Washington - — Washington - -Wednesday night began with the Verizon Center pulsating to "Let's Go Caps," chanted by a capacity crowd at an eardrum-splitting decibel level.
But by the time the game had reached the halfway mark, the building was motionless and silent, filled with stunned fans who couldn't believe what was unfolding. Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals were behind five goals to their most reviled rival en route to a humbling 6-2 defeat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
"The reason they won the game is because they outworked us," Brooks Laich said. "It's not easy to stand in front of you guys and say that we've been outworked in our building in a Game 7. That's not something that's easy to say, and I'm sure we're going to have to think about that for a long time."
Led by 21-year-old Sidney Crosby (two goals, one assist), the Penguins outshot the Capitals 16-5 in the first period, struck twice in an eight-second span early and cruised to a second-straight conference final appearance.
Capitals rookie goalie Simeon Varlamov was replaced by veteran Jose Theodore after yielding four goals on 18 shots. But Varlamov wasn't totally to blame. At least two goals he allowed were of questionable quality, but he also didn't get help from his teammates, who were outplayed in almost every sense of the word.
Washington fell to 1-2 under coach Bruce Boudreau in the playoffs, all three of the series decided in seven games.
Wednesday night's lopsided loss was a stunner - except to longtime Capitals fans who have watched the Penguins toast a playoff victory at their expense more times than they care to remember. To be exact: Pittsburgh has now eliminated the Capitals seven times in eight meetings, coming from behind in six of those series.
This collapse, though, might have been the most painful of them all, perhaps because nothing could have foretold a blowout of this magnitude.
All but one of the previous six games in the series had been decided by one goal, three of them in overtime.
"It was definitely anti-climactic," Boudreau said, referring to the first six games, which provided high drama.
"Usually you have one or two players who have an off night, but not 15," Boudreau said. "I don't know how it happened, why it happened, but it did."
