Meanwhile, the Ducks now meet Edmonton, the victor in a horrendous series with San Jose that featured two teams going nowhere - yet someone was forced to win.
What better time for a renewal of Crosby versus Ovechkin, which to this point has been a lopsided rivalry?
The Penguins seek a ninth victory in 10 overall playoff meetings with the Capitals, who have not advanced past the second round since reaching the 1998 NHL Finals. But with winger T.J. Oshie, defenceman Karl Alzner and others set to be unrestricted free agents - and the salary cap crunching the Capitals, too - there's an urgency about winning this year.
For the second year in a row, the Pittsburgh Penguins will be squaring off against the President's Trophy-winning Washington Capitals in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Taking that a step further, the Capitals are 50-2 the last two seasons when they win the special teams battle - defined here as scoring more power-play goals than they allow - while the Penguins are 46-2-2. They have very good leadership in the front office that upgraded a couple of areas they needed to address.
The victor will face either the New York Rangers or Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference final, while the Western Conference best-of-seven second round series sends Nashville against St. Louis and Anaheim against Edmonton.
Five out of six of the games against the Maple Leafs went to overtime, and the Capitals, at times, appeared lazy against the young and risky team. Crosby won each of the previous encounters, in 2016 and 2009, and went on to win the Stanley Cup both times. "I think when you're maybe a little bit more fresh, making those breakouts, you're not having to go back two or three times". We've had some guys that have been injured and banged up. "It's a big opportunity for us to move forward and get success".
Crosby also blocked Ovechkin's path to Olympic gold, his Canada team ousting Ovechkin's Russian Federation in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and taking gold on Crosby's overtime goal in the final.
Round 1 Strengths for Washington: The Capitals possessed one of the better power plays in the National Hockey League during the regular season and carried that into the playoffs.
"We're ready. We're excited".
'Giving up is not an option', says injured Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Mourinho also issued a challenge to Phil Jones and Chris Smalling to return from injuries and give in-form Eric Bailly a break. I feel very confident about the position [centre-back] myself. "I would do a last push", Mourinho said.
"We respect each other", Ovechkin said. "We've worked all year and all summer to get back into this position, and now we're here".
"This is the playoffs". If they deal well with the pressure, it's going to be a relatively easy series for them.
Holtby, like the rest of this Capitals team, has never made it past the second round of the postseason.
Pittsburgh ousted Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals in six games in the second-round of last year's playoffs en route to their fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Conor Sheary line scares the heck out of me, as does the Evgeni Malkin-Phil Kessel duo, but I'm going with the Capitals in this series.
The better goalie may be Braden Holtby in D.C., and you already know the names of all of the stars. "Every game I have more confidence".
Twenty-eight were decided by one goal (66.7 percent), while another five were decided by two goals following an empty-net score (78.6 percent combined).
Evgeni Malkin called Phil Kessel a couple days ago the most risky man on the power play.
"They're going to be a challenge to play, for sure", Cole said. "He can shoot. He can pass to me or Crosby".
The Ottawa Senators including, Clarke MacArthur (16), Alex Burrows (14), Mike Hoffman (68) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (44) celebrate after defeating the Boston Bruins 3-2 during overtime in game six of a first-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series, Sunday, April 23, 2017, in Boston.
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