Penguins

Recap 18: Hard Times in New York

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Alan Draper
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7 min read
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The Penguins took their thrift store lineup to the Big Apple last night for a Tuesday night matchup against the New York Rangers. You may know the Rangers as the team that sent an open letter to fans in February of 2018 that basically said: “we are going to suck for a minute.” You also probably know the Rangers as Henrik Lundqvist, who unfortunately would not play in this game taking an automatic win for Pittsburgh off the table.

With no Crosby, Hornqvist, or Letang the Penguins dressed as such for this one:

FIRST PERIOD

As has become the status quo, but not quid pro quo, the Penguins failed to show up in the first period. Fortunately for the Pens, Matt Murray had his alarm set for game time and bailed the team out multiple times early.

As if Murray wasn’t working hard enough the Penguins let a Brendan Lemieux pass split the defensive pairing of Schultz and Pettersson which sent Kappo Kakko, who may be a nemesis to Captain Crunch, in for a breakaway. Kakko with the hands of a veteran and the ignorance of a rookie made a great move to put the Rangers up 1-0.

First of all, this was a great pass by Lemieux, but he was aided by another defensive breakdown. Prior to the image below, Schultz had played a puck off a won faceoff around the boards and is recovering appropriately. Marcus Pettersson on the other hand…

Screen Shot 2019-11-12 at 9.11.00 PM.png

Yeah, Kakko is behind Pettersson in this screenshot which is not a strong strategy.

The Rangers wisely wanted to protect their lead so they took a penalty. The Penguins powerplay looked about as confident as you do telling aunt Mary your five-year plan during Thanksgiving dinner. Following the man disadvantage, the Penguins continued looking like a team that didn’t want to play hockey. The Rangers carried play the rest of the period until Artemi Panarin took a penalty with less than four minutes left, and then they continued carrying play during that penalty kill. As the period winded down, Panarin jumped out of the box, made a slick pass to EASports fake name Adam Fox, who roofed it with 11 seconds left.

The Penguins would not give up a goal in the final seconds and may want to stop by a drug store on the way home, because they missed a period.

SECOND PERIOD

Of course, playing while trailing could be part of some elaborate scheme that we aren’t in the loop on. The Penguins started the second period and immediately looked like a different team. Not even two minutes in the top line was getting some good pressure, pinned the Rangers in their own zone, and didn’t let them get a much-needed change. Malkin would feed a puck over to Shultz, and he did the Schultz Chug Shuffle while finding his spot before burying it

JUSTIN SCHULTZ (2) Assisted by Malkin (5) & Pettersson (5) @ 1:13

Great snipe by Schultz as he and Pettersson both contribute to the goal to make up for their previous blunder.

Following the goal, the Penguins poured it on the Rangers but just couldn’t get a clean look on the net. Occasionally, the Rangers would manage a shot on goal but Murray was there when he needed to be. Eleven minutes in the Rangers decided they had had enough and took a penalty. With everybody talking about how the Penguins hadn’t scored in nearly a month on the powerplay they decided to use a combination of Dominik Kahun, Dominik Simon, and Jared McCann, naturally. A broken play in front, a fanned shot by Simon, and a perfect bounce to McCann and he McBuried it.

JARED McCANN (6) Assisted by Simon (8) @ 12:33 PPG

Kahun wasn’t initially awarded an assist on this goal but it wouldn’t surprise me to see that changed later today. It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t have to be. It was the first powerplay goal for the Penguins in 29 chances.

The Pens continued dominating the ice but couldn’t break the tie as we would head to the third tied at 2. After being outshot 11-8 in the first the Pens flipped that and outshot the Rangers 11-7 in the second.

THIRD PERIOD

The third period started out about as cautious as you were meeting her parents for the first time, and ended as aggressive as Don Cherry yelling at his landscapers. The Penguins were carrying play but just couldn’t get the puck beyond Gargoyle. Matt Murray, at the other end, was next to brilliant when the Pens needed him the most

Wow, a goalie is important when a leading scorer goes out, brave hot take Tom.

The Penguins had a great look as time expired but Dumoulin couldn’t find an open hole and we were heading to overtime.

OVERTIME

Scraping out a point after trailing a game 2-0 is never going to be a bad thing. Attempting to get the extra point with Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang not available for 3v3 OT is another level of first world problems. The Penguins were able to keep the Rangers opening line on the ice for nearly two minutes before an unforced error resulted in the puck leaving the zone and a Rangers change. Towards the end of his shift Malkin barreled in on goal but had the puck roll off his stick to the boards; he grabbed the loose puck and attempted a centering feed to Bryan Rust that was turned over, sending the Rangers on a 3 on 1. Adam Fox to Kappo Kakko and that was the game.

Malkin received a fair share of “controller unplugged” jabs from people who get out of breath while walking to their cars in the morning. I would care, but it’s the 18th game of the season, he is 32, and had he converted on his attempt at splitting the D 10 seconds earlier those same people would be whacking it off talking about how Geno stepped up in Sid’s absence.

THOUGHTS

  • No Crosby, no Letang, no Hornqvist, and Mike Sullivan used Alex Galchenyuk for less than 10 minutes at even strength, including 0 seconds in OT. This isn’t a shot at Sullivan but a question of is Galchenyuk actually any good? Sam Lafferty (11:29) was the only player with fewer minutes than Galchenyuk’s 12:29 (2:59 on the powerplay)
  • John Marino is really good
  • At some point, the Penguins will have to play the first period
  • Bryan Rust paced the team with 5 shots and was one of the most noticeable forwards for the Pens as he continues his “please don’t trade me” campaign
  • Teddy Blueger put in over 17 minutes of work in this game and has had a strong start to the year
  • The Pens have two days off before a weekend back-to-back with the Devils in New Jersey Friday and Toronto at home on Saturday. I expect we will know more about the three injured players before puck drop Friday
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Alan Draper

Alan is a vastly experienced sports and gambling writer who is the Chief Editor of The Sports Daily.
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Alan Draper

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Alan is a vastly experienced sports and gambling writer who is the Chief Editor of The Sports Daily.
View All Posts By Alan Draper
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