It wasn’t a pretty win. Especially by recent standards. Indeed, if the Penguins perhaps deserved a better fate during Wednesday’s 3-0 home-ice loss to the Rangers, they were downright lucky to escape from Raleigh last night with a point, let alone two.
Contrary to their preferred style of play under Mike Sullivan, the Pens spent a significant portion of the 2-1 shootout victory refuting the notion that it’s better to give than receive. Lacking their recent hop, the black and gold struggled to apply consistent pressure to Carolina goalie Cam Ward, who turned aside 25 shots through 65 minutes of play.
“They had a little bit more jump than we did,” confessed Marc-Andre Fleury in what amounted to the understatement of the century.
There were few bright spots. Normally possession drivers, the bottom-six forwards took their lumps (a ghastly minus-56 Corsi according to the Tribune-Review’s Jonathan Bombulie). The pronounced lack of sizzle applied to defensive-zone coverage as well. The Pens surrendered the slot to the home-standing Hurricanes with stunning ease, leading to a slew of high-quality scoring chances.
“We were kind of watching and we made some mistakes that gave them momentum,” said Pens captain Sidney Crosby, who was held off the scoresheet for a second-straight game. “We gave them some really good zone time.”
Fortunately, Fleury was razor sharp. Emerging from a post All-Star Game funk, “Flower” turned aside 29 shots with a brilliant effort that reinforced his status as one of the Pens’ elite.
He was especially strong during the opening 20 minutes, when the ‘Canes tilted the PNC Arena ice to the tune of a 13-8 advantage in shots on goal. In particular, Fleury’s larcenous stops on Ondrej Nestrasil and Kris Versteeg kept the game from slipping away.
Number 29 got a little help from his friends, too. Breathing fire from the opening draw, Phil Kessel picked a perfect time to up his game. Leading by example, the normally reserved winger fired off a game-high seven shots. At 15:43 of the second period he took a short pass from ex-Cane Matt Cullen to the left of the Carolina cage and snapped the puck past Ward on the short side to stake the Pens to a 1-0 lead.
“We’re obviously a better team when [Kessel] scores,” Sullivan noted. “He shoots the puck differently than most guys. It comes off his stick in a way that is different. He’s a dangerous guy when he gets inside those dots.”
Kessel’s tally stood as the difference until 14:42 of the third period, when Nestrasil cruised unimpeded through the right circle and beat Fleury with a bullet to the glove side. Flower stiffened in overtime, stopping Elias Lindholm in the slot, before denying the ‘Canes in the shootout. Kris Letang flipped the puck past Ward with his patented forehand-to-backhand move to secure the extra point for the Pens.
Daley Okay
Defenseman Trevor Daley returned to the lineup last night. Showing no ill effects from the back injury that forced him to exit the Rangers game, the mobile rearguard logged 21:18 of ice time.
Evgeni Malkin missed his fifth game in a row. The big center continues to rehab what’s described as a nagging lower-body injury. The Pens are 3-2 in “Geno’s” absence.
Elsewhere on the injury front, forward Eric Fehr missed his fifth game in a row due to a lower-body injury. Forwards Beau Bennett (upper-body) and Nick Bonino (hand) remain on injured reserve. No time table has been set for their return.
Defenseman David Warsofsky (concussion) has resumed skating with the team.
3rd and 4th line needs help and kessel to start scoring
Hey Rick,
Yep, the Pens didn’t look all that sharp against the Canes, but it was a win and there are no style points, All wins Pretty and Ugly are only worth 2-points. If you are a pretender rather than a contender, you may consider ceding 1 point to Carolina a problem and maybe it is, but if I am the coach, I don’t give discourse to that. I don’t plant seeds of doubt if I can help it.
Also, honestly, I have no respect for Corsi stats. The game is about who scores more goals, not who has the most shots on goal or most total shots attempted. I really didn’t pay any attention to them at all until early January, this year, when I got into a bit of a heated debate about players with someone elsewhere. That person kept trying to build his case around Corsi. So, I went and looked at the Pens record over the first 3-months of this season. In games that the Pens lost, they had a significant amount more shots attempted than the opponents who had won with an inverse result in games they won. In other words the winning team attempted significantly less shots than the winner.
I don’t know where these statistics stand now or how it translates across the league, but it only reinforces my intuition, that the only important stat is who has the most goals at the end of the game. And therefore +/- and or total goal differential (TGF-TGA) trump all other stats.
Therefore it would seem to me that hockey is no different than football or any other sport. Teams go into a defensive shell when winning, conceding low percentage opportunities while protecting the high scoring areas and waiting for the other team to make mistakes rather than pressing for more goals or shots.
Also, I did think Kessell had a great goal. There didn’t look like there was a lot of room to sneak it in. Granted Kessell had a lot of shots and shot attempts (great Corsi numbers) but then again he never did have a great shooting %. He just shoots and shoots until something goes in. Despite his higher shot totals, he should never be confused with a true sniper.
I still think Sundqvist looked good. He always seems to play great body position with the puck. I would absolutely be shocked, but even when everyone getds healthy (as if that will ever happen in the war that the NHL becomes battling for the play-offs and then the play-offs) I think Sundqvist should stay with the big club. I wouldn’t touch the Fehr-Kuhnhackl-Rust line. They still should stay together as the 3rd line. However, unless Sundqvist implodes, I would think that Cullen-Bonino-Sundqvist would be the strongest 4th line they Pens could put together for the stretch run, with Bennett being odd may out.
Also, I said a little while back that I am no Sheary fan, and please don’t confuse me with one now, but I do see some potential with a Wilson-Sheary chemistry, Canes game aside.
With their fathers on the road trip with them, maybe there was a little too much distraction. It may be PR dream, but it also just may not be worth it in the W-L column
Hey Other Rick,
I hear ya’ about the advanced metrics. I remember the post-Cup Penguins back in the early-to-mid-90s routinely got outshot by opponents—sometimes by wide margins—yet they’d win 5-2. There’s no substitute for raw skill.
Still, I do think metrics like Corsi and Fenwick provide a fair indication of how a team’s playing. Our metrics weren’t very good under Mike Johnston, when we had very little rhythm and flow. They’ve improved greatly under Sullivan, which has coincided with an upswing in the team’s performance.
I, too, am seeing some positives in the play of the kids. Sundqvist skates pretty well for his size and doesn’t look out of place. We’ve discussed Sheary’s merits (and demerits) before. Love his hustle and instincts…wish he were a little bigger.
In particular, I’ve been watching Wilson. He skates well, seems positionally sound, and uses his body on occasion. Appears to have decent hands, too. Is perhaps a split second late in reacting to potential scoring chances. Hopefully that aspect of his game will improve over time.
We get beat by a really good team…..Rangers, then barely beat a non-playoff team, not sure why most fans think this team is going to make some noise IF or when they get into the playoffs,
Way to go Phil the Thrill!! That’s his quota for Feb.!!!
Hi Pen’s4ever,
If I may join your discussion..Thanks.
After watching last night and seeing how bad we were outplayed,even though we won the game,it is hard to conceive this team going more than one round in the playoffs.Crosby was shut out again.I boldly predicted in my last post that this team,as currently configured would not finish higher than 6 th place,( and that was being optimistic), given the quality of the opposition and the parity in our conference. If we lose a Letang,Crosby or MAF to injury,I take it back and in my opinion we will be done! Injuries have always plagued this team come March and April so hold your breath that history does not repeat itself.
As always,your posts are direct and to the point.You are well informed.
As far as Phil goes,your right on. If you watched any of the Leaf games in the past few years you would see that Phil was a “one trick pony”. When he did score he was the one creating and on the Pen’s team he does not fit in.
Sid and Geno do the creating of the plays.James Neal was a finisher. Phil is not a finisher in a pure sense. So we pay 6.8 million for the next 7 years to a guy who may score 25-30 goals and couldn’t back/fore check if his life depended on it.
My Toronto friends tell me that the main reason Mario/JR went after Phil was so that Mario could entice a prospective buyer for his Team.???
He needed a big splash to make because in reality the Pen’s were coming off one of the worst seasons in the Crosby era and he needed to sell the team. (They Pens had to win the last game of the season just to qualify for the playoffs plus again they had no first round draft pick.)
The Pittsburgh and Canadian media went crazy over the Phil signing as Mario knew they would…about Phil and Sid possibly scoring 50 goals together and winning the Cup ! Everybody was jumping for joy.
Today,in the back rooms of the Pen’s management, I do not believe there are to many people jumping for joy. The Team has not sold after nine month’s of trying to find a buyer.Supposedly, one of the TOP teams in the US with their land development rights and long term TV contract.( Which by the way Forbes magazine reported last week was front loaded to the benefit of the current owners and at the expense of the new prospective purchasers.) Surprise !
You can buy the Canes for 385+ million it is reported.They lost 11+ million last year, but their attendance is improving and expect to do better in 2016.
Forbes reports the Pen’s made 20 million in 2015 and Mario said last month if we did not make the playoffs we too would lose money! So there is a lot riding on what happens in the next two month’s !
Thanks again Rick for letting us exchange ideas.
Cheers
Hey Jim,
Thanks for the insights on Kessel…and the deal that brought him here. Given that hockey’s your national sport, I can only imagine that the Canadian media coverage of a trade of this magnitude is through the roof. Especially if it involves a big-market team like the Leafs.
Interesting comparison of Neal and Kessel. You’re right…the former is a pure finisher. I think I was expecting Kessel to be the same. He’s certainly got a good shot. But few players have Neal’s wicked release.
Hey Pen’s4ever,
There’s no question the Pens are still a work-in-progress. However, with Malkin out (Fehr and Bonino, too) I’m cutting them a little slack.
Likewise, I’m not as down on Kessel as you. Has he been great? No. But 15 points (5+10) in his past 18 games is hardly horrible output. He and Hagelin seem to be meshing. I’ll be interested to see how he does once Geno comes back.
I am concerned about our mix on defense. I know it’s important to have puck movers back there. But it was awful easy for Carolina to gain our zone and penetrate the slot on Friday night. Given the team’s sluggish overall play, I’m sure some less-than-inspired backchecking by the forwards contributed to the problem.
Still, as Other Rick pointed out, a win is a win. We’re playing better under Sullivan (13-5-4 in our last 19…8-3 in our last 11). Not too shabby.
I agree a win is a win..but we still are on the playoff bubble. And as far as Kessel goes I live in Southern Ontario and watched a lot of Leaf games when Phil was a Leaf and he looks the same overrated player now as he did with the blue and white, I’m hard on him because I don’t like trading the future away on any player for the chance that the player you bring in makes your team better, and he hasn’t in my eyes, I still and will always hate the trade
Hey Pen’s4ever,
Your points are well taken. Obviously, you’ve seen a lot more of Kessel than I have.
It would’ve required a lot of restraint. And hindsight is always 20/20. But somewhere along the line I wish the Pens would’ve pulled back from the trade table and begun retooling through the draft. Kind of like Chicago GM Stan Bowman did after the Hawks won their first Cup in 2010.
I remember reading a while back that the Penguins players were privately upset when Ray Shero went out and got Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow, and Douglas Murray in 2013 (and burned off first, second, and third-round picks in the process). The players felt they could’ve competed for the Cup without the trades.
Whether they were right or not—who knows. But the deals depleted our cache of picks to a point where we became locked onto our present course of being forced to make trades in order to significantly improve the team. A practice that generally doesn’t bode well for the future.