I started to write this morning how I remembered the first Penguins’ game that I saw live at the Civic Arena, way back on November 7, 1971. I was going to start off reminiscing like this because, I had the opportunity to take my 10 year old son, Michael, to his first Penguins game last night (Thanks to our own Phil Krundle). However, as I started to write about that first experience, I decided to double check my facts. I am glad I did. Wow, my memory is faulty. I seemed to have blocked out the fact that the Penguins lost. The Chicago Blackhawks were the team that ruined a great story for me. In my mind, my favorite players were the stars.
Les Binkley had the shut out and Ron Schock scored a goal.
Looking back at the truth, Les Binkley didn’t even play. Roy Edwards absorbed a 4 – 1 loss. As for scoring, Val Fonteyne notched the only Penguins’ goal, set up by Brian Hextall.
And I have always prided myself on my memory. I don’t know what happened.
Fortunately for my son, even though the Vancouver Canucks rained on his parade, his favorite players, Evgeni Malkin and Jake Guentzel found their way on to the score sheet.
We go to the arena early enough to watch the warm-up. I started to worry as I watched the players go through their drills. Their passes were behind their targets and they hit the post and missed the net more than they found the 4′ x 6′, even when there was no goalie. The player I have been pulling for over the past year or more, Daniel Sprong was fighting the puck. Several times, off on his own in the right corner, he tried some basic stick-handling drills and lost control of the puck more times than I could count. The only player who looked ready to play was Riley Sheahan.
Very little seemed to changed once the game started. It looked as if our Penguins had never practiced together. The Canucks built and 11 – 5 shot advantage in that opening frame because of how out of sync the offense seemed to be. If not for Guentzel blocking a Tim Schaller shot and out racing him to the puck for a 2 on 1, then using Sidney Crosby as a decoy, before depositing the puck over Anders Nilsson’s blocker side, the Penguins may as well have not shown up for the first period at all.
Sprong wasn’t the only one who looked like he was fighting the puck. Casey DeSmith was way off as well. He looked shell shocked from seeing all the rubber from the previous 2 games. He was nervous and often reacting (or over-reacting) before shots were attempted, often taking himself out of plays or putting himself into positions where he had to make spectacular saves.
On the Canucks’ first goal, he found himself off his feet, sitting on his back side after an errant shot from the point. Rather than staying at least on his knees as he followed the puck behind the net, he kicked his legs out from under himself and found himself, helpless, like a fish out of water, foundering on his posterior as Ben Hutton fired the puck over him into the net.
DeSmith did make back-to-back spectacular saves, first robbing Sven Baertschi, after he walked around Brian Dumoulin, and then seconds later on Markus Granlund. However, even before Baertschi got around DeSmith, DeSmith had drifted well wide of his net and was off his angle. He couldn’t kick off his post to go side-to-side. And then as he stopped Baertschi, he found himself on his seat again before making the save on Granlund.
My son and I were seated around some people who actually knew hockey. All through the game, I could here the discussion of how DeSmith was fighting himself. There was a person in front of me who apparently disagreed, shaking their head when the people behind me went into their critiques, but since she didn’t say anything, I can’t be sure.
However, if she did disagree, then she had friends in her disagreement. This morning when I mentioned how it appeared that DeSmith was shell-shocked, the person to whom I was talking launched into a tirade about Matt Murray not looking any better. Even when I assured them that I wasn’t taking sides and I wasn’t faulting him at this point, I was just noting what I saw, the person still ranted against Murray in response.
DeSmith found himself on his back once again, when at the end of the first period, former Penguin, Brandon Sutter found the back of the net following up a failed wrap around attempt by Schaller.
Only the Malkin line seemed to be close to working together. And finally they did. With only about 3 minutes to play, Carl Hagelin got on the board, he converted a two-on-one from a slick feed from Phil Kessel, to tie the score.
Unfortunately, Brock Broesser ripped a shot past DeSmith with only 34 seconds gone in Overtime, for the Canucks 3rd goal on only 26 shots, sending the faithful home less than happy.
However, for my son, he had a great time. When I asked him what the best part of the game was, despite eating his favorite chicken tenders, cotton candy, and an ice cream, despite drinking large cups of soda, despite me buying him a souvenir puck and some penguins hockey cards at the Penguins’ gear shop, he said for him the best part of the game was being there with me and watching Guentzel go coast-to-coast.
For me, the best part of the game was listening to him do the play-by-play for not only Guentzel’s goal, but pretty much anytime either Guentzel or Malkin touched the puck.
At least, for him, his favorite players really did shine, in defeat, not like my favorite players. At least when he remembers his first game, he can correctly remember that his favorite players had it together. He won’t have to make things up. Hopefully, the rest of the team gets it together soon.
Odds and Sods
Don’t look now but Anthony Angello has 3 goals in his first 3 games this year in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. I don’t want to speak to soon, but I am thinking a big body like that may just help the big club out. If he keeps this up, maybe that will be what the doctor can order to heal the disjointed parent team.
Murray was sharper and bailed Penguins out!! Good win for him.
Hey Dee,
I agree, he did look a lot better. The big thing I noticed was that he wasn’t over-skating his angles on passes. A few times it bailed him out with tough shots that he got scored on in the first two games. Toronto is a tough team, I was glad Sullivan gave him that game. Hopefully he starts Murray for the Edmonton game. McDavid will have some breakaways. Should be fun to watch Murray that game also.
Penguins did a lot better. They hold on to pucks, cycle down low, ok defensively. Some fowards and defenseman were more defensive than others . Pens can still play a fast speed game and work hard on attention to details. That’s the key.
Penguins are no longer the only Speedy in the league. Teams are more faster and younger than them. They got to adapt to that.
Everyone is fixated on Letang offensive body of work. Maybe it just me. I’m not buying into it. I don’t care for his points.
Fans seem to only care about him getting points. Letang doing ok. Other defenseman too. I don’t see consistency and great defensively fundamentals in his game. Forgive me. I look at everything beside points , 5v5 and Cf% on a player. I look at them being great on both sides of the puck with or without points. I use my eyes at games and study player movements.
Letang misreads play a lot, bad decisions with puck,turnovers/hard times in his zone, he get caught a lot , outmanned and outmuscled, passes don’t connect and no defensively fundamentals in his game. He still make rookie mistakes and players happen to help him all time.
He gets outmanned, outmuscled, push down like a rag doll, step over near the boards by 2-3 faster Leafs players. (For one minute)He got walked and blow by John Tavares. Higher danger chances and he got bail out from it.
I don’t see Letang being more defensively sound and big help in more game situations. Dumoulin has been overall greater than him , imo. Dumoulin is make that pairing overall better on the ice. He’s shutting down big stars and chip in offensively if he needed. Playing two way hockey. I don’t see no difference in his game. Top D pairing is doing good because Dumoulin is playing two way hockey and all over players..
Letang is doing ok. I don’t think we will see consistency and full season.
Dumoulin is underrated great defenseman.
Johnson is playing ok. He’s meh. He gets out of position to make hits. He has decent alright moments. He doesn’t have the high hockey iq nor contextual awareness on the ice. He cough up the puck to much and slow to react. . He has trouble in his zone too. His skating abilities is ok.
Sully give him shifts to work with Crosby’s line But he isn’t sustaining pressure with puck to keep it in the zone. He wasn’t good on the 4 on 4 . Crosby had sustained heavy puck possession on down low work to give the puck to him. Instead he cough up the puck , didn’t shot the puck and give to Riikola who wasn’t ready for the puck in front of him.
Johnson can’t help offensively to sustain pressure on 5V5 hockey. He isn’t that good defensively and offensively. He can’t play D to O or O to D. His Cf and 5v5 is very low
Penguins needs a top 6 RHD and Johnson gotta stay on the bottom pairing. I don’t think the situation will get better without Shultz. Letang could possibly get injured and be out for some games.
I’m curious to see , Chad Ruhwedel, Jeff Taylor and Zach Trotman in the mixed.
Derick Brassard doesn’t fit this team. It evident. He played 11-12 minutes. Rotated on different lines.
Sheahan-Cullen-Hornqvist were you crazy good. Play 25 minutes for the third line and shut down opposition. Penguins really don’t have no bottom 6 lines without Cullen,Sheahan and Hornqvist. I still don’t understand why Hornqvist is on the bottom lines.
Penguins need a good bottom LW . Maybe Johnson and another player needs to come up and play.
I don’t think Sprong, Brassard and Simon can help the bottom lines that much. Rust needs to get his act together. He’s very streaky cold player. I’m fine with him playing on the third line with a better 3C than Brassard.
Brassard hasn’t show to me he can help the Penguins. He isn’t cutting it. Everyone says he look good on paper But he doesn’t look with this team on the ice. Rutherford was going after Alex Galchuky during the summer so that lets me know he will not keep Brassard.
IMHO , I would like to see Sprong and Brassard scratched. Give Grant a chance to play. Cullen playing 4C .
Overall good win. I like that Pens did hold to their lead and play smarter against the Leafs.
Excellent write-up, Other Rick. I really enjoyed your trip down memory lane and your recap of the game, even if the results weren’t what we hoped for.
Things aren’t looking too rosy for our boys right now. The “kill-em-with-skill” approach isn’t working, and I don’t like the mix we have at forward. We need some size and gristle along the wall, and we could sorely use some youth and speed and energy, too.
As a team, our intensity isn’t there. We’re losing puck battles…heck…half the time we’re not even getting to loose pucks. It’s like we’re skating at three-quarters speed while our opponents are going full tilt.
On ‘d,’ opponents are pouring through us like water. There’s very little resistance. Even less physicality.
Much to my chagrin, we’ve become a very easy team to play against. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Rick
Hey Rick,
The last two cup winning runs, the Pens had a speedy 3rd and/or 4th line that always cycled the puck and really tired out the other teams, especially the other teams defense. It seemed every game they had that one shift that lasted two minutes. They really need that again. I’ve noticed a lot of other teams have gone to speed as the Penguins seem to be drifting away from it.
I finally got to see the Vancouver game, and even though I fast forwarded through a bunch of it I was able this from it: Jack Johnson still looks horrible. He was chasing the puck the way kids do when they first start playing hockey, without regard to position. I hope this is just him learning a new system. He was a team worst – only player at -2 last game. Oleksiak now knows how Maatta felt.
Hey Rick,
Last night, I did a quick search of some Pens prospects (Bellerive, Addison, etc)
One of the players that I have been interested in has been Nikita Pavlyczev, the 6′-8″ Russian playing for Penn State. They have only played 3 games so far this year but he has 1G and 2A. Who knows, Pavlyczev may disappear the rest of the year, but I am now starting to think to myself, what could this team look like soon. We are such a tiny team and you, Dee, Mike, and 55, like me all bemoan the lack of size on this team (size being a relative term, size as in using too.) Imagine maybe next year, Pavlyczev (6’8″) playing with Angello (6’4), and maybe Hallander (6’1″) on a 3rd or 4th line. That could be the missing link this team is searching for.
Phil, agreed, Johnson didn’t look good at all. Also, it was really interesting to see who was doing what behind the play, who was taking sticks away, who was rotating back to support etc. Along with your ideas on Maatta and Riikola, I did note that Brassard was playing real well without the puck. I still think Crosby needs a Hornqvist or a shooter on his line, I can see why the team may be trying to put Brassard there. I think they need him more at Center, but he could free Crosby and Guentzel to be more free-wheeling.
#Pens switching it up during rushes:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Hagelin-Malkin-Kessel
Simon-Brassard-Hornqvist
Grant/Sprong-Cullen-Sheahan
Dumoulin-Letang
Maatta-Oleksiak
Johnson-Ruhwedel
I
I don’t know . Probably better setup. I hope he let them play more 3-5 games together. I’m very happy Johnson is on the bottom pairing.. I thought Määttä-Olekiskak were good ok last night. I would like to see more consistency on line combos and let players build together. Either way pens need some youth and grit.
Great Article!!!
Love you guy!!
Hi TOR,
My biggest take away from these last 2-4 game is that Sullivan and Rutherford as much as players needs wake- call up. I still blame the coaching staff .
I was having disagreements with a lot of fans last night. Mainly on Johnson and Kris Letang. 5 man unit committed on the ice.
Pens are sloppy, sloppy, sloppy in all facets of the game.
Sid’s Line seems to be working hard to generate offensively and try hard to back check. Sid is having trouble again because Sid is having to come down really low in the defensive zone to support the D. He’s behind the play a lot when it breaks up ice. He’s not getting passes in stride because of it.
Defenseman are poorly passing the puck and bad in their zone. He is still playing more defensively than ever to cover them. Justin Shultz should would skate through well from his zone to neutral zone to give the puck to him. Dumoulin occasionally does it. Määttä as well . (When he isn’t thinking to much). Letang doesn’t it. He throw the puck anywhere.
He has no complementary hound speedy RW on the line.Kunitz high hockey iq type.
Penguins do needs to be better offensively But they do need to better defensively first and compete to another level than their opposition.
I understand that Sullivan want them to shoot the puck more.He needs to be proactive to sustain better D from fowards and defenseman together on the ice .Pens are playing weak defensively, get outplayed and playing soft against opposition.
I see they are very timid, bad puck management and bad defensively.To cute with puck and unaware. Offense cannot help their weak D anymore.
Penguins are afraid to compete hard through defensively and let the juggernaut offensive come. They still have a problem on scoring for bottom -6 lines.
-No zone time hard pressure
-To many players playing out their comfort zone.
-Bad Defensively
-Struggle Goaltending
-Current setup isn’t maximizing players talents on this roster.
-No youth, grit, strong RHD’s
-Coach Staff tactics and strategies sucks
-No urgency
Not playing full 60 minutes
-no balanced D
-no puck support
-no cycling the puck
-playing soft against
-not game plans and great game in adjustments
-bad line changes
-Defensemen outmanned and scared with puck
– bad aggressive pinching
-to many odd man rushes
-Ok bad/good teams got better and more hard to play against.
I’m not sold, on pens D , they new two Right-handed defenseman with Shultzy, to everything starts with defenseman bad passing to fowards, bad in their zone ,aggressive weak pinching and bad giveaways.
No I don’t see Letang look good and consistent. He’s the same. He’s has all- round game. One trick weak pony. He got outmanned, knock of the puck, can’t win battles and bad defensively. One time during first start of the period he was standing puck watching in the blue paint with DeSmith not defending his man who was behind him waiting for puck. Bad unforced giveaways and aggressive bad pinching and passing. So vulnerable spots.
He will get hurt. What Defensemen will eat his minutes and quarterback the top powerplay?
Brassard look ok at times. He doesn’t belong on the roster top line. He was acquired to be unique center to help Penguins be more tough to play hard against with more scoring. I do not like him playing on the top line thinning the pens depth.
I wouldn’t mind trading Brassard. He doesn’t fit this team and pens need some new youth spark..
No matter how you slice it. Playing ard against and Points matters .
Hey Dee,
Good Stuff!
You know I am no Letang fan. Like you, I know he is a one trick pony. Unfortunately, now, with Schultz down for 4 months, the org will not trade him. In his defense he wasn’t the worst “D” man on the ice last night or at the very least, he had serious competition for the bottom spot.
Offensively, only the Malkin line is showing anything and even they aren’t quite hitting on all cylinders. The other lines just seem to be pulling in different directions. What was sad was watching so many highly skilled players miss a wide open net in warm ups and/or hit the cross bar (when DeSmith left the crease). Even more depressing was watching Sprong struggle to stick-handle with no one around him in the right corner. A player who is highly skilled who has become so skittish because he has been overly coached.
At this point, I am not going to suggest Sprong play with Crosby, even though Crosby, Sprong, and Simon were electric last year. Sprong looks like he needs to rebuild his confidence before he can help this team.
I am not quite ready to worry about the team not making the playoffs, but as you noted many, many short comings that I agree with, I am less likely to argue against people who do think the team is foundering.
Goaltending is weak right now, but I do think that it can turn around if the team D starts playing better in front of them and cuts down total shots and protects their own slot area better. In time they will start to forget the assaults they have faced and their PTSD symptoms will abate, returning them back to form.
The forwards do need both speed and size. Both of these can be addressed from within. As much as I like Cullen, Brassard needs to go back to 3rd line Center and Sheahan needs to Center the 4th Line.
Hornqvist needs to go back to the 1st line to balance that line. If Hornqvist doesn’t really workout and Angello is still finding the range thru November, then he could get an audition. His size could be the net front presence this line needs as well as serve to dissuade at least some goons from taking liberties with Crosby and Guentzel.
I hate to mess with Malkin’s line, since it is the only one that resembles what it is suppose to be, but if Hagelin doesn’t start being consistent on the score sheet, then they need to find a new LW. Aston-Reese, Johnson, or Grant could be candidates from within. Aston-Reese Or Grant could give that line a net front presence, possibly opening up ice in the offensive end for Malkin and Kessel to operate. Johnson would add speed with more of a scoring touch than Hagelin is showing. (Sorry, I like Simon, but another play-maker is not needed on that line, nor is he needed on top line.)
Third line needs to be Brassard with Sprong if he gets his act together, Rust, or Aston-Reese if not. Cullen, Simon, and Grant would be my attempts for LW here.
Sheahan would anchor the 4th line. Neither Sprong nor Simon are 4th liners. If they can’t crack the top 3, and since they are on one way contracts, trade them, the 4th line needs size and speed for energy. Johnson, Rust, Hagelin, Grant, and Angello are all better fits for the 4th line than what Sullivan is using.
Both Goaltending and Forwards could also be fixed with trades, but it is Defense that is screaming for a serious trade. I really don’t see this being fixed from within. As I have written many times before, I like each and every Defenseman as an individual but for the most part they are all the same. There is no balance here. They need some defensive defensmen with more than a little sand. Losing both Ian Cole and Andrey Pedan seriously crippled this team. More importantly, the teams only all around RHD is injured for 4 months. Riikola, Oleksiak, Maatta, and Johnson could possibly work if the team got a couple of top 6 RHD men. The only player in the org that may be ready to step up is Trotman but if I use him, I would think he would be bottom pairing. They still need a top and middle RHD that would have to come from without.
Hello ToR,
Nice.
I do disagree on Sprong . I think Sprong is somewhat dead weight at this point. Cullen and Simon were try hard to cycle down low and create offensively. Sprong is missing the mark on a lot of things , overextended himself on the ice with every shift and his bad outweighs the good.
Sprong needs more time to develop closely with a coach that have more patience for him. Sprong has consistency issue, contextual awareness and being in the right spots, etc.. He did backcheck hard to defend a man from DeSmith in the blue paint. He only wants stick handle and shoot the puck .He doesn’t do team guy support on ice with his linemates. I do see some ok good in him But he need more time and I think him being on the fourth line or being scratched is better.
Sprong is bottom 6 winger,right now imo .he may never crack top 6 role on this team. I hate to say it, Penguins might happens to trade him with another player to team that can help him more. Idk. He could be very timid and lack confidence from his development over the years. I still think if he does something good like wget a goal to help the team then reward him here and there with top players to build his confidence.
I disagree on Hags. Hags doing his job. He belongs there and I don’t mind him there to create speed for that line. He forecheck, time and space , cycle down low and great player for Malkin. He does needs to score more like being more selfish to get one. He can be too involved in getting Phil and Geno their goals. They started to hit more cylinders and Geno stop being cute with puck and stupid turnovers. It could be the coaching staff tell him to do that. I know they want Geno and Phil to be the shooters that line. Hags is crucial player for this team. I would like to resign him.
You can say the same .. Rust is the same way. He doesn’t score lot of goals with this team either.
Two top lines isn’t the problem. Sid does need a better nEw RW. I prefer Hornqvist or new acquired RW. Mike Sullivan seem to not Hornqvist there and doesn’t get that line time to develop consistency.
Bottom Lines are more concerning. I like Simon. But I don’t mind him being trade with Sprong too. Simon does great cycle Dow low and forecheck. Good playmaking abilities. He doesn’t score goals and not a finisher. He lacks consistency too.
Penguins needs goals from Brassard, Rust, Simon and Sprong. Hornqvist will get going.
Rutherford should look at 2012 LW Phillip Di Giuseppe’s bring in the bottom 6 role to help. Penguins need some spark and grinders on the bottom lines. Penguins don’t have scoring down there. I’m not feeling Brass on this team. He hasn’t brought nothing to the table that Penguins needs on the 3rd line.
Penguins don’t have no prospects that are completely ready to come and down to help the team get some spark. I don’t see a Jake Guentzel situation coming in handy this season. I do like some prospects on the depth chart . Only 15%
A top 6 RHD could help Penguins out while Shultz out for 4 months.. I don’t think Johnson will help as much. He’s bottom pairing guy. He’s just there and won’t give pens that much. He’s a meh player. He’s poor man’s Kristopher letang. I’m very hopeful that Sully let Määttä and Oleksiak develop some more on that second pairing. I hope Määttä get his confidence back. I believe it was stolen from him during preseason being with Johnson and not partner with someone he practiced with.
Johnson is horrible and he needs to be sheltered on the ice.
Shultz will be missed. Underrated player.
It’s disappointing that Penguins can’t trade Letang and he happens to playing over 20 minutes.
Like I said, Penguins need LW, RW for Sid, Grit 2 two way RHD’s And Depth Back up experience goalie. Probably some youth that not within the system.
It some players Rutherford could get for cheap and solidify this team.
Also Penguins should go to get the puck deep and cycle low with support. I have video. Shultz and Määttä do it well.
They skate with the puck out the zone fast with puck protect give it to foward then foward give it back and transition heavy in the offensive zone to create hard offensively. Supporting one another.
Penguins should do it. It beats team forecheck and trapped neutral zone. It benefit more zone time and no odd man rushes. Help them get back defensively quick to defend. Play fun hockey and react faste.
Penguins stretch passes and cross ice passes are hurting them. Defenseman wait to long with puck. Passes go behind fowards to the opposition.
Hey ToR,
I like Phil with Geno . Phil can sometimes not defend hard and not forecheck hard on that line sometimes it could hurt Geno and make him frustrated when he cycle the puck and score goals. So he does to much to help his team win.
Letang threw the puck at players feet over ten times during the game. He also jumped up at the wrong time too help commit three to six turnovers, and passed it directly to a defending player four- ten times without being forced. Outmanned and get know off the puck.
Holds on the puck to long and do to much to be a foward than defenseman on the ice. He has bad puck management and bad decisions on the ice. Every game he start he doesn’t connect with sid to get offensive pressure the puck go the other way when Sid when face off.
He play like foward. He may not be getting scored right now But he doing poorly in places( eye test)
So he might not be very poor on the ice But he isn’t good on the ice. He has been horrible too. He ok. I go off passes, zone work near goalie in your zone, defending, awareness, winning puck battles, smart puck plays and being great both sides of puck. Letang isn’t doing it. Very low hockey iq . He does passes the puck correctly and throw it anywhere.
I don’t care for over 50 % CF . He doesn’t do nothing consistent nor smart to help Penguins win games when it urgency to do. He make the powerplay predictable and they don’t shoot the puck with him on it.
Hey Dee,
I am not disagreeing with you over Sprong, not really. The Sprong I watched Tuesday night was struggling to stick handle with no one around him. If Sprong could get his Mojo back from last year, when he and Simon breathed life into Crosby, yes, he could be a great 3rd line winger for Brassard, but I fear Sullivan (or someone on the team) ruined him for Pgh. It is too early to tell, but I was so disheartened by what I saw. It was like he was different player.
On Hags, I don’t dislike him, I just think Malkin needs a better LW. Hagelin has tons of speed but no scoring touch – not anymore. He hasn’t scored consistently since the 1st Cup of the back-to-back Cups. His PK is top notch and his speed lends him to a perfect bottom 6 role.
I do agree that Crosby could use a better RW, but I do think that Hornqvist can be the guy for Crosby, to get the Pens to Cup, if the D can be fixed.
If it were up to me, I would probably reboot the entire RD, now that Schultz is on the shelf. I would go out and get 2 RHD minimum. Letang would be gone, and I would not try to play a LHD on the RD.
It is still very early so it is hard to judge too much, but I will throw this out there. Lukas Bengtsson has 7 Pnts in 9 GP and +8 in the Swedish league so far this year. Not sure why he left, but if he defected because Letang did’t get Press Box time for his horrid play in that Cap series, I would be upset. If he left because he was home sick, oh well.
Pedan only has 4 Pnts in 15 GP but is a +12. I would still like to see him in Pgh, but with the way Riikola has played so far, I am not completely upset. The LHD isn’t that big of a problem, it is the RHD.
I think the only real disagreement I have is that I do think that some combination of Aston-Reese, Angello, A Johnson, and/or Blueger could put the Pens Forecheck and O back into the elite status by the home stretch.