The Penguins Dowse the Flames

The much maligned Penguins’ Defense led the offense last night, helping the team slip by the Calgary Flames in OT. Since I am one of the more outspoken maligners, I feel I have to give a shout out when it is truly earned and earn it they did. Fifteen of the Penguins’ 32 shots and 3 of the team’s 4 goals came from their blue-liners, including the game winner in OT.

For most of the season, Chad Ruhwedel has been over looked and banished to the press box. However, after suffering through a 3 game skid after the trade deadline Mike Sullivan finally called Ruhwedel back from the tomb of the Press Box and he has responded. Two games ago, he helped stabilized a “D” whose Matt Hunwick led chaos in the defensive zone resemble a bunch of chickens running around with their heads cut off rather than NHL or even AHL defensemen. Last night, Ruhwedel got into the offensive act as well. The Defensman tied for the team lead in shots last night with 4 and opened up the scoring.

Riley Sheahan provided good fore-checking pressure at the start of the play that led to Ruhwedel’s goal, forcing the Flames to cough the puck up to Phil Kessel. Kessel, with eyes in the back of his head spotted Ruhwedel, wide open center point and slipped him the puck with a laser beam pass as Dominik Simon started backing up to give Kessel options. Depending on the angle of the replay, it really appears that Sam Bennett then decided to slew foot Simon. On several different replays, it looks like Bennett intentionally clipped Simon’s skate to send him dangerously backwards to the ice, as Bennett skated up toward Ruhwedel. However, Bennett was too late, Ruhwedel got the shot off and into the back of the net.

Evgeni Malkin, the lone Penguins’ forward to score jumped all over a Jon GIllies guffaw less than a minute later, knocking down a clearing attempt with great eye to hand coordination and racing the Flames goalie to the front of the crease. Long story short, you don’t give Malkin opportunities like that, he converts them and he did. The Penguins looked like they were about to explode.

Unfortunately, a desperate Flames team, a broken stick, and poor defensive work by Conor Sheary let the Flames back into the game. The Flames are just outside of the final Wild Card spot in the West so they were not going to go away easy. They came to play with all the desperation you would expect from an NHL caliber team trying to make the playoffs. Add to that the right handed defenseman Kris Letang had broken his stick and even though Tom Kuhnhackl passed Letang his stick so that the Defenseman would not be totally unarmed, Kuhnhackl is left handed. So, when Letang tried to clear the puck he couldn’t had trouble getting any authority on the clear. Finally, Sheary, helped out the desperate Flames with poor positional play, getting himself on the wrong side of the puck.

Mikael Backlund then made a great move to walk around Letang and Tristan Jarry to pull the Flames even.
However, the Letang would have his revenge in the second period. Carl Hagelin started the play with great back-checking. The Swede jumped on a loose puck in the corner of his defensive zone and backhanded up the boards to a swooping Malkin. Coming out of his turn the Penguins’ Center took the puck in flight and flew up the left wing before spying Letang flying up the right wing to join the play. Malkin whipped a cross-ice feed to Letang, who took the puck just inside the attacking blue-line. After a couple of strides down the wing, the Penguins’ defenseman ripped a wrist shot over the Flame’s goalie’s shoulder. And the Penguins were back up on top.

The Flames still wouldn’t go away. A slick little pass back in front of the net that found its way through a tangle of legs to Troy Bower on the back door and the score was tied again.

The game would remain that way, tied through the third period and into OT. This time the late game heroics was provided by another defenseman, Justin Schultz. After trading blows, including Jarry shutting down a 2 on 0 play, with his back to the net, Malkin whipped a backhand pass across ice to Kessel, just inside the blue line again. Malkin got the puck up a little too high with his back hand pass. Kessel made a great play to knock the pass down with his hand, to his stick and settle it down. Then for the second time, the Right Winger displayed vision few players have, found Schultz all alone back across ice at the bottom of the left wing circle. Gillies had come out to cut the angle down on the Penguins sharp shooting RW, so he was nowhere to be found when the puck hit Schultz’s stick. Schultz wasted no time in planting the puck into the wide-open net.

I haven’t had a chance to read anyone else’s take on the game, but after the squeeker that was the Islander’s game I read several articles and blogs not just suggesting that the Penguins’ tail spin was over but asserting that they were back hitting on all cylinders. In fact, I read someone quoting Sullivan praising Sheary (What?).

There is something to be said for the power of positive thinking, but I am sorry, there still are holes left in this team’s play compared to before the trade deadline. Yes, Ruhwedel is an upgrade over Hunwick but he isn’t quite as good as Ian Cole. More importantly, there still is a serious hole on the 4th line.

Conor Sheary was on the ice for two of the Flames’ goals. He also continued to get bullied around, with opposing players just knocking him off of the puck and taking it the other way. And he also continued to struggle taking passes. To win back-to-back Stanley Cups Mike Sullivan has to be a good coach and in most cases I do trust him. However, like you and me, he still is human. For the life of me, I just do not get his blind spot when it comes to Conor Sheary. Sheary has pretty good instincts but he is too small to play on a team that every other team is gunning for. There has to be someone in Wilkes-Barre Scranton that could fill that hole until Zach Aston-Reese gets back.