4 things the Penguins need to beat the Capitals without Crosby

With Sidney Crosby's latest concussion -- suffered after a headshot from Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen during Game 3 -- the Penguins' hopes of repeating as Stanley Cup champions took a significant hit. 

Crosby is arguably the best player in the world, so his absence will certainly be felt as long as he's sidelined. With his lengthy concussion history, there's reason to think it may be a while. 

The Penguins, who were already without top defenseman Kris Letang and starting goalie Matt Murray, now have to forge forward without Crosby and Conor Sheary, who also suffered a concussion in Monday's Game 3. 

Fortunately for Pittsburgh, though the road is now more difficult, this series against the Capitals is still a winnable one. Here's what they're going to need to weather the storm.

The Penguins and their fans are pissed, and understandably so. They just lost their best player indefinitely because of a bad hit. It probably doesn't make them feel better that Niskanen avoided supplemental discipline.

Emotions are going to be running extra high for the rest of the series. That's not necessarily a bad thing for the Pens, as long as they can avoid turning this thing from devolving into a gong show.  

Pittsburgh needs to avoid feeling discouraged or sorry for themselves. Instead, they need to use whatever anger resides in them to be explosive early in Wednesday's Game 4, which could easily be a make-or-break game in this series. 

A win on home ice Wednesday would give the Penguins a three-to-one series lead and a major emotional lift. A loss would even the series and create further dejection for the Pens as the series heads back to Washington.

Crosby was playing brilliant hockey prior to the injury, picking up 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in just seven postseason games.

While it's nearly impossible to replace the level of skill and production that No. 87 brings to a lineup, Evgeni Malkin is a pretty phenomenal guy to fall back on. 

The Russian forward will have to step up and slot in as the team's top offensive weapon down the middle in Crosby's absence. 

Luckily for Pittsburgh, Malkin has proved to be a beast in this kind of situation in the past.

Without Crosby in the lineup, Malkin has amassed 154 points (66 goals, 88 assists) in 118 games over the course of his career. That's more than just a solid option in relief. That's astounding.

The Penguins are a team with major talent and depth, so they can still turn to guys like Phil Kessel, Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist and Nick Bonino to pick up some offensive slack.

But with Crosby out, Malkin is now their star playmaker and he's going to need to be great. Bringing his A-game will be necessary in countering the Caps' firepower up front.

Speaking of that Washington firepower, the Penguins are also going to miss Crosby's two-way game while he's out.

It's easy to appreciate Crosby's contributions to the stat sheet but his work defensively is also key -- especially against a team that's as good as the Caps are up front.

It goes without saying that Pittsburgh will need to play well defensively if they hope to have any chance of outdueling Washington, but the biggest factor may stand between the pipes.

After a shaky regular season, Marc-Andre Fleury has been excellent for the Pens while filling in for the injured Matt Murray this postseason. The veteran netminder has posted a .933 save-percentage over eight games while facing the most shots per game (37.3) of any goaltender in these playoffs. He's made saves like this to keep his team in games.

If the Penguins hope to hold off the Caps, they're going to need more of the same from Fleury in net. Washington knows a thing or two about running into hot goaltending and how tough that is to overcome. If Fleury can steal a game in the next few matchups, it could be fatal for the opposition. 

After dropping the first two games of the series, the Caps looked to be heading down a troublesome (yet familiar) road straight towards another postseason disappointment. 

They came away with a big win in Game 3 but not before coming oh-so-close to choking that one away in the final minutes of regulation. 

Washington has a very deep, very talented roster and we've heard all season that this may finally be their year to make a deep Cup run. We all knew they'd have to get past Pittsburgh to do so and now, without Crosby and Letang in the lineup for the Pens, they have as good a shot as ever.

Despite still being up in the series, the Penguins still have to be concerned about a major shift in the wake of the Crosby incident. 

But if there's one team in the Eastern Conference that could still find a way to lose to a Crosby-less, Letang-less, Murray-less, Sheary-less Penguins team...that team would probably be the Capitals.