Penguins games in Chicago are just the coolest. They rule so hard and are the best things to ever exist.
With a chance to move into a playoff spot and jump above the Islanders and into 3rd place in the Metro, the Penguins had to shake off some demons and win in Chicago for the first time since 2009.
They chose to not do that thing, instead staying in the first non-playoff loser position despite overcoming two separate deficits.
Since that last win in 2009, the Pens have gone 0-5-2 in Chicago, getting outscored 31-10 in that 7 game stretch. In 69 (nice) games all time in Chicago, an organization that has iced some pretty bad teams since 1967 (up to and including this current iteration), the Penguins are 12-45-2 with 10 ties.
All this is to say there’s no point in the Pens even going to Chicago anymore because they game is already decided before they even touch down at O’Hare and the entire city of Chicago would be better off at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Do it, NHL.
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1008708634396721153?lang=en
LINEUP
This is how the Penguins will line 'em up in the Windy City. pic.twitter.com/PzakUii9Bv
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 13, 2018
After scoring a goal on Crosby’s wing Monday night on Long Island, Brassard got the start on the top line again in this one because recency bias whips ass. Kessel’s strong play with Crosby got him shipped back down to Malkin’s line to try to kickstart Geno’s heart, while Sheahan got 3C duties with Cullen getting healthy and coming back into the fray (and Hornqvist going on IR to activate Cullen). No changes to the blue line that played the Isles and the only change in goal was Matt Murray coming back from injury to back up DeSmith, which meant Jarry was sent back down to WBS.
GOALS
CHI – 1st Pd./14:14 – Martinsen; A: Dahlstrom, Kruger – 1-0
After getting the doors blown off of their entire organization the night before against Winnipeg, Chicago came out with a much different look against the Guins because of course they goddamn did. They controlled much of the play early on before everything sort of leveled out, but in the back half of the opening 20 minutes, they started turning it on again, with their first goal coming during that stretch of play.
Following a dump in with their 4th line on the ice matched up against Malkin’s line+DumouLetang, the Pens D looked like they had it dealt with, but Letang just wasn’t able to get enough mustard on the puck as he tried to move it up the wall. Hayden took possession and worked it down low to Martinsen, who tried to force a pass to Kruger in the high slot. Kruger kicked it out to the point for a shot into traffic that he himself ended up chipping off the crossbar to create Kruger Khaos in the goal mouth. He stayed with it and got it to Dahlstrom on the halfwall for a shot with DeSmith totally down and out, getting a bounce off of Martinsen’s chest to open the scoring.
Still no idea what in the ever loving hell this whole sequence was outside of pigshitballs.jpg
lol wut pic.twitter.com/JSCMPi1JKe
— nerd king geoff (@geoffwithano) December 13, 2018
CHI – 1st Pd./17:51 – Seabrook; A: Toews – 2-0
Then, about 3.5 minutes later, the Hawks would double their lead, stemming from a Guentzel turnover so ugly that it’d have to pay you to fuck it with someone else’s dick (or balls!). The kicker was that the Pens top line was putting on a clinic on this shift, but the turnover forced Guentzel and Brassard to play as defensemen, which they are distinctly not.
So Saad drove right at Guentzel with speed after Kampf forced picked the puck off and took Maatta out of the play. Saad’s speed carried him wide around Guentzel as he got the puck in deep. The Pens still had numbers in the corner and came away with the puck, but because they had 4 players committed to winning said puck battle, Maatta had no one to move the puck to when he eventually came away with it. Instead, he gave it to Seabrook, who immediately shipped it back down low before it kicked back out for he and Toews to dance with up high.
Seabrook’s shot came in and, once again, we were left with DeSmtih scrambling to do something with the shot and the ensuing chaos. Toews came away with it again, feeding Seabrook again and DeSmith, this time, was left with no chance to make a save.
Guentzel going down for the block took DeSmith’s sight away here. Not sure he even saw the shot until it was hitting the back of the net.
PIT – 1st Pd./18:40 – Rust; A: N/A – 2-1
But on the next shift, the Penguins stemmed the tide and the Blackhawks onslaught for a handful of seconds before actually getting the puck out of their zone and getting in behind Corey Crawford’s net with some scrappy play. Pettersson looked like he had two chances to bury one, first coming off a shot from the dot and the second coming as the biscuit bounced out to him on the side of the yawning 4×6, but it just wouldn’t go. The newest Penguin circled back, directing a shot back towards the Blackhawks net that, again, ended up behind the goal. ZAR and Sheahan went to work to muck and grind, eventually forcing Duncan Keith to pass the puck to Rust circling down low in support.
No one needed a goal more than Rust and boy, what a shot to get your first in a month and a half. Dude didn’t even have to ask if he should snipe. Approval was granted in October, boo boo.
PIT – 2nd Pd./5:46 – Rust; A: Grant – 2-2
Though the Pens couldn’t keep up their flurry of control that followed between Rust’s first and the first intermission, they were able to draw level against the run of play just 5:46 into the 2nd period.
After winning the puck in their own end of the ice, Cullen was able to chip the puck in the neutral zone to get a brief reprieve as PKane gathered and moved it to Seabrook to reset for the breakout, but Derek Grant had other plans. First, Grant gets a big piece of Seabrook’s breakout pass, directing it to the boards for he and Rust to overtake PKane. Seabrook jumped up to try to collect it from his shitbag teammate, but again, Derek Grant dropped a hammer dick on Seabrook’s forehead, taking the puck around Seabrook and rifling a Pass Off The Pads for Rust to jump in and bang home.
CHI – 2nd Pd./15:28 – PPG – DeBrincat; A: Kane, Seabrook – 3-2
Over the next 10 minutes, the play was pretty evenly distributed among the two teams until the DeaMan went off for holding Jokiharju, which is definitely a real name and not just the result of a small woodland creature walking across a keyboard with its small woodland creature paws.
After the Pens sent the puck down the ice for Seabrook to break it out, they looked like they had the far side of the ice locked down and even got a decent piece of Patrick Kane’s cross-ice pass. But that deflection ended up throwing off everyone’s timing for two reasons. 1) They all stopped and looked like they thought the play was dead and 1B) DeBrincat was able to somehow control the puck on the backhand, keep his trailing skate on the ice to stay onside, and still keep his speed.
1B is what left Maatta for dead. Maatta plays this as if DeBrincat isn’t controlling this puck (because no one should have been able to) and is either going to leave it for Hayden behind DeBrincat or drive wide and try to get in deep. DeBrincat, though, is shifty as all hell and was able to cut inside on Maatta and chip the puck high glove on DeSmith to give the Hawks the lead again.
Make no bones about it: Maatta got walked here, but this is more of one of those plays where everything leading up to it did not help maatters and one of those goals where you just have to tip your hat to the puck carrier. Unreal goal.
PIT – 2nd Pd./19:03 – Rust; A: Maatta, Aston-Reese – 3-3
The Penguins, though, were not going away quite yet. For what felt like the first time all season, a puck was sent behind the Pens net that Jack Johnson retrieved and actually moved it to his own teammate, hitting Sheahan to spring him up ice with ZAR. ZAR would end up taking the slightly errant pass and dumping it in, keeping his speed up and getting in the way of Crawford’s attempted clear.
ZAR kept chugging along up the wall, getting a fortunate bounce as he tried to force a pass to Rust drifting in the backdoor for it to pop out to Maatta at the point. The Hawks were reeling and no one would’ve faulted Maatta for bombing on to try to blow the back of the net off, but instead, Olli redeemed the hell out of himself for getting undressed by DeBrincat with a brainiac play to fire a shot-pass down below the dot to Rust for a shot that caromed in behind Crawford off Seabrook.
Seriously, you guys. This play by Maatta was special. Watch it again. The way he sold the shot froze everyone on the ice and catches Seabrook out of position was incredible. Seabrook looking like Sub-Zero hit him with that ice orb thing is probably the only reason Rust scores here.
Rust goes from never scoring another goal again in his life to scoring on like every shot he takes in perpetuity. Also, what a heads up play from Maatta to give it the ol' shot-pass instead of bombing one on goal pic.twitter.com/ZyvhIyqHzR
— nerd king geoff (@geoffwithano) December 13, 2018
CHI – 3rd Pd./3:49 – Kruger; A: Martinsen, Keith – 4-3
However, as the final period opened up, Malkin found himself in the box for hooking up Perlini just 99 seconds into it.
The Pens PK was much better this time around, killing it off with the final blow coming from Rust lugging and dumping. Duncan Keith claimed the loose puck and weaved his way through the neutral zone as the final few seconds of the penalty dissipated, chipping it down low for Dylan Strome to pursue. He was able to take Johnson and Pettersson out of the play and create space for Martinsen to jump in behind, collect the puck and slam on the brakes before feeding Kruger all alone in front for the go-ahead goal.
What a fucking mess. Full credit to Strome here for bodying up on Johnson and out-muscling him here, using JJ73 to literally take Pettersson out of the play and turn the puck over. Johnson is very clearly going back to the puck here to run interference for Pettersson, which is good and fine and nothing out of the ordinary. But if you’re going to do that, you cannot be the reason your D partner cannot make a play on the puck. You’ve gotta be stronger than that first forechecker, especially if you have close to 30 lbs. on him. Period.
But this isn’t all on Johnson. It’s also on Malkin and Crosby. Watch both here as Martinsen picks up the puck. Geno steps to him while Martinsen is still facing the glass. You’d bet the house on Geno coming away with the puck here and it looks like Crosby absolutely does that thing, figuratively speaking (the law doesn’t allow him to bet Mario’s house on a play). But as Martinsen spins, Malkin just gives up on the play. He turns around and starts heading north. By this point, Crosby is toast. In expecting Malkin to steal the puck, he stops defending altogether and allows Kruger to post up in front of DeSmith to take the pass and sweep it home. Even if you expect your teammate to win the puck, you still cannot switch off defensively and that’s precisely what Sid did here.
CHI – 3rd Pd./18:58 – ENG – Toews; A: Saad – 5-3
The Pens would go on to get a PP chance that they didn’t convert, got a few other chances before DeSmith vacated the net for the extra attacker with about 2 minutes to play, but nothing really after that. They struggled to even get the puck off of the wall and when Letang had to go back to reset after a clearance, he was left with next to nothing up ice as Kampf put him under duress. Phil! couldn’t get to the pass, they all got pinned against the glass, and Saad was the beneficiary, gathering it and hitting Toews on the far side for the gimme goal.
CHI – 3rd Pd./19:39 – ENG – Saad; A: Toews – 6-3
The Pittsburgh boy would go on to finish this shit off less than a minute later after Toews blocked Letang’s attempt at getting the puck to the front of the net, chipping it by 58 for Saad to latch onto and deposit home.
Ball game.
NOTES
- Rust went 21 games without scoring a goal, then scores a hat trick on 8 shots. This sport is dumb and makes no sense.
- To that point about this sport being dumb and making no sense, Chicago played the night before in Winnipeg. They’re basically the worst team in hockey, having lost their last like 200 games or something, and coming in on the back end of a B2B. They were ripe for the picking and the Pens just didn’t put them to the sword.
- At 5v5 last night, Chicago took a 53-52 edge in shot attempts, but it was the Penguins owning the shares of everything else. Pittsburgh attempted 45 unblocked shot attempts compared to the 32 the Hawks levied (58.44% share), generated 5 more scoring chances (20-15), and 8 more high danger chances (12-4). What’s more, the Pens hit the target with 39 of their 52 shot attempts at 5v5 and ended up with 43 shots on goal in total on the night. At all strengths, they out-expected-goalsed the Hawks to the tune of 2.31-1.68 (2.12-1.31 at 5v5). The funny thing about all of that, too, is that of the 25 shots Casey DeSmith faced at 5v5, only 4 came from the high danger areas of the ice (which deflected off Martinsen’s body). He gave up one goal from there and two goals on the two medium danger shots against, but of those 25, 18 (!!!!) came from low danger areas. The Pens limited shit against him, for whatever that’s worth. On the other side, the Blackhawks didn’t do a whole lot to help Crawford out. Giving up 43 shots is never good and of the 39 that came at 5v5, 12 came from the HD areas. That said, 22 of the 39 came from low danger areas (and two goals). At the end of the day, there were nearly 4 combined expected goals and 7 actual goals (plus 2 empty netters), so take that for what it’s worth too.
- Worth noting that Jack Johnson was nothing short of terrible last night. He was on the ice for 15:18 of 5v5 ice time and the Pens generated just 4 shot attempts in that time, while giving up 17 against (19.05% share, far and away the worst on the team). He was also on the ice for just 2 scoring chances for and 6 against (25%) despite starting 80% of his shifts in the offensive zone.
- Wanted to make special mention of the Brassers-Sid-Bake line because it felt like they were a threat every time they were on the ice, but that’s likely because of the inhuman way Sidney Crosby is playing the game right now. In 16:23 of 5v5 ice time together, they controlled 51.43% of the shot attempts, 52.63% of the shots on goal, 66.67% of the scoring chances and 75% of the high danger chances, most of which came against the Saad-Toews-Kahun-Keith-Jokiharju group.
The Peng head back home for back-to-back games Friday and Saturday night as the Bruins and now-league-worse LA Kings come to town. Bury them. Go Pens.
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