The Florida Panthers came into this game doing their best Penguins impression with star players Vincent Trocheck and Aaron Ekblad out with injuries (and Aleksander Barkov nursing an injury from the weekend, but playing through it). They had some reinforcements as newly signed Brian Boyle took to the ice for the first time this season. The kinda good Penguins news: former Panther Jared McCann returned to the lineup. With an injury to Brian Dumoulin, the Penguins opted to try rookie John Marino on the top pair. Coming off a tough loss against Vegas, the Pens hoped to start this road trip hot. Welp…
First Period
The Pens used Brillo pads on their skates to dull them due to the ice surface – the weather combined with a concert the previous night made for less than stellar conditions. Rapper Post Malone played a show in Florida on Monday night and Post made an appearance early in this game, as the Panthers rang a shot off Murray’s left side post minutes into the game.
The first period would remain uneventful with a few swings of momentum either way. Justin Schultz managed to stop a 3 on 1 attack and then try his hand at scoring a few minutes later after a nice pass from Jake Guentzel. It wasn’t until halfway through that we saw the first real good chance. Some nifty passing by Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Dominik Simon led to an excellent chance for Simon – and a subsequent excellent defensive stick play by Florida’s Anton Stralman.
https://gfycat.com/enchantingdefenselesshylaeosaurus
With under five minutes left, Simon would feed a beauty of a pass to Guentzel for an excellent scoring chance but the shot hit Bobrovsky’s chest and stayed out.
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The Penguins led the way with 8 shots on goal to 5 from the Panthers. Moderately interesting, John Marino edged out Letang to lead the Pens in ice time with 7:59 in the first. Probably showing off as the best Marino to play in Pittsburgh, right Dan?
Second Period
The second period kicked off with the broadcast team reminding us the Pens had already hit 48 man games lost. Ouch. It would be uneventful for a long stretch again until a scramble led to a Panthers player kicking the puck and Kris Letang matching the soccer skill to kick it out.
Florida kicked off the scoring at 9:06 with Noel Acciari shooting and sending a puck way above Murray, only for it to fall on his back and roll in the net.
ACCIARI SCORES! 👊 #PITvsFLA#FlaPanthers 1, Penguins 0 pic.twitter.com/Md6seJ48pe
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) October 23, 2019
This is what I like to call: unlucky, flukey, WTF was that?! I can’t really blame Murray, not much he could do. But what an annoying goal against. Luckily, the Pens would strike back quick with Simon firing a great outlet pass to ice hockey player Teddy Blueger, who played some back and forth with Guentzel before putting the puck in the net.
Sharing is caring.
Pass, pass, and a score from Teddy Blueger! pic.twitter.com/WBvkzhxPle
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 23, 2019
The score would remained tied until a bad turnover from Brandon Tanev and Blueger would lead to a Huberdeau-to-Malgin goal. And after nearly 40 full minutes of clean, no call hockey – Patric Hornqvist broke the whistle silence and took a tripping minor with 32 seconds to go in the 2nd.
Third Period
The Penguins would manage to kill off the Hornqvist minor and move on to yet another uneventful stretch. Eight minutes into the third and Sully fired up the blender – moving Hornqvist up with Jake and Sid while Simon went down with McCann and Kahun. After 10 minutes and change, the Pens would finally go on their first and only power play.
The first unit struggled to do anything on a Stralman minor. With 30 seconds left with the man advantage, Zach Aston-Reese would narrowly miss a wide open net. It would prove to be killer as Jonathan Huberdeau would score with six minutes remaining – Panthers up 3-1. But Sully and his line blender worked, leading to a late goal moments later from Hornqvist.
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Unfortunately, tonight was not their night as Frank Vatrano sealed the deal with an EN goal with 1:03 left. The Penguins would lead with 25 shots to Florida’s 22, but fall 4-2 in the Sunshine state. They’ll be back at it tomorrow in Tampa.
Quick Thoughts
- MISSING, CALL PENS IF FOUND: Forward Dominik Kahun – the former Blackhawk continues to be damn near invisible on the ice. He has been showing a few glimpses of something, but he may be in serious danger of a scratch at full health. Still, he managed to be the 6th man on when Murray was pulled.
- On the flipside, someone found Hornqvist. He has 5 goals and 8 points in 10 games. He’s playing with a hunger.
- Bryan Rust and Nick Bjugstad are cleared for contact in practice and could be back soon. They’ll be a welcome addition, no offense to the call ups who have done well all things considered.
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