Somebody up there likes us. An awful lot.
I can find no other plausible explanation for how the Penguins defeated Nashville last night in Game One of the Stanley Cup Final before 18,618 hand-wringing patrons at PPG Paints Arena.
It sure as hell wasn’t due to a heroic effort on the part of the home team. In all my years of watching Penguins hockey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them deliver a more tepid performance at crunch time. And I’ve seen some clunkers.
After snatching a 3-0 lead thanks to a disallowed Nashville goal and one of those volcanic four-minute eruptions we’re so accustomed to, our guys literally fell asleep. A neat trick, especially on skates.
How bad was it? For starters, the Pens mustered nary a shot on goal for the entire second period, marking the first time in the club’s illustrious postseason history they’ve failed to do so. For an encore, they went nearly the entire third period without one, too. For the game, they mustered all of a dozen shots on goal and a miserable 28 shot attempts.
My late grandmother, God rest her soul, could get 28 shot attempts in a game.
No, our boys didn’t deliver a primo effort by any stretch of the imagination. They played maybe 10 effective minutes out of 60, in two staccato bursts. With an assist from Predators goalie Pekka Rinne (.636 save percentage), they somehow managed to accumulate five goals during those all-too-brief interludes.
That’s a heck of a return on their sweat equity, but not one that’s sustainable in any way, shape or form.
After allowing Nashville to creep back on a second period power-play goal by Ryan Ellis, the Pens made a concerted effort to give the game away in the third. Evgeni Malkin, who netted the game-opening goal, made like ex-linemate James Neal and took a silly slashing penalty to set up a power-play tally by Colton Sissons. For good measure, Neal ran over black-and-gold goalie Matt Murray well after the play. Not that any Penguins pretended to notice.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this was going. As I’ve done so often through these playoffs, I sat on my chair at the Pennsbury Pub and Grille with hands clasped to my face, peering between spread fingers at the images unfolding on screen.
My trepidation turned to full-blown anger after the Pens botched a gift power play midway through the third period. Mere seconds after the muffed man advantage sputtered to its disappointing conclusion, they allowed the tying goal on a defensive breakdown orchestrated in part by Olli Maatta.
“They’re gonna’ blow it,” I grumbled to my buddy Tom Blanciak after noting Maatta’s culpability and overall wobbly play.
Following another sequence of botched offensive-zone entries and wayward passes, I blew my stack.
“Take the (bleeping) puck and drive to the net,” I yelled in decibels loud enough for the entire establishment to hear.
Maybe Jake Guentzel heard, too. About a minute later the precocious rookie raced into the Predators’ zone and lasered the puck past Rinne high to the glove side. Incredibly, it was the Pens’ first shot on goal in 37 minutes—nearly two full periods of hockey.
Thank the good Lord coach Mike Sullivan didn’t scratch the kid.
Shaken from their slumber, the Pens managed three more shots on the Nashville goal over the final three minutes and change, including Nick Bonino’s empty-netter with 62 ticks left on the clock.
Yeah, we won alright. And a win, is a win, is a win—especially during the Final. But jeez!
Or as Sullivan so aptly put it…
“We weren’t very good,” an observation he felt compelled to repeat in Rain Man fashion. “We weren’t very good. So, when you’re playing a team like Nashville that has a balanced attack, you have to have some pushback. I didn’t think, in the second period, that we had any pushback. … We just weren’t very good.”
Puckpourri
Bonino scored two goals to earn the No. 1 star. Bones’ first goal at 19:44 of the first period deflected in off Preds defenseman Mattias Ekholm.
Conor Sheary scored the Pens’ second goal—his first of the playoffs—off a nifty feed from Chris Kunitz. Kunitz and Sidney Crosby collected two assists apiece. Matt Cullen and Justin Schultz assisted on Guentzel’s game-winner.
Patric Hornqvist returned to the lineup after missing six games with an upper-body injury. He skated on the reconstructed fourth line with Cullen and No. 2 star Guentzel. Carl Hagelin was a healthy scratch.
Murray stopped 23 of 26 shots for an .885 save percentage.
Malkin collected his playoff best 25th point, three points ahead of Crosby. Guentzel leads all postseason scorers with 10 goals.
Nashville held an edge in shot attempts (46-28), shots on goal (26-12), blocked shots (14-9) and hits (37-31). The Pens controlled the faceoff circle (33-24).
OK guys,
In all seriousness. If you watched the game last night you had to figure out Maatta’s big problem is that Daley is VERY injured. Maatta is taking the fall all the while he is playing defense for two. The play Maatta got beat on Daley was blown by and Maatta covered Daley’s side. Surely they had to show on TV a different play when Daley was trying to skate as hard as he could and was passed easily by a Nashville player. I looked at the player ice times this morning and Daley was held to something like 12 minutes even strength time. It’s like I said, while everyone is hating on Maatta, Sullivan has given him the most responsibility.
Sullivan changed up the D lines and all was good again. The offensive line Sully made were genius also.
Hey Phil
Thanks for the explanation on Matta’s defensive lapse. U are right. The HNIC feed made it look like he missed his assignment.
It must have been loud at PPG midway in the third period. On TV it looked like people where going nuts.
Especially on the 5 th goal before it was called back.
With regards to the series I am very happy we are up 2 to nil…but we still did not look good last night in the first 2 periods.Murray stole that game again for us.I kept thinking we are trying to hold on and prevent them from scoring instead of taking the play to them. They certainly were winning most of ,80% of the puck battles along the boards until we went up 3 to 1 and that took some fight out of the Preds.
They also dominated us in the face off circle.At one point Sissons was 12- 1.
So game 3 will be a tough one in Nashville. They remind me alot of us last year only more physical.
Jim
dammit i knew maatta would make me look bad!
Interesting headlines on the NHL website;
Caps say trading Ovechkin is not probable but possible and Oshie may stay a Cap. Is this the first step in getting the public ready for a blockbuster trade; sort of ease them into it?
Also Derrick Brassard must have been seriously injured, Sens are expecting him to miss the start of the season.
Also, there was a headline discussing the hockey combines and some D men having their stock go up. The names mentioned as 1st rounders Miro Heiskanen 72″ 170lbs, Cale Makar 71″ 179lbs, Timothy Lijegren 72″ 191lbs, Juuso Vallimaki 73″ , 204lbs, Callan Foote 76″ 212lbs, and Nicolas Hague 77″ 206lbs. With our discussion below I thought it was timely. Anybody know anything about these kids? Jim? You usually have some dope on the jrs. Any thoughts?
Hey Coach
I will have more comments later today,but a couple of quick points
Ovi being traded…I believe he will be. But for a different reason. He said he will play at the Olympics in Korea for his country and has stated that in Russian and European media. He has never backed off that statement. The NHL has said it will fine players and now team owners who allow their players to go to the Olympics.
From your location you would not hear that Erik Karelson and Bobby Ryan want to play for their countries as well and the Ottawa team owner said he will allow it. So the NHL had to step in a threaten the team owners themselves. Some owners are not to pleased about this.
So Ovi may find his time in Washington coming to an end. Surprisingly he was a modified no trade contract where by he can list only 10 teams that he can not be traded to. 21 teams he CAN be traded to !! He has 4 years left on his contact at 9.5 million a year.
In my opinion he is not worth 9.5 million at this stage of his career. Plus Caps have the same cap issues we will have in 2 weeks or less. Karl Alzner,Shattenkirk, Orlov, Schmidt,Oshie,Kuznetsov, Burakovsky,Connolly, Winnik, Williams all need to be signed. And they have 22 million in Cap space to do it…Good luck.
On the kids mentioned above Cale Makar has come on to surprise a lot of scouts. Putting up some big numbers late in the season. .But I will check some more when the sun comes up.
Cheers
Hey guys,
Just tossing a log on the fire. But I wonder if Ovechkin might wind up in Las Vegas?
George McPhee drafted Ovy when he was the GM in Washington. (Don’t know what type of relationship they had–good or bad.) Obviously, Vegas is going to need a face for the franchise until they become competitive. Somehow Ovy and Vegas, with all its glitz and glamour, seem like a perfect fit to me…at least on the surface.
Regarding the d-men available in the upcoming draft: judging by the names and comparatively light weights, they sound like the Penguins type of defensemen.
I know I’m a dino. But I still wish we could add a d-man (or two) with some size and a physical edge.
Rick
Hey Rick,
I was hoping to hear that Foote and Hague were well thought of. Although I know the Pens prefer midgets on D what little I have read on Hague (his own opinion of himself, Hague said he was working really hard on being a shut down defensement over the second half of the season) with his size 77″ 206lbs and his stats 18G and 28A in 46GP, he has intrigued me and was wondering if anyone else had any skinny on him.
Also, I am still hoping that the rumor that Shero might entertain a trade for that first over-all pick and that the Pens could somehow get that pick. I did see where the Devils are looking at getting Kovalchuk back in the NHL as well as going hard after Shattenkirk so that may preclude the trade I was hoping for. I am not a fan of Kovalchuk and Shattenkirk”s stock dropped a bit in my eyes (Although I still don’t discount bad pairings) I could see where Shero may think he may not be as desperate as others may think.
But Rick, How would you like the Pens to pull of a coup and get the first overall and still keep their pick so that they might get Patrick and Hague (if Hague looks as good as the picture painted by what I have read on him).
I can dream can’t I?
Hi Rick,
I agree he would look good in Vegas.. for about a year, .. but with all the distractions and night life you would have to enroll him AA !!
That would be the same as me going to work for Baskin-Robins or Dairy Queen while trying to lose weight….not a good idea .
Cheers my friend.
Hey tOR,
I have heard that the Caps may try to get the #1 pick from the Devils using Ovi and a few other players. I don’t know how realistic it is, but I thought I would mention it.
Rick, If ever there was the perfect place for Ovechkin it would be Vegas.
Jim, If Ovi goes to the Olympics, is it because it’s the only way he will get a big championship is when the other teams don’t show up? I could see him doing it for that reason.
Hey Phil,
It wouldn’t surprise me if Was would deal. Imagine the PR coup they might get if they talk Kovalchuk back to the NHL and put him on a line with Ovie. That particular thought crossed my mind when I read the NHL website article.
Hey Coach,
FYI….Ilya Kovalchuk wants to return to the NHL. Now !! He was the smart one and took the Putin deal 5-6 years ago and made 12 million tax free a year and did VERY WELL for himself. Now his contract is up and he wants to return to the NHL.
Apparently there is no love loss between Ovi and Kovalchuk. They had a blow up at the last Olympics when Kovi blamed Ovi for the loss.Called him a prima donna. The KHL backed Kovi as it was their Coaches mainly on the team and it was played in Sochi . Putin was upset and went and berated the team after the game.
Alexander Radulov did the same thing this year with Montreal. Made a lot of tax free money in the KHL and came back to the NHL when his contract is over.
cheers
Hey Phil
Right you are. The only thing bigger than his bank account is his EGO.
A couple of points to chew on.
1.Alex is a rock star in Russia.Reports say he has spent a lot of his free time back home.I think he is pondering life after Hockey and no Stanley Cup ring and No Olympic Gold medal. Does not like that legacy..
2. Never forget that Alex, Geno, and a few other Russian born Super stars were offered big TAX FREE hockey contracts by Putin to play in the KHL when ever they choose to. Big money.15 million a year RT reported last year.Plus after hockey is over very high profile jobs with the Russian Hockey Federation. Great offer.
But it is predicated by them playing in the Olympics.
3.Ovi knows that the younger guys on the Caps will GET big raises.So they can not possibly keep all of them.
Caps Team will be weaker next year.So why not bail now? That is what he will do.. You can bet it was Ovi’s idea with the owners blessing and not the GM.
Can you imagine JR saying to the press I am trading Crosby? Not a chance unless Sidney wanted to come home and play for his beloved Montreal Canadians.
☺
My crazy idea. Maybe we should send them Hagelin and his 4 million dollar contract and trade MAF and his 5.75 million contract and now Geno and Alex play for a cup together in 2018. Then send Sidney, Alex, Geno and Phil to play for 2 weeks in the Olympics for their respective countries and tell the NHL to FO…
Plus all 4 said in private they would gladly pay the fine themselves for a chance to play in Korea.
Chew on that guys.
Cheers
One other thing…..I am betting Ovi wants a Cup so bad, he would take a 1 million dollar pay cut to come here. haha
Tell he has to make less then Crosby at 8.7 million so we can not
pay him 9.5
I can dream too…
Ovie no doubt would love to come to Pgh, he would have a legitimate chot at the Cup and either Malkin or Crosby would put him back up in the scoring standings, but again, I wouldn’t trade for him.
Hey Jim,
Not a fan of Ovie. When he first came up yes, but now after seeing him over his career, he has been very self – centered. I really doubt he would have taken the demotion to 3rd line if he were healthy. And those type of players are not needed in the ‘bugh. Sully has built a “Team” with a capital “T” and the cancer of a me first player would ruin that chemistry.
As I said, my dream for the off-season is to get the over-all number one off of NJD. It may be a long shot and that is why I said dream and not hope. There are only 2 Russians that I would look to trade for in the Off-Season; Zadorov and Tryumkin. Neither is a superstar but I think either would fill a niche that the Pens need badly, more so than a Prima Donna goal scorer, on a team that already boasts Superstars Crosby, Malkin, Kessel, and Letang (if he stays and stays healthy) with possibly rising star Guentzel. There just may not be enough pucks to go around with Ovie too.
It was my fault.
I saw it was 3-1 and I took a chance and started watching. Otherwise, I tend to not enjoy myself and may throw things at the TV while using language that would make sailors blush. When it hit 3-3, I dutifully muttered under my breath, turned off the TV and did a long weekend’s worth of dishes.
I was expecting 5-3 as final score. I just didn’t think the Pens would be the one to pull it out.
Hey IRA Darth Aggie,
I absolutely understand. When we won the Cup back in ’09, the Pens seemed to score an inordinate amount of key goals when I was in the bathroom … 🙁
Earlier this season, they scored a lot whenever I turned my head to converse with gym members.
It’s enough to give a guy a complex … 🙁
Rick
Hey Rick,
I think maybe I saw the game a little bit different. For once I saw the Penguins dominate a first period in the playoffs. When they wanted to, they completely took over play. You know with all the adrenaline Nashville was rolling with to put together such a weak opening that they are in trouble.
After that, I believe Sully tried to go into shut down mode to see if the Pens could just shut down Nashville’s anemic offense. They failed, but the game sort of looked like a feeling out process. The Penguins are not going to be able to break through Nashville’s defense and stick handling of Rinne by sending one or two guys in.
I’ve played in lot of games when a team is just that much better than my team that they take a lead then sit back and toy with you. If my team even came close or even tied it, they would put the game away. You know it when you are playing and it’s happening to you and believe me, I saw it last night.
I think I saw a stat that Rinne is 0-6-2 against the Penguins when he is a starter with something like 3.6 gaa. I thought it was strange that was not mentioned more when watching pre-game stuff. Put that together with smaller, less physical defense men than the Penguins have seen the entire playoffs, I really think if the Pens went all in on offense, they could take down Nashville very easy.
On a side note, James Neal. Same James. Pens fans loved him, I thought he was one of the worst cancerous playoff players I had ever seen on the ice for the Penguins. I saw him be completely invisible in a series while taking and losing two close games for the Penguins by taking stupid penalties. I actually started to believe he was possibly paid off by the other team he was so bad. Same James.
BTW , Neal clocked Murray in the head with his knee in the third period after Nashville scored. Looked to me like it was on purpose. I would post stuff all over but the Pens can’t afford for him not to be playing.
Hey Phil,
I hope you are right here, that the Pens just simply fell into the trap of trying to play prevent defense.
Also, I was alluding to Rinne’s stats v the Pens on a previous post with Jim, but my superstitious nature kept me from writing it out completely. At least in the regular season, Rinne hasn’t fared very well against the Pens.
Was you that posted about tapping Neal’s stick all night to take him out of the game? I couldn’t help but chuckle when he took that penalty giving the Pens a full 2 man advantage penalty. As a shooter, I have always liked Neal, but hated him come playoff time. He was as responsible as anyone for several years of playoff frustration here in the ‘burgh.
It’s like Neal doesn’t know how to channel his adrenaline.
Hey Phil,
Perhaps I let my frustration get the better of me. I got the sense, too, that once the Pens got up 3-0, they were content to let the game play out in the neutral zone.
Trouble is, once the Pens took their collective foot off the gas pedal, they completely lost any offensive initiative…along with any clue of how to get it back. (Skating in quicksand as Jim noted.) Until Guentzel’s goal, it seemed they were trying everything BUT taking the puck to the net.
Judging by Sullivan’s comments, what appeared to have been an intentional stall may well have been an unplanned letdown.
Rick
PS–Going into last night’s game, Rinne was 1-5-2 against us with a 3.57 GAA and .880 SV%. It’s by far his worst record against an NHL team.
PSS–Maybe I’m overreacting. But I’d seriously consider benching Maatta for Streit in Game Two. The kid’s been really error-prone at crucial junctures the past couple of games. Other Rick you’re right–Hainsey struggled, too.
Rinne win wasn’t as a starter, he filled in and won the game.
I wish I could tell you guys to stop listening to Mark Madden (the guy knows nothing about hockey and he was the one that started this Maatta crap). and also how far off base you & he are on the Maatta thing. Not just a little bit off, but ridiculously wrong.
Last night, like all through the playoffs, Sullivan used Maatta as his #1 defense man against the toughest line. Sullivan made changes to make sure he was out there against Forsberg all night. If Maatta wasn’t that good, Laviolette wouldn’t have made all of the quick changes to try to get his top line away from him.
He makes bad plays, oh yes he does! But he’s doing it against the top lines of the other teams.
Everyone treats what Madden says as gospel then they start nit picking what a player does. Watch any player thinking he looks bad and that’s what you will see. Even Malkin & Crosby.
I’ve know Madden since I was 18. He’s an asshat. Madden’s problem is that if a player won’t grant an interview with him he goes on a personal vendetta.
Hey Phil,
I agree with you about Madden, I never listen to him. I had the mispleasure of becoming acquainted with him in the early 90s. I was less than impressed. His opinion of himself far outstrips his knowledge base.
Knowing Madden, I understand your frustration, and although I don’t dispute everything you are saying, playing top pairing is tough, so I may not go as far as Rick to bench him in favor of Streit, however, however, I do think he has had a couple of rough games. If the Pens had a viable option, I would be in favor of dropping him down a pairing or two, at least long enough for him to get into a rhythm again.
Hey tOR,
Try this, next time you watch the game watch how Maatta is the one getting the puck out of the zone and how Daley instead of getting the puck out forces it to Maatta who is many times covering a guy or just plain old in a poor situation to do anything with the puck. I think that is the part that people are truly missing.
The reason for Maatta’s recent poor looking play is more Daley’s return from injury than anything that has changed with Maatta.
I really feel like the world is against me on this one, except for the important person, Sullivan who once again had only Daley have more ice time. If your counting, Maatta had over 6 minutes more ice time than Cole or Shultz.
I keep leaving games going wow I can’t believe the Pens have such an incredible shut down defense man who is leading the team in +/- while playing against the hardest lines in the NHL an he’s only 22 years in age. Just to hear people saying on the way out “Maatta looked like shit tonight” (pardon my French).
Also just for fun watch how bad Dumoulin sets Hainsey up to look bad. I rewound a horrible play I thought Hainsey made against the Senators just to ask my self why Dumoulin passed the puck to Hainsey while he had Ryan tied up on the boards.
Hey Phil,
You make a couple of interesting points; relating Maatta’s decline in play to Daley’s return and reminding all of us that he is only 22 yrs old. And to be fair there is a possibility that my frustration for a season long worst Shots against total by the Pens D colors my vision to see the negative, or at least remember the negative plays more.
To your points, if Daley is forcing the puck to Maatta and remembering that he is only 22yrs old could explain why Maatta may be making bad decisions, particularly when pressured by top lines from other teams. However, it doesn’t explain why his passes and clearing attempts have been weak and look like lame ducks.
For game 2, I will pay closer attention to how Daley and Maatta interact as D. There is a level of chemistry that needs to be there for D men. Orpik was too old to be paired with Shattenkirk and the Pens exploted that pairing. Both D may still be viable D men, but not paired together.
Same thing for Dumoulin – Hainsey, I will stay home and watch the games from my house so as not to get distracted by others talking. But again, my complaints with Hainsey, from last night (Haven’t complained about him other than I would have liked the Pens to have picked up a higher end D man at the deadline) was one that Dumoulin could have had little interaction on. I complained that he appeared to be indecisive and played passively, waiting for the play to develop rather than aggressively attacking the play. Since Hainsey has much more experience than Dumoulin, I would not think he should be playing passively but trying to lead the younger D man forward.
I did notice that Cole and Schultz were not getting their usual TOI but then again, they too have fallen on lean times..
Speaking of the D, an interesting stat for stat geeks, the Pens D have been blocking about 5% less shots taken over the last 5 or so games.
Hey tOR,
Knowing this, he probably will really have a bad game! Every time I talk up a player. it happens.
I really don’t think that Daley is a guy who takes responsibility for what is going on in his own end. I’m not saying he is bad in his own end, just won’t be the one responsible for what happens. I think that is why we pretty much got him for free (Scuderi) from Chicago. I also think that’s why they have Maatta paired up with him.
Having watched Maatta very close since Madden turned Pittsburgh against him (He’s Madden’s current whipping boy) If you notice also, they pair him up with injured guys also, like they paired him with Shultz when he came back against Ottawa. Maatta played the most defensive minutes in game 7 also.
They are giving this kid the hardest assignments and the Pens are leading in the finals without Letang.
BTW: I have been watching Murray closer because of what you have been saying also. I have noticed a huge difference being that Murray kicks his rebounds up in the air to the boards which makes it really hard for teams to make a quick rebound play. Fleury usually plays them flat to the boards and gets many more second tries.
Point taken Phil,
I said I would watch next game closer, ut eveybody can have 1 bad game, I should have said I will watch the next couple of games focusing in on the D pairing.
I was aware that Maatta’s minutes were way up.
And pointing that in perspective to something you wrote a little while back about Goligoski, I too was a Gogo fan and thought he got a raw deal here and considering he is only 22 I am not all that ready to give up on him. As I wrote above, at worst I would have just moved him down a spot, but if you are right, I may just adjust pairings, at least during ciritcal points and give him a more responsible D man. If Letang does make it back for next year, I do think these two make a good pairing.
However, that opens up the question of the off-season and the Pens only being able to protect 3 D men. Since they have to protect Letang, unless they move him, that leaves only 2 spots. It will be interesting to see who those two are. Last 2-games not withstanding, Maatta has made a case for himself as 1 of those 2. It will be interesting to see what kind of deals may occur prior to the expansion draft. I hope the Pens close out quickly to give them more time to focus on it.
Was watching the Benstonium pump up video getting ready for tonight’s game and was watching Nashville’s game tying goal. I added a GIF to Rick’s article that shows Maatta came in and pinned his guy against the boards and Daley came in instead of covering the guy breaking to the net and spun Maatta around. I’m not seeing a major lapse by Maatta as much as I see him making a smart play and Daley screwing up. Maybe I’m wrong.
Hey Phil,
I call ’em as I see ’em (don’t listen to Madden at all). And, while I don’t always get it right, with all due respect I thought Maatta had a disastrous second and third period in Game Seven against Ottawa, to the extent that I thought maybe Sullivan should bench him in OT and/or severely limit his ice time.
Just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, I mentioned it to Evan Freshwater…very knowledgeable and a former high school and college player who was watching the game with me. He readily concurred, so I don’t think it was just me.
Olli’s play…both along the end boards and in front of the net on the Preds’ tying goal…was really weak. And perhaps I missed him, but I didn’t see Maatta on the ice in the closing minutes.
Contrary to how it seems, I really am trying to give the kid a chance. I even defended him to a friend who berated Olli after he was toasted on the OT winner in Game One of the Ottawa series. But he’s made some flat-out horrible plays of late.
Rick
Hey Rick, sorry I accused you of listening to Madden! 🙂
I think the way it works is, Madden says something pre game, people who don’t follow hockey repeat it to sound smart. Then everyone starts talking about it at bars and everywhere else. Then everyone starts watching every little thing that player does and the people who repeated Madden make an uproar when the player does mess up, showing they were right all along. Then they point out the mess up over and over to show they were right all along forcing others even those with muchos hockey smarts to start questioning.
I just think back to the year and a half that Madden had everyone convinced and talking about how the Penguins needed to trade Malkin.
Hey Phil,
No problem. I’m not a talk show guy, but everybody it seems listens to Madden. So your assumption was most understandable.
Back to Maatta. I must confess…I was really impressed with his level of play to begin the playoffs. And, for the most part, he’s maintained that standard up until the past couple of games. Unfortunately, the wheels (no reference to his skating) really seemed to fall off his wagon recently.
I know you attend a ton of games and I really respect how you follow guys before and after the play and see the bigger picture, whereas I tend to focus more on isolated plays and incidents. As you so ably described through your examples, things aren’t always as they seem…especially when you’re viewing the action through the TV camera like me.
Unfortunately, Maatta’s gained attention lately for all the wrong reasons. Hopefully, he’ll bounce back … 🙂
Rick
PS–Agree with your assessment of Neal. Absolute bomb of a shot, but little else to rave about … unless you happen to be a fan of undisciplined penalties like his first-period crosscheck that put the Preds two-men short.
I’ll take Hornqvist any day.
Hi Phil
It may appeared different on TV than live at the Rink but I kept waiting for the Pens to step up the play after Ellis scored and it never happened .Especially Sid and Geno. I watched the second period unfold and the Pens rushed into the Nashville zone and a blocked shot,or a stick deflecting a pass or even being out manned and stripped of the puck. Then it continued into the third period as well.Honestly when they tied it I thought yes these guys did beat the Hawks and we are next!
I like your anology Phil of playing against a superior opponent and them toying with you.I too had that experience way to many times.Not fun.
Last night I did not see that extra gear the Pens have.We had better find it quick. One idea.Bring Hagelin in if he is healthy and use his speed .
Another thing I noticed is that the Preds d Corp can execute that quick, tape to tape 65 – 70 ft cross ice pass at the blue line as well as anybody I have seen this year.One look and bam it is gone. That is causing us some issues as well.PK Subban never played that good in Montreal either.He has raised his game a notch.
So we had better step up the fore check and pressure Rinne like they did to Murray. The Preds cheap shotted him at least 3 times. Where was our push back?
Hope Wednesday is a better effort and you can NOT let up in the Cup Finals…. ever.
Let’s Go Pens
Hey Jim,
I really thought the Pens had the extra gear in the first. I was very surprised by the way they had a few shifts with sustained pressure in Nashville’s zone. I thought the “fresh” Nashville team wouldn’t have that happen, especially in the first period.
As soon the the second period started when the Penguins’ defense men kept the puck in at the point they started throwing it into the corner instead of at the net. My buddy turned to me and said a sad “here we go” meaning the Pens were in full prevent mode already.
One thing I do truly believe from all of the playoff games that I watch is that the refs either are told to try to keep the games close or do it themselves so they don’t take as much heat from the fans or NHL themselves. I also believe Sullivan is aware that if he blows out the Preds that they will have another game like the one after when the Pens blew out the Sens in that they will get absolutely no calls the next game.
You could be right Phil about Sullivan and the refs.
The first call for us, the 5 on 3 really surprised me that the stripes had the fortitude to call it in period one of a game one of the Cup Finals. I thought the NHL brass read the refs the riot act about being fair on calls. Especially after all the missed calls in the Ottawa series
and many people were upset.
But after the two missed calls on Murray I knew we were in trouble.On that Neal knee to the head shot I said to myself Billy Smith, Patrick Roy or Gump Worley would have taken their Goal stick and bashed him over the head and then went over and yelled his defense men for not protecting him.That is part of our game that is missing now as we have all mentioned before.
I hope the Pens do a better job and play for 60 minutes and not for just 25 on Wednesday night.
As for a blow out….if we can we should run the score as high as we can Wednesday. 7- 2 ..
Hey Rick,
You just ain’t whistling dixie. It is hard to find a silver lining in that debacle. The team barely broke 10 shots on goal for the entire game.
Oh wait, that is right, the silver lining, they won the game. Malkin shot the puck through Pekka Rinne. Kunitz had one of the best no look passes I have ever seen at the NHL level setting up Sheary for a bunny goal. Bones got some puck luck, Guentzel Buried the puck over Rinne. And even though crept back into the game, they had to do it on the PP. They only managed 26 shots themselves.
Murray actually looked pretty good for giving up 3 goals, at least a darn site better than Rinne. Murray made some big time saves despite getting run over several times. This is one of those times an Ulfie, or some other larger D man with a nasty disposition would come in handy, keeping opponents off of our goalies.
Here it comes, my tired out refrain, the Pens needed to trade for a D-man and they failed to do so! It was painfully (ask Murray) obvious last night.
Now for the ugly;
Maatta and Hainsey come to mind. Maatta had been having a good playoff until these last couple of games, but he looked weak out there and made poor decisions. And Hainsey may have been a +2 but it was the ugliest +2 I have ever seen. Half the time he looked like he didn’t know what to do, but stood on his skates watching other players play. Maybe it was just a case of nerves being in the finals in his first play-off appearance but I lost track counting the number of passive plays I saw from him where it appeared he just couldn’t make up his mind on what to do.
And even though the team did register 30 odd hits, those hits were mostly the excuse me style. Only Wilson seemed to be able to hit body on body.
What I found fairly interesting was the number of times the Pens did have significant zone time but still failed to register a shot.
I saw way too many cutesy little plays and not enough straight forward, impose your will on your opponent hockey. That begs the question did the Pens, despite their rhetoric to the contrary, take Nashville too lightly? Or maybe the Pens really are worn out. But the Pens didn’t look like they wanted to win last night.
Oh, I forgot to rant about how weak all the Pens seemed to be on the Puck. I didn’t count but it seemed as if NSH won every puck battle except the one where Crosby set up a goal.
Hey Rick,
Posted previously while you were writing this new one.
All I can say is that this was the worst game of the playoffs to date in
terms of execution. We looked slow, like muddled in quick sand and
thank goodness for Matt Murray.
Hope for a better effort and or game plan for Wednesday.
Their D corps really played well. It reminded me a bit of the old Soviet teams that played in the 70’s and they played as a complete 5 man unit. Not d corps and forward lines, but as a 5 man group.
A different style than we are used to.
Cheers
I had a similar thought after the game Jim. Was this a case of the Pens not knowing how to handle a D driven team? That no doubt was part of the problem, but the Pens were far from an aggressive team. They often appeared to be standing around watching the game rather than playing it.