Wednesday night in Washington, was a night to remember for Marc-Andre Fleury who made 29 saves to shutout Washington, 2-0, and help the Pittsburgh Penguins reach the Eastern Conference Final in a Game 7 win.
“It was a long series against a good team,” Fleury said. “They came hard at us till the end, and we’re proud of the way we played tonight and the way we handled the 
pressure and these guys over the series.”
The loss extended Washington’s misery in their seemingly annual duel with the Penguins.
To say it was a disappointing end to the season in Washington would be an understatement; to be shutout is unacceptable.
“You need all 20 guys to win at this time of year. When guys aren’t playing great, the other guys [have to] pick them up and someone’s got to carry the torch, and tonight we didn’t have that,” Washington’s T.J. Oshie said.
Bryan Rust and Patric Hornqvist scored for the Penguins.
“I don’t know if I can say enough about this group of players. We’ve been through so much since I’ve been here. They just always find a way to respond the right way to any of the challenges or the adversities that this league throws at us, and they did it again tonight,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “I think these guys are at their best when the stakes are high. That might be the best game that we’ve played in the playoffs to this point, and I thought that was the closest thing to the Penguins identity that we’ve seen in the playoffs so far.”
After taking the President’s Trophy in the regular season, Washington had trouble getting past the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fist round and that portended an even more difficult series against a seasoned, if banged up Pens team.
“A couple of small plays that just bit us. Like early in the series, we had our looks, didn’t finish. Fleury was good. We [have] to finish. And I think, you know, in the first few minutes there we came out like a house on fire and it sure would have been nice to pop one there. But, you know, I don’t know, that’s all I got,” Washington’s Matt Niskanen said.
Now the questions and recriminations begin in DC including who stays and who goes. This team was supposedly built and coached to win now as expected in every city but especially this season.
And with the likes of Kevin Shattenkirk being a bust since the his acquisition in the trade season, there are many more questions than answers at this point.
[WATCH: All Capitals vs. Penguins highlights | RELATED: Complete Washington vs. Pittsburgh series coverage]
Braden Holtby made 26 saves in taking the loss.
“I thought we did a great job of regrouping. They came hard early on, so I thought we gathered ourselves, [Fleury] made some saves, and for at least the second and third (periods) I thought we were more on our game and on our toes a little bit more. That was probably one of our better games we’ve played. It’s the right time to have that one,” Sidney Crosby said after the win.
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