WASHINGTON -- And so what you hope if you're the Pittsburgh Penguins is that you didn't just deliver your hardest punch and still come up empty.
The opportunity was there for a road win Thursday night to open this electrifying second-round series, the Penguins outshooting the Washington Capitals 45-35 and putting the Presidents' Trophy winners on their heels for long stretches courtesy of their north-south speed game.
It was there for the taking.
Instead, the favorites prevailed 4-3 on T.J. Oshie's hat-trick goal in overtime, a loss the Penguins hope they won't look back on after the series as an early turning point.
"This series is going to be awfully close," Penguins veteran center Matt Cullen said. "I just think that we have another level that we didn't quite get to tonight. We have an opportunity here in a couple of nights to get back at it."
In the meantime, the Penguins' leadership group will be charged in the coming 48 hours to make sure the team doesn't dwell on what could have been. The great teams in this league learn to move on quickly.
"You have to," captain Sidney Crosby said after a thrilling opener between the rivals. "That's the nature of the playoffs. I think, win or lose, you've got to turn the page pretty quick and make sure that you learn from the game. But yeah, you have to turn the page quick."
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan, for one, does not believe it's the kind of loss, when they perhaps deserved a better fate, that will linger.
"No. This game could have gone either way," he said. "It was an even game. Our guys played hard. I thought we carried stretches of momentum for long periods of time. It didn't go our way. We'll learn from it, put it behind us, and we'll try to get Game 2."
For starters, you can bet Crosby and linemates Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary will be better in Game 2. All three sported a minus-3 courtesy of being on the ice for all three of Oshie's goals, the Caps definitely winning the opening-game matchup between those lines.
You're not going to do that to Crosby for an entire series.
On the flip side, the Penguins showed their depth will be a factor because as Crosby's line was shut down, the third line centered by Nick Bonino was impactful in producing two goals.
"We were shooting a lot, I think we had a shot or a chance every shift," Bonino said. "We were happy how we played as a line. That's what we were waiting for. Hopefully it continues."
Another positive for the Penguins moving forward was the Game 1 performance from rookie goalie Matt Murray. Sure, he should have had Oshie's second goal of the night, 3:23 into the third period, a weak backhand that found the five-hole. But he more than made up for that with three breakaway saves on Alex Ovechkin.
Overall, this is a 21-year-old kid who looked as if he belonged; in fact, he appeared as though he was embracing the moment.
"It was fun, to be honest, I'm trying to enjoy every minute of this ride," the native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, said. "Win or lose, I think I have that same feeling. I have a ton of fun out here. I was happy with how I competed and thought I made some good saves. Just a couple of weird ones here and there that cost us the game. But happy with how I played and definitely had a good time out there."
Game 1 showed us what this series will be all about, the two teams taking turns playing the game they wanted to play. It is in those stretches that each team needs to maximize its chances.
The Penguins, to me, looked like a team that ran out of gas a little late in the game after pushing so hard for a long stretch in the second and third periods.
"We let them dictate in overtime," Bonino said of the Caps. "We played a little bit back more than we usually do. We let them come in on the rush. That's the way to beat us."
The lesson for Pittsburgh in Game 1 was to deliver the knockout punch when they had a chance.
The NHL's No. 1 team won't give you that many.