THINGS ABOUT TO GET INTENSE FOR PENS-CAPS

Nobody outside of Pittsburgh is convinced Tom Wilson (pictured) deliberately tried to knock Brian Dumoulin’s block off — the league didn’t even call the robust Capitals winger to the carpet for a discussion — but the defending Cup champs should know they’ll have to keep their heads up in the quest for a threepeat.

The Penguins are trying to win their 10th playoff series in a row. Conventional attempts to derail them haven’t worked. It’s only natural that, at some point, frustration is bound to turn into anger which will turn into violence.

At the risk of completely misinterpreting a famous quote, even Conn Smythe himself figured beating 'em in the alley would soften 'em up on the ice.

“Over the last handful of seasons teams have tried different tactics, to try to play against us, in order to try to beat us,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said on the podium Monday. “Sometimes it’s physical play and aggression. That doesn’t mean our team doesn’t have physcial play or push back, we certainly do, but we certainly don’t want to get caught up playing somebody else’s game. We’re going to play our game. We’re going to try to stay focused on the game that we know that gives us the best chance to win.” Dumoulin, the Penguins second best defenceman, passed concussion protocol and skated and practiced with his teammates. While all the team’s injured players are a “game time decision” in the playoffs, he’ll likely be in the lineup when the deadlocked series moves to PPG Paints Arena for Game 3 on Tuesday.

It should be a very physical encounter.

“It’s playoff hockey, that’s what you expect,” Sidney Crosby told reporters around his locker on Monday. “With each game the intensity and the emotion increases. That’s the way Game 2 was and it will continue to be like that as we go along.”