3 least impressive Pittsburgh Penguins players from 8-3 loss to Washington Capitals feat. Alex Nedeljkovic

The Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals both resumed their regular season schedules following the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament break Saturday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

For the Capitals, they were aiming to maintain their Metropolitan Division lead, while the Penguins hoped to gain valuable ground in the postseason race that currently sees them on the outside looking in.

But with the way they played against the Capitals, fans could be excused for thinking that the Penguins gave up on any attempt at the postseason weeks ago.

Seven different Capitals players scored along with a two-goal performance from defenseman Jakob Chychrun as part of an 8-3 embarrassing loss by the Penguins, dropping them to 23-26-9; the Capitals improved to 37-11-8.

The scoring was opened at the 5:13 mark of the first period, as Washington's Ethen Frank scored his fourth goal. However, the Penguins knotted the score late in the period thanks to a power-play goal from Kris Letang.

The second period was nothing short of a house of horrors for the Penguins. The Capitals scored five goals, including two from Chychrun along with tallies from Martin Fehevary, Aliaksei Protas, and Tom Wilson.

Sidney Crosby managed a goal for the Penguins, his 18th.

Dylan Strome and Brandon Duhaime scored for the Capitals in the game's final frame, while Danton Heinen tallied for the Penguins.

Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic was yanked from the net after allowing five goals on 14 shots; his replacement Joel Blomqvist made 14 saves on 17 shots in relief. Logan Thompson stopped 29 shots in the win for Washington.

3 least impressive Pittsburgh Penguins players from 8-3 loss to Washington Capitals

#1. Alex Nedeljkovic

Alex Nedeljkovic supplanted Tristan Jarry as the starter in the Penguins crease, but he looked like anything but a bonafide NHL starter against the Capitals on Saturday.

Finishing the game with a poor .643 save percentage, Nedeljkovic didn't do himself any favors by surrendering five goals, a few of which were stoppable pucks.

#2. Matt Nieto

Relied upon mostly for his defensive capabilities rather than offensive, Nieto's defensive performance was as porous as the rest of his club's. He finished tied for a team-worst -3 rating, getting caught out of position several times on Washington's goals.

#3. Vincent Desharnais

Like Nieto, Desharnais finished below the even level in plus-minus in what was a poor afternoon overall for the entire team, and had zero points.

He also took two separate penalties while contributing nothing offensively.