The Penguins will face the Ottawa Senators in the next round.
After being in a 3-1 series hole and coming back to tie it up, there was a feeling the Capitals would finally get past their nemesis especially returning home after a convincing 5-2 win on Monday.
Braden Holtby stopped 26 shots for Washington, which enters an uncertain offseason with a number of unrestricted and restricted free agents.
The Pittsburgh Penguins still own the Washington Capitals. The Capitals are 4-10 all-time in Game 7s, including 0-3 against the Penguins (1992, 1995, and 2009). "You can see why they have a pedigree of a Stanley Cup champion".
"You don't get many teams that win the Presidents' Cup as many times as we have here and be part of an organization that does whatever it takes to win", defenceman Karl Alzner said.
"We're not in this position moving on if he doesn't play the way he did", said captain Sidney Crosby, who assisted on Bryan Rust's opening goal. They came hard early on, so I thought we gathered ourselves, [Fleury] made some saves, and for at least the second and third (periods) I thought we were more on our game and on our toes a little bit more. "He was huge for us all series long".
Then they dominated play early on Wednesday night en route to outshooting the Penguins for the seventh straight game. You can never count a team with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby out of a game, and the Capitals surely won't be taking those superstars lightly tonight. I'm sure that you could poll 100 people, and 99 of them would say they'd rather play at home. "Emotionally, I don't think I want to answer that question at all". We've been through so much since I've been here.
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However, there are other ways to celebrate Cinco de Mayo , such as with a taste of authentic Mexican flavor. Civil War, which was taking place at the same time.
It was far from Capitals hockey, which was on display in victories in Games 5 and 6. Just didn't do it. "We're going to have to live with that and take full responsibility for that". Fleury is 8-4 with a 2.55 goals-against average and.927 save percentage. But his best save of the period was off Ovechkin, who one-timed a shot from the slot and started to raise his arms to signal a goal before he realized Fleury had deflected it into the crowd's protecting mesh.
It was so close Ovechkin raised his arms thinking he'd scored. That's when Fleury smiled and said something - but not to a teammate.
"I don't know if there's really any excuses", T.J. Oshie said. In the conference semifinals, the Caps played the Penguins, whose 104-point performance was second-best in the Eastern Conference. He's 7-0. He has 7 goals and 7 assists in those games. "He stole us more than one game this series and he kept us in a lot of others". We give him a lot of credit, and we're all so happy for him and proud of him.
The Senators eliminated the New York Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals, advancing to the third round for the first time since 2007 and the third time in franchise history. F Carl Hagelin (lower-body injury) and Tom Kuhnhackl were scratched, replaced in the lineup by F Scott Wilson and F Carter Rowney, respectively. Matt Murray was back on the bench to serve as a backup on Wednesday, giving the Pens two goalies who have won Cups, but it's Fleury's gig right now. F Carter Rowney replaced Tom Kuhnhackl (healthy scratch) on Pittsburgh's fourth line.
It wasn't a secret heading into Game 7 that the Caps had every ounce of momentum.
Ovechkin has been in the National Hockey League over a decade and never has played in a Conference Finals. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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