WASHINGTON _ When Penguins coach Mike Sullivan wants to shake things up on his power play, he can juggle defensemen between Kris Letang and Justin Schultz.
If he wants to get a different net-front look, Sullivan can choose between Jake Guentzel and Patric Hornqvist.
Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
That sort of power-play depth flexed its collective muscle Wednesday, as the penalty-prone Capitals afforded the Penguins plenty of opportunities. They cashed in big-time, scoring three power-play goals en route to a 3-2 victory at Capital One Arena.
Kris Letang, Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary got those goals, two of them coming while the second unit was on the ice.
Matt Murray stopped 20 of 22 shots to help his team wash the final tastes of last Thursday's 10-1 loss at Chicago out of its mouth as the Penguins picked up their first road win of the season.
The Penguins have now won 15 of their last 22 regular-season games in Washington. They ran their record to 9-1-1 in their last 11 here when scoring first.
It wasn't just the power play that did the job either, although that unit improved to 5 for 18 (27.8 percent) over the first four games of the season.
The Penguins' penalty kill _ a bit of a worry spot over the summer _ has looked exceeding good thus far, too. They snuffed out all four of Washington's power-play chances on Wednesday, extending their run to 17 straight.
Carter Rowney and Tom Kuhnhackl have seemingly grown into larger penalty-killing roles, while Greg McKegg has used his speed and faceoff ability there to nail down regular NHL work.
Hornqvist made his 2017-18 debut in this one, and his presence was felt right away.
With Matt Niskanen off for slashing, Hornqvist tapped a cross-crease pass to Letang, who backhanded a shot past Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby at 5:22 of the opening period for his first tally since Feb. 4, the result of offseason neck surgery.
That goal gave Letang two goals and 12 points over his previous 14 regular-season games dating back to Feb. 3.
Hornqvist was plenty aggressive on the forecheck, delivering a hard hit on Washington defenseman Aaron Ness early. Later, Hornqvist showed that his timing is perfectly fine with a goal to make it 2-0 at 8:20 of the second period.
Hornqvist drew a penalty on Capitals rookie defenseman Christian Djoos to give the Penguins the man-advantage _ his second drawn penalty of the game _ and poked a puck under Holtby's left arm during a scrum in front of the net.
The goal gave Hornqvist five goals in 11 regular-season games played against the Capitals as a member of the Penguins.
When Niskanen was called for interference at 11:20 of the second period, it represented the fifth Capitals minor penalty of the night, the third time in four games they've had that many or more.
Djoos made up for his penalty when he scored his first NHL goal at 19:07 of the second period, cutting the Penguins' lead to 2-1. The goal was one Murray probably wanted back, too.
Washington center Lars Eller set up Djoos for a one-timer in the right circle. Djoos fired a shot that Murray couldn't glove. Instead, it was under his left arm short side.
The goal gave the Capitals life heading into the intermission, but it didn't properly represent a period where the Penguins dominated possession for long stretches; they accounted for 22 of the 36 shots attempted during the middle session.
The Penguins received a payoff for that just 38 seconds into the third period, when Schultz delivered a beautiful feed to Sheary, who stuck his stick in front of his skate and directed the puck past Holtby for his second of the season.
With seven goals scored through three games, Alex Ovechkin was a popular topic of conversation at Wednesday's morning skate. We have to limit his opportunities, time and space, Penguins players said.
They mostly did that, but Ovechkin is still Ovechkin. He got a couple of glorious chances on a power play early, then nearly snuck a puck under Murray's glove later.
Ovechkin finally broke through at 12:51 of the third period, one-timing a Djoos pass from in tight and out-muscling Chad Ruhwedel for his eighth of the season, which cut the Penguins' lead down to 3-2.
