These days, games against the Colorado Avalanche feel like they should be a foregone conclusion. The game flow will be predictable and the Penguins should trot away with an easy win.
Last night, Jonathan Bernier had other plans.
He played the perfect road game, stopping 39 of 40 shots he faced and leading the Avs to victory.
For the Penguins, there is some obvious disappointment. Wrapping up a 5 game homestand, you’d expect them to come away with 8 points. Instead, they go back on the road after a 2-3-0 home showing. Obviously, that’s frustrating. So much so that the dramatics were in full swing after the final buzzer.
Ian Cole: "We need to figure this out, we need to figure it out in a hurry. People were preaching patience early on, but now it’s getting to the point when, if we didn’t feel an urgency to figure it out then, we certainly should now."
— Sam Werner (@sjwerner11) December 12, 2017
That frustration is natural. Losing 3 of 5 at home, dropping out of a playoff slot, and coming off a tough loss to a basement dwelling team….well… it sucks.
But Ian Cole has been around this team long enough to know how this plays out. Hell, if you’ve watched this team play for any length of time over the course of the last decade, you know how this plays out too. This is a team that always puts it together when it matters most and will continue to do that as long as Cole Harbour’s Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have pulses. If that means they have to be desperate come March and April, it just makes them an even more dangerous team to play against come late spring.
That being said, it’s December and the hard part of the schedule is behind them. They’ll be expecting to get the results, especially when they’re generally playing well enough to get them. This game probably was a microcosm of that. So ,maybe that’s why the frustration is bubbling at the surface, but the Pens did almost all of the right things against the Avs last night to, at the bare minimum, earn a point.
As mentioned, they got 40 shots on goal, with 37 of them coming at even strength. They owned 61.39% of the even strength shot attempt share (62-39) and had 29 EV scoring chances. They killed off all 4 penalties they took as well. Those are all good things that any other night will probably get you a W. They had their chances from dangerous areas and were all up in Bernier’s kitchen. But when you’re not getting the bounces, you’re not getting the bounces and that manifested itself here.
LINEUP
The troops are ready to battle. #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/eSkegtUVS7
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 11, 2017
Murray was in the starter’s crease at the morning skate, but he did not even dress.
FIRST PERIOD
Everything looked to be going the Pens way right from the opening puck drop. They opened up the game going on an 8-1 SOG run over the first 8 or so minutes. Despite that, Bernier was standing tall and stemming the tide, giving the Avs a chance to catch the Pens on the break and open the scoring. There was a mad dash midway through the period that saw Cole Harbour’s Nathan MacKinnon almost bang home two separate chances about a minute or so before Matt Hunwick almost gift-wrapped the first goal himself, coughing up the puck at the offensive blue line and partially giving up a 2v0. But he’d make some unreal play to save his own bacon by breaking up Compher’s feed to Wilson.
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About a minute after Hunwick saved his own ass, Babe Landeskog would slash Guentzel to put the Pens on their first PP of the night. ‘Tis the season for not punishing bad teams, though. The Pens managed just 2 shots on the PP and those would be the only 2 shots they’d get on goal on the powerplay for the rest of the game. Not good!
The kill allowed the Avs to settle in and actually open the scoring. After Guentzel lugged the puck through the neutral zone by himself, he dropped it off to Dumo at the point. Colorado collapsed on him, creating a turnover and sending Jost and Cole Harbour’s Nathan MacKinnon back the other way. Hand grenade city in the NZ put the puck on Cole Harbour’s MacKinnon’s stick. He went right at Letang and sent his jock into orbit, dangling around a wayward stick in the process and beat Jarry fivehole. 1-0
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HCMS did the thing and hit it with the challenge for offside. Cole Harbour’s MacKinnon’s extra little stickhandle to pull it around Letang’s outreached stick slowed up the zone entry enough for Erik Johnson to go offside on the far side of the ice by the slimmest of margins. Could not have been any closer, but the Pens got it right and avoided losing their timeout and getting rung up for an extra penalty. But holy shit, Cole Harbour’s Nathan MacKinnon’s move was sexy as all hell. That’s a Norris caliber d-man he’s making look like an E leaguer.
https://gfycat.com/RemarkableIgnorantDugong
SECOND PERIOD
Just 3:19 into the second frame, Ryan Reaves would go off to the box 3:19 for punching Sam Girard and Erik Johnson in their faces after a Bernier save/scramble in front. Sam Girard is literally a foot shorter than Reaves and may be about 105 lbs soaking wet. Absolutely stupid. The Pens would do what they do on the PK for 1:12 until Cole was shown to the sin bin for hooking up Cole Harbour’s Nathan MacKinnon to put the Avs on an abbreviated 5v3. Abbreviated meaning it lasted just 4 seconds because immediately after the ensuing draw, Cole Harbour’s Nathan MacKinnon went off for slashing Dumo to make it a 4v3. As spoiled in the opening blurb, the Pens would kill it all off.
The second period was the only period at even strength where the two seems looked relatively equal. The Pens still had a slight 14-12 advantage in even strength shot attempts, but the Avs had 8 of the 13 combined scoring chances. Cole Harbour’s Nathan MacKinnon was brilliant and was just buzzing around, damn near opening the scoring for a second time off an egregious turnover deep in the Pens zone by Letang midway through the period. Really tough save for Jarry to make, but boy was it nice.
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On the following shift, it was Jarry being victimized by himself instead of his own teammates. With the Pens heading to Vegas Thursday, he seemed eager to remind everyone of what used to be, doing his best vintage Marc-Andre Fleury impression when he went on an adventure behind the net on a dump in. Not a single clue what he was doing or thinking as he wandered a little to close to the perimeter of his trapezoidal boundary, but he gave the biscuit away to Comeau to feed Soderberg all alone in front. Unlike Vintage MAF, Jarry was able to get back, square up, and make a fine larceny.
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The two teams would go about trading off PP chances in the final minutes of the period, but neither team was up to punishing the other as Jarry and Bernier would make 11 and 11 apiece to send this game to the 3rd all even steven.
THIRD PERIOD
A 0-0 score on home ice against a team that lives in a trash can, you’d fancy the Pens to win 100 out of 100 times. And they damn nearly made up for all of their transgressions by coming out in the 3rd and hanging knob on the Avs’ foreheads, absolutely demolishing the Avs for 5+ minutes with 9-1 shots and 7-2 scoring chances. HCMS had his lines in a blender and sent Dom Simon out with Cole Harbour’s Sidney Crosby and Guentzel and the three of them could not have come any closer to putting the Pens up 4-0 on their first 2 shifts together. Simon was the mastermind behind all of it it seemed, feeding Cole Harbour’s Sidney Crosby on a shot-pass which led to Guentzel hitting the side of the pipe, Simon again feeding Cole Harbour’s Sidney Crosby for a 1T after undressing Rattatanen faster than August Ames, and Simon tipping the puck just over the net on a separate chance.
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But then on the Avs 2nd shot of the period, coming over 6 minutes in, they’d be the ones to actually break the deadlock (again). They were able to break the puck out and gain the Pens zone with relative ease. Every single Penguin in the zone proceeded to follow the puck as it went down low, leaving the points wide open for a pass up high. Mark Barberio was left alone to tee one up and get a fortunate bounce off Sheahan’s stick as it made its way through traffic and in behind Jarry. 1-0
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Sheahan just cannot stop scoring at the moment, folks.
About 3 minutes later, Matt Hunwick held up Sven Intheghetto to allow the Pens their 4th penalty kill on the night. They took care of it, but at 5v5, Jarry bailed them out again with another majestic save on Comeau’s line to keep the Pens within reach.
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That monster save would be one of the last things Jarry would do before being removed for the extra skater with just under 2 to play. Thirty seconds later, Balahkay Comeau hit the empty net from center ice to actually score this time after a Malkin blast got blocked to bury the Pens, despite Phil breaking the shutout bid with 11 seconds left.
Game.
NOTES
- Great individual game for Olli Maatta. No one on the Penguins attempted more shots at even strength than Maatta did (7), while also accounting for 2 scoring chances of his own. Of those 7 attempts, 5 of them made it on goal.
- Both goalies were brilliant, obviously, with each only giving up a goal. Good to see a statement game like this from Jarry after getting yanked against Toronto on Saturday.
- Really tough game for Letang early on, but as the game progressed, he got much better. Ended the game with 8 attempted shots (5 at even strength) and 3 shots on goal in 27:39 of TOI. At evens, he was also on the ice for 29 shot attempts for and 14 against, good for 67.44%. It’s almost as if he’s not awful and the Pens are generally better with him on the ice.
- The Pens only managing 2 shots total on 3 powerplay chances isn’t the best, gang!
The Pens have to hit the road for the next three games, starting with a visit to see some old pals Jim, Dave, Deryk, and Marc Thursday night in Vegas. Go Pens.
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