Just 24 hours after the Penguins had their 4 game winning streak snapped at the hands (wings?) of the Ducks, they took their traveling road show to the heart of Los Angeles and got back to their winning ways, dusting a skidding Kings squad.
This is important because:
- The Penguins won
- The LA Kings lost
It’s also important because now the Penguins have a 3 point cushion on the Flyers for that last Wild Card slot and because the Kings, general losers and also losers of 5 straight, are on the outside looking in out West.
In short, you and your time zone can eat shit, Los Angeles. More like Loss Angeles.
What was intriguing about last night, aside from the Penguins winning and the Kings losing, was how badly the Pens got caved in across the board in every quantifiable possession metric. Only in the 2nd period were they on the plus side of things at even strength, but the Kings had a 50-39 edge (56.18%) in attempted shots and a 26-15 shellacking (63.41%) in even strength scoring chances, all per Natural Stat Trick. You can adjust for scoring and venue effects if you’d like to paint a pretty picture of the Pens last night in terms of shot attempts (51.41% in favor of the Kings), but make no mistake, the Kings still had a ton of scoring chances (59.74% at evens, even adjusted).
All that being said, there was no less than one difference maker for the Penguanos: Casey goddamn DeSmith.
Finally making his long awaited first career NHL start, DeSmith was both stunning and brave en route to a 28 save win. And it’s not as if he didn’t have to work for it, either. Seven of the 29 shots he faced came from high danger areas.
He stopped all 7, along with 96.6% of the total shots he faced.
That is both good and great, particularly for a 26 year old undrafted guy that had to work through a lot of shit to even get a sniff of the bigs.
LINEUP
Almost go time. #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/aORfPrGXhU
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 19, 2018
Dominant Dan was scratched after a poor performance (spin zone here) in Anaheim in favor of letting the Dea Man center the 4th line. Casey DeSmith finally got that long awaited first NHL start and, boy, did he not disappoint.
GOALS
PIT – 1st Pd./0:43 – Hornqvist; A: Hagelin – 1-0
It didn’t take long for the Pens to expose Jon Quick for the average goaltender that he is. In fact, it took just 43 seconds!
As would be the case throughout the game, the Pens were hounds on the puck when the Kings were in possession, causing some havoc and capitalizing on turnovers. The Kings did a lot of things right last night, but needlessly giving the puck away to a team that can punish you in 3 seconds was not one of them.
It’d mark the first of two times Anze Kopitar would get caught in possession at his own blue line that immediately led to a goal against. The first came as Crosby put him under duress, causing him to just throw the biscuit towards any player by his bench. Both teams were in the midst of a change and a too much man penalty was just waiting to be called. Instead of taking the penalty, LA let Hags take the loose puck as he jumped onto the ice, hitting a wide open Hornqvist with an area pass for him to wrecking ball his way up the right wing wall. Soft goal for Jon Slow to give up- no angle fivehole.
https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/EmotionalOffbeatIberianemeraldlizard
LAK – 2nd Pd./14:10 – Kempe; A: Kopitar, Muzzin– 1-1
The Pens would hold onto that lead for the rest of the first and most of the second until LA was able to capitalize on a rare mistake themselves towards the end of the middle frame. Kopitar, making up for his earlier mistake, was able to read that Crosby’s only option was to go up the wall to Phil as 87 was tied up along the boards. Kopi tipped it by Phil and hit Kempe streaking in behind Dumoulin and Letang as Dumo was caught flat footed and fishing at the blue line. Kempe with the nice move to just wait out DeSmith and fire it home. Nothing else DeSmith could do there, forcing Kempe to hold on long enough that Dumo almost was able to still make a play on it.
https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/SlimFarawayCapeghostfrog
PIT – 3rd Pd./0:26 – Malkin; A: Maatta, Schultz– 2-1
But it was another early period goal that sunk the Kings sinking ship, just 26 seconds in to the final frame. A Big Boy shift to open the period from the 5’9″ Line of Simon-Crosby-Sheary line almost got the game breaker, but after Quick’s save on Simon and ensuing faceoff, it was the Gene and the Swedes Line breaking the deadlock once again.
Faceoffs, sometimes won by Evgeni Malkin, are sometimes important. Evergene looked to go forward on it, got blocked off enough by Shore that he had to jam it back to Jultz at the point. He deferred to Maatta on the far side as Hags and Hornqvist got the entire OC in Maatta’s shooting lane. Martinez got the block, but Shore lost Malkin in the shuffle just long enough for Gene to give the blocked down shot a little whack to net the eventual GWG.
https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/CaringWaterloggedAlpinegoat
PIT – 3rd Pd./10:21 – PPG – Hornqvist; A: Crosby, Malkin – 3-1
The Pens would put the game to bed about 2 hours after the East Coast went to bed late on on a 5 minute major and game mizzie Dustin Brown boarding penalty on Jultz. Not sure Dustin Brown can even spell boarding to be honest.
Once more, it was a Kopitar turnover that lead to the final tally. Unreal effort from Hornqvist to make it all happen, too. Kopitar looked like he thought he had unlimited time to take the puck and clear it deep, but Big Dick Pat had other ideas. What a fucking gem Hornqvist is. Sign that man for forever.
Dude comes from deep in the Kings zone, steals the puck off one of the best centers on the planet, cycles all the way back to his own blue line to gather speed and take a sick feed from Crosby, who drew the attention of three of the four Kings PKers, and just roofs one from in tight. If that isn’t the prettiest goal Hornqvist scores in his career, I don’t know what is.
https://gfycat.com/gifs/detail/TameDeliciousIndianrockpython
Dustin Brown: 2
Brian Dumoulin & Jake Guentzel: 0 pic.twitter.com/ofAakl5YuU— LA Kings (@LAKings) January 19, 2018
Penguins: 3
Kings: 1
Dustin Brown: Game Misconduct https://t.co/1E3aHu2PgN— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) January 19, 2018
Game.
NOTES
- Go ahead and extend Crosby’s point streak to 6 games.
- Go ahead and extend Hagelin’s point streak to 5 games.
- Speaking of Hags, only Hagelin-Malkin-Hornqvist were the Pens forwards on the plus side of the shot based metrics, joined by Jultz (66.67% even strength shot attempt share) and Maatta (62.5% share). And to think, “Don’t scratch Cole because he makes Schultz better!!!!!” was a thing.
- Casey DeSmith appreciation bullet point. What a game.
Pens wrap up their Pacific coast road trip on Saturday night with a reasonable 8 PM EASTERN start against the Shorks. LGP.
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