The last meeting between the Washington Capitals and the reigning Stanley Cup champions resulted in a wild 8-7 Pittsburgh Penguins’ win on Jan. 16. It’s a night Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner would rather forget.
“It was a bad game,” said Alzner, who was on the losing side. “It was not good for either team. Way too many chances, special teams, four-on-four, all that kind of stuff. It just wasn’t good. It was kind of a throwaway game, in my opinion.”
But glossing over mistakes isn’t in the nature of this edition of the Capitals.
Since Pittsburgh bounced Washington out of the second round of the playoffs last season, the Capitals have obsessed over the changes needed to make a deeper postseason run.