-time blast is inevitably going to end up in the back of the net. Even so, it's not uncommon to see highlights of Ovechkin left wide-open in his office by teams. If everyone knows about that looming threat, then how does Ovechkin manage to get open there so often, and how do the Penguins make sure that doesn't happen tonight?
"Yeah, I know," Poehling said with a laugh. "You give him just a little bit of time and space and think he's covered and he's not. I mean, he's one of the only guys in the league that can do that. It is a big test for us and we're looking forward to it."
MORE FROM THE SKATE
• Casey DeSmith will start. Sullivan wouldn't say whether this was a planned start for DeSmith or if something changed to impact that decision. Tristan Jarry didn't participate in the morning skate, which is pretty unusual. Generally, if only one goaltender skates in an optional skate, it's an indication that the goaltender who didn't skate is playing that night. Jarry is on this road trip and instead spent the morning with other players working with an athletic trainer, for what it's worth.
• Sullivan was asked about DeSmith's performance this season as a whole.
"I think he's competing hard out there," he said. "I think we all need to be better as a group. We're all part of that. I think he's competing hard, and that's an important aspect of capturing his very best game. He's made some timely saves for us in some of the games that he's played. But I just think as a group as a whole, we've got to play a more complete game."
• Players who participated in the optional skate were DeSmith, Jeff Carter, Brock McGinn, Chad Ruhwedel, Rickard Rakell, Kasperi Kapanen, Sam Poulin, P.O Joseph, Filip Hallander, Pettersson, Poehling and Teddy Blueger
• Sullivan said Blueger will not play tonight. Carter and Archibald are game-time decisions. Archibald missed last game with an undisclosed in injury and Carter suffered a lower-body injury in Seattle.
• Kapanen stayed out much later on the ice with Blueger, Ruhwedel and Poulin, an indication that he's likely a healthy scratch tonight. Kapanen skated on an extra fifth line in practice Tuesday with Blueger and Poulin.
• All signs point to Hallander making his season debut, which would be just his second NHL game. In case you missed it, I spoke with him in camp about the crazy story surrounding his debut last season: It was an off day in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton so he got McDonalds then went golfing with some teammates in the afternoon. He got a call on the course that he had been recalled, stopped at Sheetz for a wrap and some protein bars, then drove to New York in the rain, battling some heavy traffic and getting a little lost outside of Madison Square Garden, then just making it to the locker room with barely enough time for warmups.
I asked Hallander if he thinks it'll help him this time around eating something other than a Sheetz wrap as a pregame meal.
"The preparation this time is a bit better," he said with a smile. "Hopefully this time we'll come out with a win too."
Jokes aside, just being able to have that normal preparation for a game has Hallander feeling better entering this one.
"I've been playing pretty decent down in WIlkes-Barre, and I'm coming up with more confidence this time," he said. "Then being here a couple days before practice with the team and flying with them, it makes it a lot easier."
• I loved Hallander's answer when I asked about his feelings preparing to go up against a guy like Ovechkin tonight.
"I mean, it's obviously all the cliches like playing hard, wall battles, wall plays, all that stuff," he said. "But it's the same as in Wilkes-Barre. Guys are better, but you do the same job."
That sentiment tracks, though. Sullivan said after that he thinks Hallander's game is one that transfers well from the AHL to the NHL.
"I do think that type of game is very transferable from the American League to the National League," Sullivan said. "Sometimes with certain players, if you're an offensive player for example, you might be able to score goals at the American League level and time always tells whether that skill set is transferable to the National League level. So I think with respect to Filip's game, I think that game is very transferable. He knows what to expect now, he's already been in the situation before. I think his understanding of what the expectations are are much, much clearer and I think he's a guy that potentially could impact the game on a positive level."
• Sidney Crosby and Ovechkin both enter this game tied in career points with 1,423. Obviously, Crosby has roughly two full seasons worth of fewer games. Still, it's pretty crazy to see those two neck-and-neck in the points race after all these years.
• The Capitals' morning skate was at their practice facility over in Arlington, Va., and they used these lines and pairings according to Samantha Pell of the Washington Post:
Alex Ovechkin - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Conor Sheary
Sonny Milano - Dylan Strome - Marcus Johansson
Anthony Mantha - Lars Eller - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Aliaksei Protas - Nic Dowd - Garnett Hathaway
Martin Fehervary - Nick Jensen
Erik Gustafsson - Trevor van Riemsdyk
Alex Alexeyev - Matt Irwin
• Darcy Kuemper starts for Washington.
• The Penguins had their Halloween party earlier this week, a bit delayed due to their schedule. Pettersson said that he and his girlfriend Beatrice were the characters from the movie Juno (the 2007 comedy with Elliot Page and Michael Cera about a teen pregnancy). Pettersson and his girlfriend are expecting their first child later this season.
• Crosby dressed as Ted Lasso, Kris Letang was a preying mantis, and Evgeni Malkin just wanted to make sure his costume allowed him to still wear that custom Geno hat that seemingly never leaves his head:
