WASHINGTON _ Hours before the Penguins and Capitals faced off Wednesday night, the Penguins used their team Twitter account to tweak their rival with a juxtaposition of the Penguins' Stanley Cup banner and the Capitals' Metropolitan Division flag.
By the end of the night, the Capitals had served up a reminder of how they earned their banner last season.
The Penguins, not so much.
The Capitals completely overwhelmed the Penguins en route to a 7-1 win Wednesday, in a game the Penguins only occasionally appeared competitive in.
The Capitals scored short-handed, they scored even-strength. They scored with a one-man advantage, and they scored with a two-man advantage.
The Penguins also saw an interesting wrinkle added to their ongoing goaltending narrative. Matt Murray got his second consecutive start Wednesday, but had to leave with 24 seconds left in the first period when he took a stick to the face. Marc-Andre Fleury came on to replace him for the rest of the game, but Murray was able to watch from the bench in a baseball cap. His health status moving forward was not immediately clear following the game.
The Capitals, meanwhile, looked little like the team that lost 2-1 in overtime in Columbus the night before. For a team that hadn't won a game in regulation since Nov. 5, they didn't waste much time jumping on the Penguins.
The Capitals took the lead midway through the first period with a short-handed goal, the first one the Penguins have allowed this season. Jay Beagle forced Kris Letang into a turnover near the blue line to create a rush the other way. Murray stopped Beagle's initial shot with a leg save, but T.J. Oshie was there to bury the rebound and put the Capitals up 1-0 at 7:32 of the first.
The Penguins seemed to steady themselves toward the end of the period, and even put the puck into the net at 15:30 of the first _ but the goal was disallowed because it was kicked in.
The final three minutes of the first period, though, could hardly have gone worse for the Penguins.
First, the Capitals doubled their lead at 17:30 of the period when Nicklas Backstrom fired a shot from the top of the left circle between Brian Dumoulin's legs and under Murray's arm to make the score 2-0.
A few minutes later, with just 24 seconds left in the period, Evgeni Malkin and Karl Alzner got in a scrum near the Penguins' net. Malkin appeared to inadvertently knock off Murray's helmet, and Malkin's stick caught Murray in the face.
Murray left the ice to go to the locker room, and Fleury relieved him for the rest of the night.
Fleury stopped the first shot he faced, with eight seconds left in the period, but gave up a rebound that Oshie tipped home to give the Capitals a 3-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
Fleury finished with 19 saves in relief of Murray, but gave up five goals. Murray had 12 saves before he was removed.
Dmitry Orlov added the Capitals' fourth goal 5:19 into the second period, when he took a feed from Marcus Johansson in the high slot and fired a low shot that found its way past Fleury. Justin Williams, Alex Ovechkin and Backstrom _ who finished the night with two goals and three assists _ added scores in the third to complete the rout. Phil Kessel scored the Penguins' lone goal with 3:30 remaining to avoid the shutout.
The Penguins were outshot, 39-26, and had no answer for the Capitals' relentless offensive firepower. They also appeared to return to their early-season habit of taking too many bad penalties, giving the Capitals seven power-play opportunities on the night, two of which turned into goals.
The loss is just the Penguins' second regulation loss in their past nine games, but also second in their last three, following a 4-2 defeat to Minnesota on Thursday night.
They return to action Friday night with a road game in Brooklyn against the Islanders.
