Washington Capitals: What every contender can learn from them

Pittsburgh Penguins: Rest

Honestly, the Pittsburgh Penguins do not need to learn anything from the Washington Capitals. As mentioned already, the Capitals actually took much of their playoff game-plan from the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion Penguins.

The main reason the Capitals prevailed in their second-round series with Pittsburgh last season was because they executed the plan better than the Penguins did. Washington’s biggest goals in the series, including Evgeny Kuznetsov’s overtime winner, were all on counter-attacks.

Why were the Capitals able to beat the Penguins at their own game? Because this system of counter-attacking requires speed at all times in a game, which requires durability and energy. In other words, it requires rest.

The Penguins had played a lot of hockey entering this series last postseason after two Stanley Cup runs. They were exhausted and looked the part, with their counter-attack not looking nearly as potent as it had the previous two springs.

This season, Pittsburgh will enter a potential series with Washington as the more rested team of the two. This is actually something the Capitals themselves will have to think about and contend with in order to accomplish their goal of repeating as champions.

As far as the Penguins go, as long as they have rested up over the offseason and do not over-exert themselves in the regular season, they should be confident in their ability to play their game and make another deep playoff run.