Caps drop overtime decision to Pittsburgh, 3-2

It didn’t take long to determine if the Washington Capitals would play a complete game Tuesday night. From the opening faceoff, the Pittsburgh Penguins looked sharp, and the Caps (9-5-4) flat. Despite an intense second period, Washington lost in overtime 3-2.

Washington earned a point for its troubles and remained in second place in the MassMutual East Division, two points behind the first-place Boston Bruins. Pittsburgh (21 points) is just a point behind Washington, followed by the New York Islanders (32 points), and the Philadelphia Flyers.

What’s worrying for the Capitals is the continued inconsistency. It has been rare for head coach Peter Laviolette to say his team played a complete 60 minutes this year.

“I would agree the first period we were down a little bit, so that’s definitely something we’ll talk about for the next game we have against them,” Laviolette said after the game.

The Capitals power play performance was a microcosm of all that was wrong in the first period. Washington had no shots on two advantages in the opening period. They would not get another power play the rest of the night.

“The game from a five-on-five standpoint wasn’t good, and the power play reflected that we just needed to be better, there’s no excuses for that,” Laviolette said.

Pittsburgh took the lead at the 6:41 mark of the opening period when Evgeni Malkin beat Vitek Vanecek to make the score 1-0.

Washington played better in the second period. Richard Panik tied the score as he took a long pass from Zdeno Chara and blew by the defense to find the back of the net.

Connor Sheary gave Washington the lead at the 13:18 mark on an assist from Evgeny Kuznetsov. It was Sheary’s second goal of the year against his former team.

“I guess I know a little bit of their tendencies from being there, but I guess a lot of guys have a team that they just find ways to score against and play well against,” Sheary said. For whatever reason, that’s been Pittsburgh since I left there.”

The Penguins tied the score on a goal from Jake Guentzel. Neither team scored in the third period, and Kasperi Kapanen ended it less than two minutes into overtime.

To a man, the players know there needs to be more urgency at the game’s start.