For the second time in as many days, the “Penguins” found themselves on the wrong end of a 3-2 game, this time falling in overtime overtime to the Red Wings.
With it being just the second preseason game of the year and the opening night roster, by and large, already set in stone save for a few minor depth tweaks, you can understand why none of the big guns have really seen action so far.
Moreover, we’re starting to see which narratives heading into camp are going the distance. It’s not been “how are the Pens going to fit the 69 centers they have onto the team?” or “how much ass does Jack Johnson suck?”
No.
The biggest narrative seems to be surrounding the backup goaltender spot. Huge, right?
In these first two games, Casey “The Smith” DeSmith and Tristan Jarry each got full games to show their stuff. Both gave up 3 goals, with The Smith giving up 3 on fewer shots.
Jarry, on the other hand, turned away 41 of 44 shots (.932%) against the Wangs last night, one of which was of the spectacular variety on Anthony Mantha as the Pens PK of Adam Johnson-Teddy Blueger-Justin Schultz-Jack Johnson go turnstiled after a failed clearance from JJohnson left Jultz alone in front to deal with a 2v1 down low.
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However you feel about who should be the backup, this duel between the two netminders is certainly something else to keep an eye on as October approaches.
(Header photo credit: David Guralnick, Detroit News)
LINEUP
Tonight’s lines →
Simon – Grant – Rust
Johnson – Blueger – Sprong
Miletic – Lafferty – Haggerty
Lindberg – Olund – CramarossaJohnson – Schultz
Oleksiak – Addison
Riikola – TrotmanJarry
DeSmith— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 19, 2018
Our first projected lineup of the preseason. #PITvsDET #LGRW pic.twitter.com/ahOYHRnJEN
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 19, 2018
Once again, the Penguins were forced to see action against another team’s projected top line and starting goalie.
GOALS
PIT – 2nd Pd./0:18 – Grant; A: Simon, Rust – 1-0
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After a scoreless first period which saw the Pens and Wings trade off 9 scoring chances each at even strength and a combined 37 shot attempts (20-17 Wings), it took the Pens just 18 seconds into the second to open the scoring.
Coming off a Rust shot that found its way behind the net with the help of Simon and Grant, which is not a 1970s jam band and is in fact a forward pairing for the Pens, the two combined low for Simon to eventually walk to the corner and throw a little backhander to Grant posting up at the faceoff dot for the one-timer. [More on Dom Simon’s underrated passing ability in the Notes section.]
DET– 2nd Pd./16:17 – Hamilton; A: Cholowski, Ford – 1-1
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Following Grant’s ice breaker, the Wings took the game right the fuck over. In the second period alone, they generated a hefty 28-11 advantage in shot attempts and had themselves 11 scoring chances at evens, while outshooting the Pens 18-5 at evens and 19-6 in total over that 20 minute middle frame.
However, they couldn’t find themselves an equalizer until under 4 minutes to play as they were able to work the puck from low to high, get 6 bodies in front of Jarry and allowed not Dougie Hamilton to float a wrister through Jarry’s satellites to find twine.
PIT – 3rd Pd./9:02 – Haggerty; A: Addison – 2-1
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As the game turned to the third period, the Pens got themselves back in it and even took control of the game a bit more, throwing a total of 12 shots on goal in the 3rd (to the Wings 10). The early flurry, despite a Lafferty, Daniel Samuel penalty saw them break the deadlock just before the midpoint of the period.
And, boy, was it a beauty. We got a glimpse of exactly what Calen Addison can do and why there was a lot of general excitement over the Pens being able to snag the mobile defenseman in the 2nd round.
Just watch as he gets the puck to the net, the clusterfuck in front kicks it back out towards the point, where he’s able to beat Justin Alligator to it, deke around him, and wire a cross-ice feed to Ryan Haggerty on the back post. The mobility is noteworthy, but that pass went through 4 players, including Dylan Larkin, right to the tape of Haggerty. Haggerty still had a lot to do after taking the pass, but fortunately for him, Addison gave him permission to snipe.
DET – 3rd Pd./10:00 – Jokinen; A: Jensen, Ehn – 2-2
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But the Wangs weren’t going away, flipping the game back in their favor and leveling the score under a minute later. With the puck deep in their own zone, they were able to transition quickly and beat the Pens forecheck with a quick little 10 foot pass from DeKeyser to some guy named Ehn. With support from Nick Jensen jumping up, Ehn took Blueger out of the play, allowing Jensen to hit the line with speed, overtake Riikola, and take a wide angle shot on Jarry. Jarry though he had it, but instead just gave up a juicy rebound to Juicy J (on a PTO) for the easy tap in on the back door.
DET – OT/1:32 – Rasmussen; A: Larkin, Chowlowski – 1-0
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Despite the Wings best efforts to win in regulation, we’d get OT. They’d end regulation and open OT on the powerplay after Jultz got whistled for flipping the puck over the glass. The Pens hung on, eventually killing the penalty (technically), but the 4v3 was too much for them.
Picture perfect PP from the Wings here. Just watch as their passing down low allows for the point guys to creep down below the top of the circles. Nightmare scenario for any PK. You can’t let Rasmussen or Larkin have free passes from below the goal line (as Blueger and Oleksiak tried to accomplish), but when Rasmussen eventually got it to the point and past Rust’s stick, you knew it was lights out. Chowlowski was unlucky to not score on his free and clear shot, but the bounce off the post brought it right to the stick of Larkin. Oleksiak and Blueger scrambled, but it wasn’t enough to block the pass for Rasmussen to tapperoo.
Game.
NOTES
- For all the flak that Dom Simon caught last year and this offseason, one thing is certain with him: the kid can pass the puck into dangerous areas. Using Ryan Stimson’s Player Traits and Performance Tool, Simon finds himself in the 83rd percentile in one timer shot assists per 60 minutes, 65th percentile in secondary and tertiary shot assists per 60, 91st percentile in shot assists across the slot or behind the net per 60, and 61st percentile in likelihood of an assist accounting for a preshot movement per 60 minutes. To boil that all down, he’s a very good passer of the puck in the offensive zone.
- When the final buzzer sounded, the Wings finished with a 69-44 edge in shot attempts, 29-19 in scoring chances and 10-6 in high danger chances (all at evens, via naturalstattrick.com), while the Pens really just had Rust, Sprong, Jultz, Oleksiak, and Jack Johnson as NHL regulars in the lineup (plus Simon and Grant, I suppose).
- Jarry vs. The Smith is gonna keep getting interesting. At the end of the day, it probably doesn’t matter who the backup goalie is. Pat, Jesse, and Mike talked in depth about this on Episode 1 of Dying Alive and to sum it up, Jarry is probably the better goaltender, but right now it probably makes more sense for him to see more action in the AHL, particularly after a very underwhelming season last year in both the NHL and AHL. Murr is your starter, no question about that, and The Smith likely isn’t going to cost you any games as a backup either. If Murr goes down, you call Jarry up and start him and call it a day. Just hard to imagine a scenario where the 23 year old, developing Jarry benefits from only playing ~30 NHL games in a backup capacity.
- Not a single Penguin was on the positive side of virtually any shot based possession metric. Lol.
Pens are back in action in their preseason home opener Saturday afternoon as the Blow Jobs come to PPG for a 3 PM faceoff. LGP.
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