Let’s have a chat about the Penguins start to the season, shall we?
To recap, the Pens are 2-1-2 through 5 games, good for 6 points. That’s pretty middle-of-the-pack average, which about sums them up right now: They’re annoyingly average.
They’ve not played a single full 60 minute effort of good, correct hockey in those 5 games, but have had stretches of good, correct play. They’ve also had stretches of ostrich piss bad play.
These are the ebbs and flows of the NHL season. Especially that of an NHL season that’s still in its infancy.
Games, shifts, plays, they sometimes don’t go your way. That’s part of the beauty of this sport, right? It don’t come easy.
Would it be cool if Matt Murray returned back to being a .920 goalie? Or if Olli Maatta returned to his 2017-18 form? Or if Crosby’s luck broke his way on a few of his unlimited chances? Would it also be cool of they stopped giving up unblocked shot attempts in high danger areas on a nightly basis or didn’t have the 7th worst expected goals against in the league?
Of course it would be.
Here’s the thing: if this team is consistently playing like dog ass night in and night out in February/March/April, then maybe it’s time for cannibalism or whatever. But I think we’d all take this team spinning tires out of the gate in October with some lackluster performances and hit its stride come March/April any day of the week rather than see them come out guns blazing, only to burn out and fall off a cliff in February.
Until the latter happens, we’ll take these ordinary performances with a grain of salt for the time being.
LINEUP
Who's ready for some hockey? pic.twitter.com/gCoRI7ezp2
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 16, 2018
With Justin Schultz being out the next 4+ months with a fractured leg, Oleksiak drew back into the lineup to hook Jack Johnson up to his rig and tow him around the ice (albeit temporarily), while Riikola got the same task with Maatta (temporarily). No changes to the forward group that fell to Montreal in a shootout over the weekend. The Smith vs. Nilsson between the pipes.
Projected #Canucks line-up from @BostonPizza. LET’S GOOOOO!!!! pic.twitter.com/2HA04MYAtL
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 16, 2018
GOALS
PIT – 1st Pd./6:24 – Guentzel; A: N/A – 1-0
Make no bones about it, the Penguins were not very good in the first period last night. They got outshot 11-5, out-attempted 22-16, gave up 12 scoring chances while only generating 7 for themselves and, of the 5 total high danger scoring chances, the Penguins only created one for themselves.
From puck drop, it was all Vancouver. But it was all Jake Guentzel opening the scoring for the Peng on the tail end of some up and down play.
After a Penguins dump in, Anders Nilsson decidedly turned the puck over to 87 sealing off the boards. He tried to recycle it back behind the net to Brassers, but the pass eluded him and allowed the Canucks to exit their zone by way of beating a late pinching Jack Johnson and heading in on a 2v1 on Oleksiak. The Big Rig pushed Granlund before going down to take away the passing lane, forcing Granlund to throw his cross-crease feed behind Motte.
With the Pens still backchecking, Edler was there to clean it up, but his attempted pass to the slot got picked off by Guentzel, turning it up ice with Crosby on a 2v1 of their own on Tanev. Tanev was in a good position to take away Guentzel, who eventually decided on shooting the rolling puck rather than forcing a pass across to 87, beating Nilsson 6-hole.
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VAN – 1st Pd./8:55 – Hutton; A: Schaller, Granlund – 1-1
But 2:31 later, with the play firmly in their favor, Vancouver struck back on a riotous play following a lost puck battle in the corner betwee Oleksiak/Sheahan and Schaller/Granlund. And before Hornqvist had his chance to shift down to grab the freed puck, it was out to the point to Gudbranson, who just turned and threw it towards the net. Looked like Motte got a stick on it, directing it in on The Smith before he toppled over from his skate colliding with Johnson’s. Granlund, in possession behind the net, looked to find Schaller in front (tied up by Oleksiak and Hornqvist), but instead found Hutton streaking in from the point to beat The Flailing Smith.
Just an odd goal from a sort of broken defensive play. When the puck is on Granlund’s stick behind the net, he only has Schaller in support as an option. Schaller was surrounded by both Oleksiak and Hornqvist, with the former doing a fine enough job with his active stick to force Granlund into a pass he may not have wanted to make. Sheahan is getting back involved in the play, keeping Granlund from cycling it back up the wall and with Motte going for a chance, the Penguins have numbers in their own zone and a 4v2 in front of the net. Johnson is sort of in no man’s land after losing his footing colliding with DeSmith, leaving Rust to take care of the guys at the point and keep tabs on whomever jumped off the bench for Motte. Tough to really put it all on Johnson, but it’s worth asking here: who the fuck is he picking up?
Anyway, this goal is a microcosm of the Pens season so far: have the advantage, but can’t pull their heads out of their asses long enough to use it.
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VAN – 1st Pd./18:56 – Sutter; A: Schaller, Motte – 2-1
Ten minutes later, Vancouver would get their first lead of the game. Just before their goal, there was a play that looked as if the Pens were going to give up a goal about 20 seconds before they actually did because of Jack Johnson’s frustratingly slow skating ability:
https://twitter.com/G_Off817/status/1052352123168612352
They were able to avoid any damage and get the puck back up ice and into the Nucks zone with Crosby taking a pass at the blue line and getting it into the zone for Bake to swoop in on a give and go with 87. Sid got his backhander towards the net with both Brassers and Guentzel crashing, but with all three of them behind the goal and the puck ricocheting off the end wall, Motte, Sutter, and Schaller were free to take off on a 3v2. Johnson, unable to get a change, didn’t have the best gap on Motte, allowing him to get into the zone and cut directly into the middle of the ice. However, Motte’s pass to Schaller went awry, allowing Dumo to pin him to the boards and try to eat the puck. Schaller was able to wriggle free, though, circling behind the net with Dumo in pursuit. Johnson left his post to go and try to hit Schaller after he had released the puck. Johnson was not looking at or for the puck and you can’t help but think that if he had just stayed put in front of the net and defends, he breaks up the pass and Sutter doesn’t get a freebie on the back stick (especially if Malkin and Guentzel do something to pick up Motte and Sutter there instead of watching the puck).
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PIT – 3rd Pd./16:46 – Hagelin; A: Phil!, Malkin – 2-2
If this game was a new music festival called Snooze Fest (held every year in Mesa, Arizona), then the 2nd period was that band on a side stage that only plays shitty Cursive covers.
From a shooting standpoint, the Pens were better than they were in the first, but that’s also like saying a dogshit taco doesn’t taste as bad as a cowshit taco.
At evens, the Pens attempted 20 shots to the Canucks 15, registered a commanding 14-5 edge in scoring chances with a 7-3 advantage in high danger chances. The opportunities were there, but the only play that showed up in the “What You Missed” section of the Pens broadcast was a huge DeSmith save on a 4v4 situation after Maatta and Johnson got worked on a 3v2.
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That save gave the Pens something to work with, but despite some nice looks for Crosby (who may never score again), they weren’t able to find the equalizer until just over 3 minutes to play in regulation.
After a rush and chance at one end of the ice, Vancouver was able to get it to Jake Virtanen in their own zone to chip by a retreating Olli Maatta, burning him in the process. Maatta stayed tight in his chase despite looking like he was Wario stuck in quick sand at Rice Beach, forcing Virtanen into the far corner with an active stick. As Virtanen tried to find a d-man at the point, Maatta (with the help of Phil!), broke it up for Geno to latch on and hit Phil! exiting the zone on a 2v1 with Hags on Gudbranson.
Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Phil Kessel show. Everyone knows about Kessel’s shot and speed. Both of which were too overpowering for Gudbranson to handle. First, he and Hags were on top of Gudbranson before he knew what to do. Gudbranson starts by taking away the pass to Hags, down on one knee and stick in the lane. Phil! opens up his blade, kicks his leg out to make it look like he’s going to shoot. As soon as his blade opens, Gudbranson starts to stand back up in preparation of a rebound. But in doing so, and Nilsson going down reading shot, Phil! dupes the hell out of all of them, slipping the pass to Hagelin on the back post to taperoo. It’s little stuff like this that separates Phil! from the rest of this planet.
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PIT – OT/0:34 – Boeser; A: Tanev – 3-2
That’d be good enough to get us to OT, where the Canucks would be good enough to get the extra point. Crosby-Guentzel-Letang got the start for the Pens on the 3v3, getting some shit rolling with a shot and scoring chance. But when Nilsson made the save on the Letang shot and Tanev collected the rebound, they were finally off the other way. Tanev circled the net, pulled Guentzel with him to open up Boeser for the drop pass. Boeser lugged the mail through the neutral zone free of charge with Crosby making a change. both Letang and Guentzel backed off enough that Boeser picked his spot, going after Guentzel instead of Letang. And boy, can this kid shoot the puck.
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Jake is no Dumoulin and Boeser was able to change the angle enough on the shot and use Bake as a screen. Can’t do too much about that.
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Game.
NOTES
- What Sid starts scoring, look the fuck out. He had 3 shots at even strength last night, 6 attempted shots, 5 scoring chances, and one high danger chance. It’s not as if he’s not getting looks at the net.
- There is not enough praise available on the planet for the duo of Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin. Full disclosure: I’m working on a zone exit/entry project and, from what I’ve gathered so far, Brian Dumoulin’s efficiency with the puck on his stick in his own end of the ice is bonkers how good it is. Last night, these two were on the ice at 5v5 for 20 shot attempts for and just 9 against (68.97% share), 8 scoring chances for and 3 against (72.73% share), and high danger chances for and 1 against (75% share). Letang himself led the team in shots at even strength (4) and shot attempts (9). They have perhaps been the most steadying force in this lineup so far this season.
- Partway through the game, HCMS flipped Maatta and Johnson, putting Maatta with Oleksiak and Johnson with Riikola and it seemed to be a little less bad in terms of their rare Corsi for share. Johnson-Riikola had a 53.33% share of shot attempts at 5v5, while the Maatta-Riikola pairing sat at 44.44%. Johnson-Oleksiak, on the other hand, sat at a staggeringly bad 22.22% share, while Oleksiak-Maatta were an even 50%. Something to keep an eye on moving forward.
- Casey DeSmith with another solid outing despite his .885 SV%. Could’ve been much worse and he’s proving to be a reliable player when the back-to-backs start rolling around.
Pens start a 4 game Canadian road trip tomorrow as they head to Toronto before going to Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver next week. Do it.
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