Rob Rossi: Capitals show what they lack before, during, after Game 4 vs. Penguins

Before, throughout and after Game 4 against their nemesis, the Capitals behaved nothing like the hockey club they insist they have become. And with a 3-1 loss to the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night, the big question remains unanswered for these Capitals.

Why will this time be any different?

For the first time in this series, I do not think it will be different for the Capitals. Physically, they are up to the enormous challenge of casting aside the two-time champions. Emotionally, they aren't ready to ruin the Penguins' postseason.

Talk is cheap, so forget everything the Capitals said after the loss in Game 4. Coach Barry Trotz and alternate captain Nicklas Backstrom each offered the Capitals' “resilience” when speaking about another loss that could have, if not should have, been a win in this series.

But it was Trotz who panicked and challenged a power-play goal by the Penguins' Evgeni Malkin in the second period. And it was Backstrom who slammed his stick and, with an expletive, ripped “this league” while walking to the dressing room after the game.

The Capitals are denying Backstrom shared such a colorful comment.

Hey, since fiction is what the Capitals were selling after Game 4, can we go ahead and give captain Alex Ovechkin a hat trick? No ordinary hat trick, either, but the first in Stanley Cup playoffs history by a player who failed to put a shot on goal.

Ovechkin was not made available to the media after Game 4.

He did play in it. We think.

Look, the Capitals will be fine if Ovechkin doesn't take one question after Games 5 and 6, or even a possible Game 7. They aren't going to win, though, if the greatest goal scorer of this hockey generation fails to get pucks on Penguins goalie Matt Murray.

If suspended winger Tom Wilson is this important to Ovechkin and the top line, the Capitals are in for hard times as this 2-2 best-of-seven series shifts to Washington for Game 5.

Thing is, Ovechkin has terrorized opposing goalies before Wilson became his hulking, space-creating complement on the line centered by Evgeny Kuznetsov. So it would seem foolish for the Penguins to feel good about the chances of silencing Ovechkin's game the rest of this series.

And the Capitals should feel good about what they have already done in this series.

What the Capitals should not do is what they seem to always do against the Penguins: overreact to even a slight sign of adversity.

Winger T.J. Oshie should shut up about the NHL's just suspension of Wilson. His opinion was neither needed nor mattered the morning before Game 4. His mouthing off about discipline that had been determined by Player Safety revealed a crack in the approach Ovechkin has repeatedly said the Capitals will maintain against the Penguins.

“We aren't thinking about the past,” Ovechkin said.

Well, at least the Capitals weren't thinking about the past until they were thinking about it. Makes me wonder if the Capitals are thinking that the winner of Game 4 has taken each of three previous Ovechkin-era series against the Penguins?

And why does anybody associated with the Capitals care about what multiple reporters overheard from Backstrom after Game 4?

An agitated hockey player swore while referencing the league after a tough loss. So what?

Backstrom was very good in Game 4, sharply setting up the Capitals' only goal. Asked afterward about his momentary lack of decorum, Backstrom said he was upset “that we didn't win.”

Good.

A loss is something to get upset about. Thrown sticks and swear words are nothing at all.

The Capitals could have left Pittsburgh poised to knock out the Penguins on their bid to win the Stanley Cup for a third consecutive season. Short of winning the Cup, this Capitals franchise could collect no greater victory.

There are a lot of reasons to believe the Capitals will finally put down the Penguins, too.

Unlike the last couple of postseason showdowns in this NHL version of “Infinity War,” the Capitals reclaimed the home-ice advantage going into Game 5. They also are getting quality goaltending from Braden Holtby, generating an abundance of odd-man scoring chances, and mostly siphoning a high-octane offensive attack while rendering the Penguins a one-line team.

Even in Game 4, the Penguins' Mega Power centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin recorded only two combined shots. Phil Kessel managed three, but his shots the Capitals can live with because a seemingly injured Kessel has never looked less dangerous with the puck on his stick.

The Capitals probably should be in position to win the series when it returns to Capital One Arena on Saturday night. They are still in position to get a win that will put the Penguins on the edge of elimination.

Considering that to a man, every Capitals player has said he expected a long, tough series against the Penguins, needing to win two of three remaining games (with two of those games at home) is what hockey people usually consider “a good spot.”

The Capitals, however, still show too many signs they lack the components of a championship organization — let alone a club prepared to upend a back-to-back champion.

Had Trotz not challenged the Malkin goal that was never going to be overturned because of perceived goaltender interference, the Capitals would have held a timeout when trying to pull even late in Game 4. Had Ovechkin overcome Wilson's self-inflicted absence to impose will on this rare opportunity to really put Crosby's Penguins in a postseason hole, the Capitals could have won Game 4.

The Capitals let an opportunity slip away Thursday night. If anything, Backstrom likely sensed as much as he stormed off the ice.

After all, who better than one of the longest-tenured Capitals to know that the Penguins, of all teams, are not to be allowed new life?

Rob Rossi is a freelance columnist.