Call me a “Nervous Nellie.” But when Tampa Bay rookie Adam Erne cruised down the slot unmolested and hammered the puck past Penguins goalie Matt Murray to break a scoreless tie early in the second period last night, I looked to the heavens and thought, here we go again.
After all, our guys haven’t exactly been lighting it up lately.
Thank goodness for Evgeni Malkin. Like a one-man cavalry charge in an old western, No. 71 arrived in a nick of time to save the day. And earn two points for our Pens.
Commemorating his 700th NHL game in grand style, “Geno” struck for two goals and a helper in a virtuoso performance worthy of a Russian master. One where he literally picked the team up and placed it on his broad back.
A mere two minutes and change after Erne’s tally, Malkin galloped across the plains (and down the right side undetected) to one-time Phil Kessel’s beautiful saucer pass past Peter Budaj. In the process, knotting the score and ending a prolonged drought against the plucky Czech goalie.
As teammates gathered ‘round to celebrate, Malkin flashed a broad, confident smile. He patted each on the helmet as if to say, “Relax, boys, I’ve got this.”
And so he did. Nine minutes later the former MVP ripped another pretty feed from Kessel—again from one knee—past the suddenly solvable Budaj to give the locals a 2-1 edge.
Following Geno’s lead, the Penguins began buzzing like the bees around announcer Mike Lange’s hive. Shrugging off a power-play roof job by Nikita Kucherov early in the third period, they retook the lead.
Displaying supreme skill in tight quarters, Malkin outworked two opponents in the right circle and chipped the puck to Sidney Crosby, who spied newcomer Mark Streit drifting through the back door. The veteran defender—wearing No. 32 in the black and gold—coolly settled Sid’s perfect cross-ice pass and surveyed the scene before beating Budaj through the five hole.
“You can see his hockey sense,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s a real smart player. He’s very positionally sound. You can tell he’s played a lot of years in the league. … I think he’s going to bring a lot to our team.”
Fellow d-man Justin Schultz supplied the icing on the cake with a power-play goal at 16:37, courtesy of a terrific Crosby feed from the corner. Followed in short order by Tom Kuhnhackl’s empty-netter to make the count 5-2.
“When you score, you always like it,” said Malkin, the game’s No. 1 star. “It was a good night for me. It was a good night for the team.”
The big center was quick to share the credit.
“I’ve scored like 28 goals,” he said, “but probably on like 20 (Kessel) has passed to me. He’s a great player and I’m glad he plays with us.”
Ice Chips
Streit notched a goal and an assist in his Penguins debut to earn the second star. His five-on-five shot differential was plus-7, tops among the defensemen.
Fellow newcomer Ron Hainsey logged 25:07 of ice time and blocked a game-high five shots. He finished a plus-2. Schultz, the No. 3 star, tallied a goal and an assist. Murray made 27 saves.
The Pens finished with 35 shots on goal, six more than the Lightning. They won 59 percent of the faceoffs. Nick Bonino led the way, winning 12 of 18 draws, followed by Crosby (11 of 18) and Malkin (7 of 13).
Conor Sheary returned to the lineup after missing 13 games. The sparkplug winger skated 16 shifts (13:38 of ice time) and registered two hits.
Kris Letang missed his fourth-straight game with an unspecified upper-body injury. His status is day to day. Derrick Pouliot and Carter Rowney were healthy scratches.
Hi Rick
Your bang on. That first Tampa goal was picture perfect whereby Cole missed his assignment and the puck comes out and a perfect pass to the Tampa rookie Erne and in it goes. Murray had to protect the shot and had no chance.Bang.Bang.
In the net.
But to his credit Kessel made 2 fantastic long range passes that actually connected and resulted in goals. Timely goals. Again he is a very underrated play maker as we have mentioned before. His on ice vision and the ability to see the game unfold really is second to none.
Schultz hit the post, and had at least 2 more incredible scoring chances. He could have had a hat trick last night easily.He has a nose for the net.
Hainsey was like a Swiss Army Knife last night in that he was there when it counted in all situations.
Brian Dumo looked out of place last night in several instances.Maybe he is not fully recouped from his earlier injury.
Finally the play of Streit. I think Sully said it best in that ” he makes our team better”. No question. One play that impressed me was when Drouin tried his Sid Crosby impression of turning and twisting in the corner and Streit stayed with him and forced a pass across the goal mouth that Geno broke up.
Drouin is very fast and handles the puck as good as anybody and I thought he would slip around Streit and make a clear break to Murray. The old cagey veteran stopped that. Then of course the goal he scored. Experience taught him to go to the open side and it worked. I think you will see more of that same play.
Except for that Ernest goal everything looked better to me than against Chicago.
I hope MAF is on the bench in Buffalo.
Cheers
Hey Jim,
Terrific observations, my friend. Simply terrific … 🙂
As you so aptly noted in previous posts, Jim Rutherford is looking smarter every second. I just read a blurb on NHL.com that Letang’s situation is “more complicated” than day to day, according to Mike Sullivan.
I’ve seen nothing official, mind you. But it sure sounds like Tanger’s dealing with yet another concussion.
Thank goodness JR had the wherewithal and presence of mind to acquire Streit. Before all is said and done it may prove to be the most important deadline move of ’em all–even bigger than the Shattenkirk deal.
Rick
Hi Rick,
Interesting you mentioned Letang. His name came up,MAF, and Bonino as well in my Saturday morning hockey rant with my friends. The heated discussion was centered around what will ALL the teams look like come August 1st, 2017, especially given the Vegas situation. The consensus was that MAF will NOT be part of the 2017 Penguins moving forward. He will be traded or his contract bought out and spread out over 5 years.( 2 million versus 5.75 million Cap Hit.
Their numbers, not mine.) But I do agree with their logic.
With regards to Bonino he will indeed get a 5 or 6 year contract from someone and a raise between 1 and 2 million dollars annually. Compared to others in the market place, he deserves it. Unless other pieces fall in place, that makes it really difficult for the Pen’s to resign him this summer. Before you laugh at that number, remember we were paying Eric Fehr 2 million a year and he was 3 years older than Bonino and had far less pedigree at this stage of his career.
Now the interesting one. Letang. I continue to be impressed with the over all knowledge my long time friends have regarding the entire NHL, AHL and all the minor league systems. Much like my fellow PP bloggers. Their belief is given Letang’s health issues, style of play and age,that the Pen’s should move him for a high first round pick and keep Justin Schultz instead.( Somebody else we know suggested that on PP earlier.)
For the next 100 days I really do not want to think about it, but as they said come in 140 days or less from now, you WILL be forced to think about it and the Pen’s will never be the same team again.
The core will be broken up.
The torch will get passed. In more ways than one my friend. 🙂
For me that will be a sad day. For you guys and gals who see them play live every night,I can only imagine it will be much, much worst.
Final point Rick. When I first started to post on PP, it was about March of 2015.The disaster of having to win the last game of the season just to qualify for the Finals against the lowly Sabers. The quick exit.The GM and Coaching change.The attempted sale ! All the painful stuff.
I remember a foolish post I made about trading Geno or Crosby to Edmonton for the opportunity to draft Connor Mc David. That was not well received at the time .( Jaylene, and you worry about asking dumb questions.Trust me Sister you have absolutely nothing to worry about.)
I can not help but wonder Rick, if we did trade Geno then and today we had McDavid…What would the fan base think now given he is leading all scorers and plays on a much weaker team than our Pen’s.
It is in that light I believe the glass is always half full and not half empty. The Pen’s light may dim a bit but it never will go out !
Happy 50 th Birthday Penguins !
Cheers
Hey Jim,
I am still digesting your post. In a few days I may go back into my complete focus on winning the last game of the post-season but since you brought this up to some extent, who do you protect from the expansion draft; I believe it is 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and a goalie.
There still is plenty of time to change your mind and we can revisit this (and we obviously will) when the time comes. I am just wondering.
We can then look back and see how the last couple of regular season games and post-season may have changed your mind.
Also, ask your hockey clatch friends. I would be interested in their opinions as well as everyone else here on PP. Please jump in.
Would like to do that Coach.Good idea. ☺
Listening to my hockey friends today it was very informative. There are real challenges of only protecting 11 players on a 20 man roster.
FIRST major point.You can only lose 1 player per team. So what you have to do is do an assessment of all teams and watch the players with good contracts…Team friendly. Below market with long term. ( ie.Matt Murray for 3 years at 3 million plus).
Protect them.
Secondly. YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE 1 GOOD PLAYER.ACCEPT IT.You can not protect everyone.
Thirdly . The smart and wealthy teams will make a side deal with Vegas for them not to take a star player. (ie.You trade a player to vegas and a pre arranged agreement on who Vegas will pick at your expansion draft.We will send Derrick P. for a second round pick and the promise Vegas takes Brian Dumolin at the draft.) That way we ptotect Letang, Schultz, and Maatta for example but Daley does not get picked or Matt Murray or Connor Sheary for example.
4. Now is the time to unload bad contracts.Same example in reverse. You leave Letang exposed because he is now a damaged product with his health issues and he still has 6 years to go at 7.3 million a year. This is just for example Coach.
2017 he plays well.Gets another concussion or 2 so in 2018 he can not play. Your stuck with a player paying his salary for 5 more years.Put him on LTIR.
You still have to pay them.
Because of Crosby previous concussions, when he resigned the 12 year, 8.7 mill annual deal (just before the new CBA came into affect limiting standard contracts to 7 years in length,) the Pen’s could not insure his contract. Ouch. That is why they front loaded his deal.
So yes it is interesting to see what transpires in the 40 days after we win the Cup.
Talk soon. Good night.
Hey Jim and Rick,
That first goal wasn’t just Cole’s fault. When I saw 2-Bolts alone, infront of the net I almost pulled a coronary. That first goal of TB was a serious team D gaffaw. I would have excused it if it involved Streit and Hainsey. Both are new to the team and may get their coverage confused. As I posted elsewhere, despite his FO wins and assist, Bonino is still in my crosshairs because of that D lapse.
And although I loved the final score 5-2, I still have D concerns. TB not only managed 29 shots but the team had to block 23 more shot attempts and TB also missed the net another 5 times, that is a total of nearly 60 shot attempts. There were times when TB had some serious extended zone time. I am not ready to say the Pens are out of the woods, yet.
Maybe when Rust and Letang get back I may start to feel different. The team definitely look like it had more energy with pesky Sheary back, so Rust’s speed and Letang’s savoir faire may put them back in the chips (I am not counting on Maatta being effective even when he comes back for quite some time, unlike Letang, Maatta takes forever to return to form, look how long it took to get back to where he was playing when he hurt his had, and Knee injuries, particularly when I don’t the full extent of the injury, in players as old as Daley scare me).
However, there where many positives last night too;
Rick, I was waiting to get back to the agent 0071 allusions after Geno’s performance. But you chose westerns. So, was Geno the Duke?, Marshal Dillon? I really don’t picture him as Blondie. I know, he can be John Wayne and Phil can be Dean Martin from Rio Lobo or was that Clevon Little and Gene Wilder from Blazing Saddles?
I know Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday! and he and his possey brought down the thunder on the Bolts.
Go Pens, into the Sunset like the Western Heroes Do (What 70s song is that from?)
How about Don Knots and Tim Conway in Disney’s
Apple Dumpling Gang…
Some days they play like a comedy.
🐂
Okay Jim,
If they can be a comedy at times how about F-Troop; “Where hockey fights are colorful sights, blah, blah blah, blah, blah”