Top line Tom had himself a day as he leads the way for the Caps. The boys started this game off with their best period of the season so far in my opinion. They played well in their own defensive end, not letting up many scoring chances and sustained offensive pressure with the new lines. The only hiccup was on Vitek’s second start of his career where he seemed to have lost the puck in his own body and the Penguins pick up the loose change. Tommo comes back 6 seconds later and puts a wrister on net and makes Casey DeSmith look super dumb as the puck finds the way into the back of the net to make it a 2-1 lead.

The Caps keep the pressure going as they score a huge goal with under a minute left in the period as Tom adds another with some slick back sauce from Carlson. 3-1 headed into the second and we’re feeling great right now boys!

Start of the second and a fucking 3-on-0 somehow turns into the Caps going down 2 men. It’s a good thing Hags is a PK specialist because he is very close to being on my shit list. The guy is all swede no finish. I mean how do we not fucking score on a 3 on fucking 0. 1 guy says fuck it y’all got it and bails and the other guy decided to pass it back to Carl fucking Hagelin who can’t score for shit. Then we take back-to-back penalties because why the fuck not? We’re the Washington Capitals we don’t give a damn about being a couple guys short. The Pens make it 3-2. But no worries! Casey DeSmith is at it again! Vrana throws a softy towards the net and DeSmith for some reason can’t handle it. Juicy rebound for Kuzy and the birdman is on the board! Back to a 2-goal lead at 4-2. Caps continue to hem pressure in on the Pens and cause them to take a couple penalties. 5-on-3 for the good guys! Nothing can go wrong here, right? Maybe grab a 5-2 lead going into the 3rd? I mean the Caps usually NEVER let up short-handed goals…. right? RIGHT?! Very, very wrong, the same guys who let up 9 SHORTIES LAST SEASON start the season off with another one. On a 5-on-3. Fucking awesome. Now Oshie’s all pissed off and goes and slams Pettersson to the ice when he’s not looking and takes a 2 minute penalty (coulda been 5 so chalk that up as a win). Aaaaaaand the lead is gone. Malkin blasts a rocket on the powerplay and we are now at a 4-4 game. What a meltdown from the boys.

The Caps find a couple great scoring chances to open the third and maintain some offensive pressure. But the Pens find a way to get themselves out of it and the game starts to even back out again. Both teams playing a little more conservative as the game comes to an end. The Pens start to dominate at the end of the 3rd period but the rookie VITEK VANACEK comes up huuuge with some big stops! And this one is going to overtime once again.

3-on-3 OT aaaaaaaand its gone. Crosby catches everyone flat-footed and picks up the rebound for the win. Another blown lead. I’m seeing a lot of the same tendencies and bad habits from last year. Hopefully Lavs can clean this up.