NHL playoff scores 2017: Careless offensive zone penalties doom Capitals in Game 4

It shouldn’t be surprising that the Penguins are leading the Capitals 3-1 despite losing their best player, best defenseman, and arguably best goaltender to injury. They’re that deep of a hockey team, after all. And yet, with all the chips stacked in the Capitals favor, they were unable to deliver in a 3-2 Game 4 loss Wednesday night.

A lot was made about the phantom high stick call on Nick Bonino that put T.J. Oshie in the box with two minutes to go and effectively killed any chance Washington had at a hopeful comeback. While it’s clear the referees made the incorrect call, even though Oshie himself is no stranger to embellishments, the penalty was the Capitals fifth offensive zone penalty of the game.

The Penguins 3-2 game winner came on one of those penalties. That’s not exactly the type of aggressiveness in the offensive zone the Capitals were looking for in this crucial game.

So, here we stand. Pittsburgh leads the series 3-1 with Game 5 in Washington on Saturday. While the Capitals lead once again in shots 38-19 — and they lead the series shot total 142-94 — the Penguins kept them out of any high danger areas while Marc-Andre Fleury took care of the rest.

It’s Pittsburgh’s series to lose now, and the Capitals only have themselves to blame for their untimely Game 4 mistakes.

Penguins 3, Capitals 2 (Pittsburgh leads 3-1)
Ducks 4, Oilers 3 (OT) (Series tied 2-2)

1. The Capitals star players have yet to make an impact

After the game, Alex Ovechkin was the first to criticize his own play. Head coach Barry Trotz said much of the same in his postgame comments. Washington has just one goal from their bottom six in this series, which is quite unlike their seemingly endless depth from the regular season. Even though the Capitals possession numbers are dwarfing the Penguins, their inability to produce has left them out in the cold.

2. Braden Holtby is off

The Capitals netminder allowed three goals on 19 shots in Game 4, with two coming once again on his high glove side. It’s hard to say exactly what is wrong with Holtby other than the Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t looked up to par with his regular season brilliance.

3. No lead in these playoffs is safe

The Oilers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. The Ducks erased that six minutes into the second period. That’s the 20th two-goal comeback in these playoffs so far, and we haven’t even had a Game 7 yet as we approach the end of round two.

The Ducks got a taste of their own medicine as Drake Caggiula scored in the final two minutes to tie the game 3-3 and send it to overtime.

The Ducks kicked off their comeback thanks to this non-goaltender interference call on Ryan Getzlaf’s tally to begin the second.

Contact is definitely made there in front on Cam Talbot’s glove, but goaltender interference has been a toss up all playoffs.

Obvious choice is Fleury, but Getzlaf had a pair of goals in his first ever career multi-goal postseason game. In 112 games.