Friday night the Pens rolled into what has largely been a house of horrors for them over the past couple years.
Despite the Devils being largely a non-factor over the course of the decade, when the Pens head to Newark there’s reason to believe they won’t be leaving with two points.
In their last 32 games at Prudential Center, the Pens are 12-17-3 and been held to one or zero goals in 15 of those 32.
Not great, Bob!
Crosby officially went under the knife this week to repair a sports hernia and is out of the lineup a minimum of six weeks. Good move, get healthy for the run, tread water until then.
He joins Hornqvist, Letang and now Bjugstad on the injured list.
Let’s ride.
Let's do this. pic.twitter.com/dXJQ08IxKf
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 15, 2019
Not sure how I feel about Galchenyuk with Bjugstad but what do I know?
FIRST PERIOD
The Penguins got an early power play when Zajac was rung up for hooking. Despite scoring against the Rangers, the trend of the year continued – get one or two good looks, but no goals.
The good look came when Geno shanked a one-timer in the slot, but the puck found Bjugstad cutting in front and he couldn’t beat Blackwood…a theme began to emerge.
[protected-iframe id=”e777aa3cfa0d99b5e0d3c3227770195d-142507471-50437453″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/zajac-opens-the-scoring/t-310495452/c-4598120?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]A few minutes later, the Devils would get on the board.
Blake Coleman would harass Dumoulin as he came around behind the net, disrupt the breakout, which led to a turnover from Dumoulin to Jepser Bratt (stupid name, imo) with that, Zajac got the inside lane on Guentzel, Bratt would feed the puck to him and a quick chip shot eluded Murray.
1-0 Devils.
Not much else to write home about in the first period except for Murray holding the fort on two separate penalty kills.
First period was relatively even at 5v5 with the CF% split directly at 50-50.
Pens had a 13-11 advantage in shots on goal.
SECOND PERIOD
Right off the bat, the Penguins got a grade-A chance from Tanev.
Aston-Reese would cause a turnover along the left wall, take a good low shot on Blackwood and the rebound bounced right to Tanev.
Blackwood would smother the shot and again, the theme continued but the secondary narrative would emerge.
The Penguins would begin to take the game over in the second and never look back.
Mackenzie Blackwood, who now after last night’s win has a sterling…903 save-percentage.
The rest of the period saw the Pens, mostly the Pens, and Devils trade chances and both goalies were up to the task.
Except for when there was 4.5 seconds left.
[protected-iframe id=”7ac92d9c4b0e343cf75bc591b66d44b9-142507471-50437453″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/colemans-strong-effort/t-310495452/c-4598824?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]The Pens would retrieve the puck after a faceoff loss in the offensive zone, Blueger tried to work the puck to the point to Marino but it ended up getting caught in his skates.
In an effort to keep possession, Marino tries to swipe the puck deep but whiffs on it and Coleman picks up the puck, takes off down the wing.
Marino plays this correctly in his recovery and keeps Coleman well to the outside, giving him no option other than to send a low-percentage shot at Murray.
Murray tries to glove it down but misses as the puck hits both his pad and his glove, leading to a rebound bouncing to his right.
Coleman, to his credit, doesn’t quit on the play and drives to the net. Marino is unable to tie up Coleman’s stick and he buries the rebound past Murray with 4 seconds left in the period.
Here’s the thing – as we Pens fans are so quick to do, the knives came out for Matt Murray after this goal.
Yes, we are staunch Murray supporters here at The Pensblog, but…99 times out of 100 that puck skips into his glove, the whistle blows and we have a nothing-doing faceoff to end the period.
This was the one time.
2-0 Devils.
After two, the game was heavily tilted in the Pens’ favor.
A 28-19 advantage in shots on goal, a 69 (nice) CF% and seven high-danger chances.
The process is and was there. The results, as we’ve seen, were not.
THIRD PERIOD
This all continued into the third, the Penguins controlled the play and possession and eight minutes into the final frame, an unlikely goal-scorer emerged.
[protected-iframe id=”378d8703a38f2a3789497a332e9d1273-142507471-50437453″ info=”https://www.nhl.com/video/embed/johnson-picks-the-corner/t-310495452/c-70287103?autostart=false” width=”540″ height=”360″]If this goal doesn’t tell you all you need to know about Mackenzie Blackwood, you haven’t been paying attention.
A turnover by PK Subban in the defensive zone lands right on Galchenyuk’s stick, he works his way to the middle and the Devils do a good job of closing the middle lane, preventing him from getting a clean look at the net from the high slot.
To his credit, Jack Johnson sneaks down the wall in a rare display of offensive awareness and Galchenyuk works the puck to JJ.
Again, in a rare display of offensive awareness, rather than cycle the puck deep as JJ often does, he picks his head up, sees Blackwood cheating high to challenge the shot and Johnson makes no mistake, putting the puck far-side high, beating him glove side.
2-1 Devils.
Johnson’s first goal in 92 regular season games.
You’d think a JJ goal would open the flood gates, right?
Wrong.
The ghost of Marty Brodeur was coursing through Blackwood and he would shut the door.
A questionable non-icing call late in the game would ultimately be the last notable thing, rather than have an offensive zone faceoff with under 10 seconds, the Pens would be caught in their own end with no time and we’d see this one end.
Game.
THOUGHTS
- The process is there. The results, unfortunately, are not. The Penguins are doing everything right. They’re playing well in the defensive zone, generating scoring chances but the pucks just are not going in. You’ll have that when your best net-front presence is out, one of the best offense-producing defensemen in the league is out, oh, and the best player of a generation is sidelined for six weeks.
- We have to talk about Galchenyuk. The guy was always going to have pressure on him simply due to who he was traded for. A fan-favorite, cult figure and not to mention, arguably one of the best wingers in hockey. As G wrote earlier this month, the loss of Phil Kessel is largely to blame for power play struggles. However, injuries aside, the process is there for most of the Penguins, for Galchenyuk, it isn’t. It’s still a tad early to write him off but the clock is ticking. Fast.
- I argue this all the time on Twitter. Cynicism =/= intelligence. I know Jack Johnson is bad. I know you know Jack Johnson is bad. We can’t constantly call out the negatives and refuse to acknowledge the positives simply to further the narrative. He’s been perfectly serviceable with Marino. Now, does that speak more of Marino’s game than JJ’s? Probably. The goal was all-around a good play by Galchenyuk and Johnson. Don’t let the want to sound intelligent on Twitter overtake your fandom.
- Another injury added to the list – Bjugstad is going to find himself on the shelf again.
Toronto is in town tonight after, surprisingly, getting beaten by the Bruins again. Buckle up, it’s gonna be a long six weeks and a longer winter.
Go Pens.
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