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Capitals-Penguins Gave Us Everything We Wanted in Game 1

Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin did their thing, while Marc-Andre Fleury stood on his head. This series has the makings of another Washington-Pittsburgh classic.
Photo by Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sport

As the two top teams in the NHL square off in round two of the NHL playoffs, many are touting this series between the Penguins and Capitals as this year's actual Stanley Cup Final. If you watched Thursday's series opener, it's hard to think any different.

These clubs have met nine times in the playoffs. Pittsburgh has won eight of those meetings, with all four of the franchise's Stanley Cups sharing one thing in common—they had to go through the Capitals to get there. Washington, as we're constantly reminded, has yet to win a Cup, with the Caps' lone series victory against Pittsburgh coming in 1994, well before the headline-stealing Ovechkin-Crosby rivalry was born.

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Though this matchup is comprised of a series of individual battles that extend further than just Ovechkin versus Crosby (see Marc-Andre Fleury and Braden Holtby) the two captains made it impossible to ignore the juiciest of all postseason storylines as the future Hall of Famers put on a show in Game 1.

READ MORE: Watch Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby Lock Horns While You Still Can

After a scoreless first period, who else but Crosby would break the deadlock, scoring twice in the first 1:04 of the second period, giving him as many goals as he had points in the series a year ago when the Penguins knocked out the top-ranked Capitals in six games. Aside from his two big tallies, the Penguins captain had a team-high five shots in 17:25. His playoff dominance is impossible to ignore, leading all active players with 146 postseason points since 2002, even though he didn't make his playoff debut until 2007. Crosby also ranks seventh all time in playoff points-per-game (1.12) among players with at least 100 postseason games.

Ovechkin, meanwhile, has been on the losing end of the rivalry more often than not, but has been the more dominant of the two on the head-to-head scoresheet. In the 14 playoff games between the two superstars, Ovechkin has 11 goals and 11 assists, while Crosby has 10 and 7, but his Pens have taken the win in 9 of those games.

In Thursday's series opener, Ovechkin had a gorgeous second-period goal, put three shots on net, and delivered six hits, while recording 13 shot attempts.

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Several of those attempts came at the end of the game, when Ovi settled into his area and teed up shot after shot in a desperate attempt to tie the game, even setting up Kevin Shattenkirk for a final golden chance, but neither could beat Fleury or the wall of Penguins shot blockers.

The only matchup that may have more influence over this series than Ovi-Crosby is the goaltending battle between Holtby and the backup-turned-starter-again Fleury. Head-to-head entering the second round series, Fleury was 4-1 with a 2.52 GAA and .933 save percentage, while Holtby was 4-2 with a 2.36 GAA and .925 SV% in six career postseason matchups against Fleury and the Penguins.

Fleury outdueled Holtby in Game 1, making 32 saves on the night including 15 in the third period where, although he looked like a flailing fish out of water at times, he held down the fort. That was especially true with around three minutes left in the third, when the Pens' netminder made several stops during a net-front scramble after he'd lost his stick. Holtby, the 2016 Vezina Trophy winner, allowed three goals on 21 shots to take the loss, after entering the series with mind-bending playoff numbers (1.93/.936).

Though a deep historical rivalry connects these two clubs, it is the one-on-one matchups within the team battle that make this series so damn intriguing.