Penguins Vs. Capitals: Matt Cooke Knees Alex Ovechkin; Washington Shuts Out Pittsburgh, 3-0

It’s probably going to become another Super Bowl Sunday tradition. The NHL’s top two properties, the Penguins and the Capitals, will face off in the run-up to the big football game. For the second straight year, the teams did just that, and also for the second straight year, Washington came out on top of their hated rival Pittsburgh.

Michal Neuvirth made 22 saves to earn a 3-0 shutout behind goals from Brooks Laich, Marcus Johansson and an empty-netter from Mike Knuble. The win boosts Washington two points closer to Pittsburgh for the fourth-place spot in the Eastern Conference, while it also kept them three points behind Tampa Bay in the division. The Lightning also won Sunday.

The big, lingering story from this one -- there’s always at least one when these teams meet -- has to do with Matt Cooke. Of course it does. He stuck his knee out on Alex Ovechkin late in the third period, causing a bit of a dust-up.

Ovechkin was fine, and even though No. 8 has been the perpetrator in these knee-on-knee incidents in the past, the Capitals were rightfully upset. It got our Capitals blog, Japers’ Rink, a little irritated.

... Matt Cooke didn’t accept Matt Bradley ‘s invitation to fight after Cooke was done serving his two-minute minor for kneeing Alex Ovechkin. In fact, Cooke didn’t skate another shift on the afternoon. Maybe he was waiting for Brent Johnson to fight this battle for him, too.

Meanwhile, Pensburgh laughed off comments from Caps coach Bruce Boudreau.

“It’s Matt Cooke. Need we say more? It’s not it’s his first rodeo. He’s done it to everybody. Then he goes to the ref and says, ‘What did I do?” He damn well knows what he did.”

I wonder where Boudreau was when his star player performed an identical maneuver two years ago in the playoffs? Was this just OV being OV?

Ah, rivalry. (And yes, it may be manufactured according to many, but this sort of thing really does make it real, right?)