Pregame
Coming off the heels of their second win in as many tries, the Pens headed to the home of the Trusted Hockey Men – Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The home of the biggest brain hockey knower, Steve Simmons. You know – the guy that was thwarted by Google Maps and Common Sense.
The same guy that constantly said the quiet part out loud.
In all seriousness, it isn’t difficult to get up for games like these as a fan. Toronto, despite toiling in mediocrity for most of my life have found themselves building a contender in a similar fashion to our Penguins. The hype in Toronto is real and justified. Auston Matthews is the real deal, William Nylander, despite struggles, is elite and then you add in Mitch Marner, who may be better than both and you have a potent offense. That’s without mentioning Tavares, Kapanen and Marleau.
If you are not pumped for this game tonight, call 911. Two of the best in the league on HNIC. Two high tempo teams that can create a lot of turnovers at either blue line. This is gonna be great.
— Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) February 2, 2019
But, we’re the goddamn Penguins and these young Leafs can take the throne from Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang when they decide it’s time.
The Leafs return home from Detroit where they were granted a loser point, falling to the Red Wings 3-2 in OT.
Lineup:
Let’s do this. pic.twitter.com/KCzAFCcTOE
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) February 2, 2019
Same lineup from last night’s tilt with Murr in the cage this go round.
Let’s ride.
First Period
The first ten minutes of the opening frame were largely uneventful, overall. The Leafs were getting some mildly consistent pressure, but give the Pens credit for keeping them mostly to the outside.
Connor Brown, who if you ask Leafs fans is a real person apparently, would high-stick future Norris Trophy winner Kris Letang and head to the box.
The power play began with Crosby, as usual, making some unrealistic passes, but the Pens didn’t really get a good look until a faceoff would reset the power play about a minute in.
Crosby would win the draw and off the ensuing scrum, the puck found its way to Letang and then 87 decided that with Geno still on the shelf, he would take his form. From the right half wall, Letang put the puck in Sid’s wheelhouse and the captain would violate Article V of NATO and put an absolute BOMB past AHL goaltender Garret Sparks to give the Pens the lead.
[protected-iframe id=”d9ed88833dfec4d50bf9cd6ecc7a364e-142507471-50437453″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/crosby-opens-the-scoring-with-ppg/t-300059092/c-65502503?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]1-0 Pens
A few minutes later, Ron Hainsey showed us that he is still a Pittsburgh Penguins sleeper agent. Off a great forecheck by the Penguins fourth line, following a Maatta dump-in, Wilson would put pressure on Hon Rainsey and he would turn the puck over to Wilson. Wilson kicked the puck to Blueger and the rookie would get his second in as many nights.
[protected-iframe id=”c1fab609133c6299ad30f37fead28ab4-142507471-50437453″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/bluegers-wrist-shot-finds-twine/t-300059092/c-65503303?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]A fourth line that can forecheck, pin the opposition deep and score?! In this economy?!
2-0 Pens
The Leaves, unfortunately, would not go away. The Penguins could not clear the puck, Gardiner would hold the zone, a one-timer from Dermott would bounce off Murray and right to Auston Matthews who would outwait Murr and slip it past him to put the Leaves back within one.
[protected-iframe id=”c3f1f361644fb35ab74bd8114d82ebe0-142507471-50437453″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/matthews-tucks-in-rebound/t-300059092/c-65504303?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Not the best moment for Murr, but man…what patience by Matthews.
2-1 Pens
As the period was about to wrap up, Pettersson would get a stick up high on Kadri. Kadri would sell it, but it’s a penalty regardless.
No harm and that’s where we’d end.
Penguins largely got caved in from an analytical standpoint in the first, Leafs with five high-danger chances to one for the Pens and the Leafs controlled 56% of the shot share at evens.
Second Period
The Penguins killed off the rest of Pettersson’s penalty with ease and it was back to work.
The Leafs controlled the period from the point of the penalty kill. Finally, the dam would break with 10:24 remaining.
Following an icing on the Pens, Marleau would win the draw to Gardiner, he fed it to Dermott and the one-timer eluded Murray. Tie game.
[protected-iframe id=”e5a4e27b8a05e45581d0986b86483559-142507471-50437453″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/dermott-scores-on-one-timer/t-300059092/c-65506603?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]Sneakily smart play by Matthews to take Letang with him to the front of the net to set a rolling screen on Murray.
2-2
The goal did not, whatsoever, wake up the Penguins. The Leafs continued to control the period. Full marks to Murray for standing up and being a rock.
That was until just under four minutes remaining. Jack Johnson, proving that he can’t even be good in front of his own net like Hockey Men will tell you he is, decided to lock up with Tavares at the side of Matt Murray. All the while, Reilly would put the puck to the front and it would find a falling Hyman and he would flip it past Murray’s glove.
Why was the Johnson part worth saying? Well, Tavares would release from Johnson and rather than following his man, he stood there like a goddamn deer in headlights, obstructing is own goaltender from squaring up to the shot, giving Hyman a lot of net to shoot at.
I’d put the goal here, but I wasn’t able to embed it because NHL dot com is the equivalent of toddler vomit on a sidewalk in July.
3-2 Leafs
As if this wasn’t enough, Pettersson found himself back in the box with 1:37 remaining.
Just getting out of the goddamned period was a blessing and they did.
The Penguins, once again, got absolutely caved in in the second period. The Leafs controlled 64% of the shot attempts. The Penguins took their grand total of high-danger chances up to…two.
Third Period
You just knew how this third period was going to go. The Penguins were going to awaken and it would likely be too little, too late. Especially considering the Leafs are the only team better than the Penguins when leading after two periods.
You can’t sleepwalk through a period against a team like Toronto. Only playing 40 out of 60 minutes will haunt you against the league’s elite.
Penguins controlled most of the period, but couldn’t get a ton of great looks and that would be that.
They had 51% of the shot attempts and three high-danger chances, but it was all for naught.
Thoughts
- Let’s talk about Jack Johnson. I know we hear about his intangibles left and right from any writer that will give you the time of day. Here’s the thing – we can have the stupid battle over analytics and the eye test until we all inevitably die. So here’s the deal, Jack Johnson was on the ice for 17 scoring chances against compared to three scoring chances for in 16:37 of even strength ice time. We aren’t talking Corsi. We aren’t talking any kind of analytic. We’re talking scoring chances. When Jack Johnson is on the ice for the Penguins, the opposition has more chances to score than when he isn’t. That’s bad.
- Tonight’s game, being a dumpster fire aside, the bottom six as currently constructed looks very promising. The fourth line can actually make some offense happen and I love Rust-Bjugstad-Kessel as a line.
- Speaking of, I know it’s commonplace to hate on Garrett Wilson because he’s not a flashy “prospect”, but he frequently finds himself on the positive side of the puck and for a fourth liner, that’s good.
- I know I’ve said on multiple occasions that you can’t live and die with every single play, but a huge issue for the Penguins is taking their foot off the gas. They were a post away from up 3-0 and next found themselves up only 2-1. Them’s the brakes, but you have to react accordingly. Take the punch and then counter. The Pens went into a shell.
- Non-game thought: wow, did Steigy ever give cover for how bad Errey is. His constant enthusiasm over trivial things aside, man has the game passed this guy by.
- All things considered, second of a back-to-back, no Malkin and two new players, not their worst loss, but hey, that’s what us fans do. We overreact.
Hurricanes on Tuesday at The Paint Can.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
