It may be a bit of an understatement to suggest that things didn’t go well for our Penguins last night. Indeed, after watching them stumble to a 3-1 loss to Tampa Bay in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Consol Energy Center, one might be tempted to ask if the magic dust has worn off our glorious postseason run.
Yes, the boys rang up a 35-20 advantage in shots on goal—including a gaudy 16-5 edge in the third period. But the Pens fell into some old, bad habits. Such as overpassing in search of the perfect shot. And turning the puck over.
Coach Mike Sullivan was quick to credit Tampa Bay.
“They defend hard,” he said. “They block shots. They have people in the lanes. They have a good support mechanism built in place when somebody gets beat. I thought we generated a fair amount of chances. We have to find a way to convert.”
Some production from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin wouldn’t hurt. Although not for a lack of effort (Malkin attempted 17 shots), the erstwhile Two-Headed Monster haven’t tickled the twine since “Geno” struck in Game 1 against the Caps back on April 28.
Sid’s been dry since April 21.
The game itself had an eerie, Halloween-type feel. Perfectly befitting Friday the 13th. Following a huge pad save by Matt Murray on Victor Hedman in the opening moments, Ryan Callahan applied a forearm to the back of Kris Letang’s head and drove No. 58 hard into the boards.
The former Ranger cooled his heels in the penalty box for five minutes. The Pens—sans Letang—did little with the gift opportunity.
Then Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop crumbled to the ice after playing the puck at the twelve-minute mark. The game was held up for several minutes before the Lightning stalwart was wheeled off the ice on a stretcher.
Enter backup Andrei Vasilevskiy, who by his own admission was “ice cold.” His condition didn’t prevent the 21-year-old Russian from stopping 25 of 26 shots to earn his second career playoff win.
Rallying around the youngster, the Bolts soon had the lead. With just over a minute remaining in the opening frame, Hedman sprang Alex Killorn with a beautiful bounce pass off the sideboards. Killorn cut around Olli Maatta and beat Murray between the pads with a slick backhand move.
Tampa Bay never looked back. With Malkin in the box for hooking, Ondrej Palat swept home a juicy rebound at 2:33 of the second period. At their counterpunching best, the Lightning capitalized on a Letang miscue late in the period to grab a commanding 3-0 lead.
The Pens finally broke through on the power play 55 seconds before the horn. Patric Hornqvist pounced on a short feed from Crosby to beat Vasilevskiy from the right faceoff dot.
“Hatric’s” tally provided the 18,554 in attendance with a glimmer of hope. However, despite a decided tilt in territorial play, the Pens couldn’t solve Vasilevskiy.
“I don’t think it was our best game,” Sullivan said afterward. “And that’s what we need in order to have success at this point in the season.”
Dumoulin Injured
Pens’ defenseman Brian Dumoulin was hurt in the closing minutes when Palat ran him face-first into the glass. The Biddeford, Maine native did not return.
No word yet on the nature or severity of the injury.
Tampa Bay speedster Tyler Johnson was injured late in the first period on a hard check by Chris Kunitz. The gritty Pens’ winger appeared to catch Johnson knee on knee.
Johnson returned to action and logged 12:29 of ice time.
Hey Rick,
Interesting comments from Jim and Pens4evers.
I commented elsewhere some similar points, the Pens have been slowly devolving into their perimeter half-court basketball offense lately. Yes they are still getting lots of shot attempts, but low percentage shots. They are rarely getting the puck into the dirty areas, areas where percentages are much greater to score but the price is much, much higher. On top of that, they are falling back to the big booming slap shots that you have to wind up to Christmas to take, allowing the goalie and they entire other team to get in front of. I am seriously missing those quick snap and wrist shots, ala Gonchar, that Letang was making earlier this year.
I agree with a lot of what Pens4ever wrote. Geno needs more ice time and not just on the power play where he is restricted to that point shot. He is the best stcik handler on the team, maybe the best since Mario. The Bolts are playing in your face checking. The only way to break that and started getting room to work is to embarrass one or two of there D-men, walk around them and score. Letang would do well to use his skating as well from the point, fake the shot and when the D commits walk around them to get the shot. Once the Bolts “D” gets burned a couple of times, they will take that extra second, having to respect the Pens skating, and open up some ice for the pretty passes.
I also got into a discussion yesterday with someone about last game. Their comment was Crosby has reverted back to his pass first mentality and that they noticed the Bolts “D” not even bothering to defend against shot or skating but look for the pass. I can’t say I saw that because I wasn’t able to truly sit back and watch the game but was stuck on domestic duty since the wife was out and had to catch what I could between other stuff. However, I do not doubt this. Pass first has been a Crosby thing for the bulk of his career, keeping him from really taking that step up to where we, his fans, want to see him. He hasn’t shown me Malkinesque stick handling skills, let alone Lemieux (but then again, I doubt you and I will live to see another like Lemieux) but Crosby is still a very good puck handler and needs to dip his shoulder too and drive the net with the puck. Most opposing “D” do sit back anticipating pass when he has the puck, so he will always have at least a seam if not a whole lane to the net.
I also agree with Pens4ever assessment of Kuntz and Fehr. They are both millstones dragging Malkin down. I don’t want to break up the Hydra of Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel all on separate lines, but it may be time to at least consider moving Rust and/or Kuhnhackl up to Malkin to try and give him some help.
And I will take that one step further, It also may be time for one of them (Kuntiz or Fehr) to be a healthy scratch and insert Sundqvist. Kuntiz had a really solid end of the regular season but really isn’t doing a whole lot in the post season and Fehr is a good penalty killer so Kuntz would be my first choice to sit. Of course that would mean flipping Fehr to LW but a bit of a shake-up may be needed here.
Lastly the team “D”. Like you and I have talked, Maatta really hasn’t looked like Maatta in quite a while and JIm pointed out another blown assignment by him. It may be time he gets some press box time too. Even if Dumoulin is injured, it may be time to shake things up back there. The way Maatta has played “D” lately, Pouliot and Schultz wouldn’t do worse and both bring more offense.
The Pens looked flat and horrible in game one, but I am not ready to write off any team Sullivan coaches. He has found ways and made adjustments that do work.
Maybe you are right maybe this Pens-Cinderella story is about to ring midnight, but then again maybe Sullivan can find that magic skate to get the Pens back to doing what they have been doing right for the past 3 or 4 months.
Go Pens!
I have not commented in a few games, but after the play of our Pen’s Friday I have to blow off some steam..
First like you wrote Rick, they passed way too much and gave up shot opportunities. In MY opinion in a playoff game you should and need to be getting at least 40 shots a game especially when you get a 5 min. PP and the other team has to use their back-up goalie and he hasn’t played since Feb.
I know Geno had lots of shot attempts but most were from the point, Malkin and Sid NEED to be more greedy and shoot the puck more, everyone has to be greedy and shoot more. If you shoot and the goalie saves it and gets a whistle who cares? Now a face off in the offensive zone, where we dominated or the pucks takes a funny bounce and goes in or you get a rebound chance. Bonino had a chance in the slot to take a big slap shot and lean right into the puck all by himself but he took a littler wrist shot and shot into the goalies glove, aweful!! Don’t make it easy for the other team
And stop stupid not neccesary penalties that have nothing to do with the play on the ice. The refs will always get the retaliation, hardly ever the first one!!
You all know how I feel but I hate Kessel and his work ethic on the ice shows you why. I feel bad for Geno he plays with Kunitz and Fehr, so maybe that’s why he can’t get it going scoring wise, at least Sid plays with two guys who can skate, I really like Sheary, plays his heart out every shift.
It’s only game 1..but if we lose game 2 at home maybe without Bishop we are in trouble. Bishop will be in net for game # 3 along with Stamkos and maybe Stralman.
Pen’s gotta have Sid and Geno, Kessel play like they can and score big to beat this team, we can.
That’s all for now..I think
LET’S GO PEN’S!!
Hi Rick,
Indeed the Bolt’s played well last night.They had a game plan,stuck to it and got the outcome they wanted. To me the Bolts plan was to skate with us,or more correctly make us skate with them.Use their size advantage to wear us down over a long series.Finally exploit mistakes and force turn overs. They did all of the above last night.The first goal scored last night was a perfect stretch pass from Hedman past Maatta to allow the Bolts forward to get in alone and score.The next goal Crosby missed his man and allowed for the open net goal on the rebound.No coverage.The third goal scored by Drouin, Letang made a mistake, allowed the Tampa Bay sniper a clear breakaway and he scored.Given his pedigree as a pure goal scorer, he would have scored on MAF as well. Three goals on three mistakes. There were many more forced turnovers by the Bolts on the Pen’s but Murray stopped them. Both teams are fast….but the one that makes the fewest mistakes is going to win.
In game two, we simply have to play smarter and execute better.( Oh my Gosh,starting to sound like Mike Johnston).
My local Hockey friends,(who are really upset that there is no Canadian team to cheer for), today all became instant Pen’s analysts and gave their various opinions on why the pen’s lost.Team Defense! That was the consensus.
Due to the size and speed of the Bolts players,there physical style of play,and attention to defense first, will be the downfall of the Pen’s. They will force us to make mistakes and capitalize on them.
I disagree…I think we still will win. ..But it will take more than just hard work. We are going to have to execute on the PP and stop making mental mistakes.
Cheers
Hey guys,
I was at work for much of the game and really didn’t get to watch it as closely as I like. But it sounds like you all did a great job of analyzing what happened and what needs to be done to fix it.
I agree that our Pens seem to be falling into some bad, old habits. Some of this might be due to Tampa Bay’s clog-the-lanes structure and sheer size on defense. To draw a real-life analogy, if a door is closed we tend to look for other ways to get in…like an open window. The Pens might be falling back into perimeter play and over-pass mode because the Bolts aren’t leaving any easy openings.
Somehow, we have to force the Lightning to adjust to us instead of the other way around. Easier said than done, I’m sure.
Agree that we need to get Malkin some help. Kunitz busts his tail, but obviously isn’t what he used to be in terms of production. Fehr hasn’t been what I expected offensively.
Trouble is, who do you team with Malkin? I don’t think you break up Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel. I love Rust’s speed, but he tends to need the puck, too. Perhaps Kuhnhackl might work. He seems really smart and well-schooled. Maybe he’d be able to read and react to No. 71—not the easiest thing to do.
“Other Rick,” I wouldn’t mind Sundqvist in place of Fehr.
Jumping back to D. I don’t know what’s the maatta with Maatta (sorry, couldn’t resist). But his skating has really become an issue. He has lots of trouble turning…and regaining any foot speed after he finally makes the turn.
I think he was able to match up physically a little better than Pouliot or Schultz against the Caps. But against the Lightning Bolts (sorry, couldn’t resist Part II)? I might be tempted to dress Schultz or Pouliot.
I had a hunch this might be a tough series for us. Kind of a proving ground. Let’s hope we’re up the task.
GO PENS!
Hey Rick
Looks like Coach Sullivan is listening to you guys.
The latest Trib post stated that Sullivan has put Maatta on a fourth d pairing with Pouliot and has inserted Schultz in the top six d pairings as well as moving Patrick H. to Geno’s line and move Rust up to Crosby’s line in practice.
Plus announced that Murray will be the starter in game 2. Smart move.
Sullivan is not one to stand by and repeat past mistakes….hoping for a different result….He is making adjustments where he can.
Let’s hope it will be enough to get us a win in game 2.
Go Pens.