Commitment To Victory

EARLIER THIS SEASON WASHINGTON winger Alexander Semin raised eyebrows when he asked a Russian reporter, What's so special about Sidney Crosby? ¶ If Semin didn't have his answer earlier in the Eastern Conference semifinals, he sure does now. On Wednesday night, May 13, Crosby scored twice to raise his NHL-leading layoff goal total to 12, helping lead his Penguins to a 6-2 thrashing of Semin's shell-shocked Capitals in the seventh game of their series. Crosby's three-point night was part of a nearly flawless effort by a Pittsburgh team that took no penalties and turned over the puck just four times.

Game 7 was the one element of this otherwise thrilling series that didn't deliver on the hype. But it was more than successful as a primer on the value of defensive-zone dedication and the dangers the Carolina Hurricanes would face when they meet Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference finals.

For the Caps, who blew a 2-0 series lead, the devil wasn't in the details but in the commitment. You want a lesson in commitment? Watch Evgeni Malkin blocking a shot in the second period...while the Penguins were nursing a 4-0 lead.

The bottom line is that the Caps simply couldn't meet Pittsburgh's desire to compete. They had happy hands with the puck and were dysfunctional without it. That's why Semin remained goalless for the series. Why Viktor Kozlov and Sergei Fedorov and Nicklas Backstrom seemed content to scrounge on the perimeter. Even Alex Ovechkin failed to match the intensity of Crosby and the rest of the Pens when forced to play without the puck. With the Caps' dubious effort, it was little wonder Simeon Varlamov melted down and was replaced in goal by forgotten man José Théodore early in the second period.

Varlamov was unlucky on Crosby's opening goal, a short-side tap-in on a power play at 12:36 of the first. But he was just plain out of position when fourth-liner Craig Adams lit him up eight seconds later, silencing the crowd and sucking the wind out of Washington's sails. The game got out of hand early in the second when Varlamov was beaten on consecutive tests of his glove hand. Crosby set up Bill Guerin for a bomb just 28 seconds into the period, and Kris Letang sent him to the bench with an identical blast just 1:44 later.

At the other end of the ice, Marc-André Fleury established Pittsburgh's mojo early, making a confident glove save on an Ovechkin breakaway just three minutes in, then denying him again moments later when the knob of his stick deflected a dangerously rising slapper.

Buoyed by those stops, the Pens established their game, pressuring the biscuit in all three zones. It wasn't long before the Capitals started throwing away the puck...and the series.

Ovechkin finally got his moment late in the second, swiping the puck from Fleury behind the net and firing it into the empty cage. But Crosby returned the favor early in the third, picking Ovechkin's pocket at the Penguins' blue line, then racing in alone and beating Théodore for Pittsburgh's final goal in the series.

It was a fitting conclusion, a vivid reminder of Washington's recklessness and the Penguins' relentless puck pressure. It also served to answer Semin's question. You know, in case he was still wondering.