Stanley Cup Journal: The circus has arrived just in time

PITTSBURGH

When the Washington Capitals faced a 2-0 series deficit against the New York Rangers, they spent the time between Games 2 and 3 stressing the need to finish their chances, help their rookie goaltender and find any way possible to mount a comeback.

In short, they talked about hockey and themselves.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have taken the opposite approach.

Even before cutting their series deficit to 2-1 on Wednesday night, the Penguins spent the days leading up to Game 3 talking not about themselves, but instead their opponent. And that has stirred the pot and confirmed Bruce Boudreau’s pre-series contention that Caps-Penguins would turn into a circus. Boudreau isn’t innocent either.

The quick rundown:

Forward Matt Cooke thinks the Caps are running illegal pick plays on faceoffs.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury thinks Alex Ovechkin could be using an illegal stick.

Boudreau thinks the Penguins’ Chris Kunitz should have been unavailable for Game 3 because of a cross-check against Simeon Varlamov.

The Caps players, meanwhile, aren’t paying attention to their opponents’ chatter.

“It’s weird - I know when we were down 2-0, we were focused on getting back in the series anyway we can,” defenseman Tom Poti said before Game 3.

Said wing Matt Bradley: “If that’s how they feel, and they want to talk about it, that’s fine. For us, we’re just worried about playing good hockey against a good hockey team.”

Part of playing good hockey against a good hockey team is creating space to score goals. And setting a “pick” is short for Going Hard To The Goal.

Cooke complained Tuesday about Ovechkin’s second goal, which gave the Caps a 3-2 lead in the third period. He claimed that he was a) picked and b) tripped by Alexander Semin.

Boudreau met Cooke’s claim with amusement.

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