Penguins get Pummeled

I’ll give it to you short and less than sweet, our Pittsburgh Penguins lost 4 – 1 to the Winnipeg Jets.

The night started out great, honoring Mike Lange for his 45 years of service for the Penguins (congratulations Mr Lange). Pumped up by the pregame ceremony Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel gave Lange little time to settle into his broadcast both before striking with the opening goal. Guentzel found the team Captain wide open in front of the net and Crosby tapped in behind the Jets Goalie before he, like Lange, could set up for the game.

Unfortunately, very little else went right last night. In those few moments when the outcome was still in doubt, Patrick Laine and Mark Scheifele simply overpowered the Penguins’ defense. On the Jets’ 1st goal, Erik Gudbranson did beat Scheifele to the loose puck and started it up the opposite boards for a breakout, but neither Zach Aston-Reese nor Jack Johnson could do their job. Tucker Poolman beat Aston-Reese to the puck and it went back down the boards where Laine beat Johnson to the puck. Laine advanced the puck behind the net, where Scheifele was just getting back up after Gudbranson had dumped him. Scheifele made a good play to shield off Gudbranson long enough to get the puck to the rookie Ville Heinola, who (speaking of overpowering) blasted the puck through Matt Murray.

Murray, who turned in 2 stellar performances in his previous outings, was not quite up to the task. He did get a piece of the shot, but it still got past him.

About 4 minutes later Aston-Reese gave the Jets the lead by blindly bumping the puck straight to Nikolaj Ehlers stick. Coming with speed, Ehlers caught Marcus Pettersson flat footed and used him as a screen to whip a wrist shot past Murray.

The 2nd period wasn’t any less frustrating than the 1st period. When the Penguins’ Defense failed to gain control of the puck again, in their own zone, Laine and Scheifele set up another Defenseman for a goal. This time Poolman got the puck around center point and fired a wrist shot through 3 of our tuxedo clad turnstiles as well as our Goalie.

Finally, another Jets’ Defenseman, Neal Pionk gave the visitors their closing goal. Jumping up into the play and skating in behind the black-n-gold defense an off-line Laine shot bounce off Pionk’s body and almost trickled past Murray. The initial deflection started to dribble behind the net, but the Winnipeg defenseman was able to get it back in front where it kicked around and under Murray over the goal line.

The goal was somewhat of a controversy. The referee lost sight of the puck during the scrum in front of the net and at first appeared to blow the play dead. The referee called it a goal on the ice and then went to the replay. I assume the audio portion of the replay showed that the whistle had not blown before the puck crossed the goal line, because the goal stood.

Anyone only reading the box score from last night’s game may think that the defense played well, since the Jets finished with only 20 shots. However, the low number of shots was more of a questions of the Jets not pushing the play in the 3rd period but letting the clock do their work. The boys from north of the border only took 2 shots in the 3rd frame.

While the puck was bouncing rather unfriendly for Murray, it seemed to be doing its best to help Connor Hellebuyk. After the Penguins’ first goal, it seemed as if there was an invisible barrier around the visitor’s net. Whereas Heinola’s shot bounced off Murray and into the net, pucks that beat Hellebuyk bounced off his body behind him, precariously through the crease, but harmlessly out the other side.

Some Penguins’ bloggers are bemoaning the lack of depth at the forward position for our team this morning after. One went so far as to suggest trying to call up Samuel Poulin or Nathan Legare. Wow, and people call me reactionary.

Sorry, I am not all that convinced that there is a lack of depth at the forward position. I would suggest that the team’s brain trust isn’t using what they have properly. Let’s start off with the elephant in the room, what the expletive is Dominik Simon doing on the team, let alone skating on the top line? How many golden opportunities does Guentzel and Crosby have to set him up for and he muffs before Mike Sullivan gets over his love affair for an offensively inept player.

Yes, he was on the ice for the first goal, a passenger on the Crosby-Guentzel bus, but he was no where near the play. Later, when Guentzel put the puck in Simon’s wheelhouse coming off-wing, with Hellebuyk pulled to the other side of the net, Sullivan’s stepchild couldn’t hit the open net. The Jets’ Goalie did get over with his glove to freeze the puck, but the offensively impoverished winger shot low and what appeared to be just a bit outside. Despite the pass coming pretty much straight to his stick, Simon couldn’t get the puck up into the whole wide-open top glove side of the net. Worse, although it is hard to tell for sure, (since Hellebuyk was sliding right to left) it appeared that when the puck went into his glove hand, the puck was outside of the post.

Later, near the end of the game, Crosby set up Simon between the circles, sliding a pass to the winger’s stick. This time, from about 20’, Simon fired the puck over an open net.

When he does get the puck on net, he hits the goalie center mass for an easy save.

I understand Jared McCann may need to be pressed into service as a Center right now, but he would be a better choice for Crosby’s right flank. However, when are we going to see Dominik Kahun, Kasper Bjorkqvist, Adam Johnson, or even Anthony Angello get their chance? None of them could drag down Crosby’s line any farther than Simon has.

As for Poulin and Legare, as much as I loved what I saw in those kids, particularly Legare, there is no need to ruin their contract status. Furthermore, I pretty sure that once returned to their junior team, a player could only be called up to their NHL club when that club no longer has any other player at that position in the NHL or AHL. For the Penguins to recall either of those 2 kids, the team would have to have an injury list of probably around 13 or so forwards on the IR before calling up this year’s draft picks, only then would it be considered an emergency basis.

Furthermore, if there is a lack of depth at forward for the Penguins, it may be more of a question of there not being any on hand. Due to poor decision making at the top, the team is forced to carry at least 8 Defensemen or waive at least one of them to bury in the AHL.

It wasn’t all bad last night;

It is easy to all doom and gloom after giving up 4 goals on 20 odd shots and only getting one goal on 38, but there were some bright spots to the game.

• Brandon Tanev’s intensity for one; he is like a cruise missile looking for a target.
• John Marino continues to impress. His edge work and elusiveness baffled veteran Jets’ forwards. Also, unlike some of his veteran teammates, he does seem to know when and when not to jump into the offensive zone. Let’s hope Sullivan lets him play enough now so that he will grow and be ready should the team still be around come April
• Sam Lafferty also showed he can play at the NHL level. He went to the dirty areas, kept his feet moving and drew a penalty.

Odds and Sods

Penguins’ forwards are becoming as endangered a species as Steelers’ Quarterbacks. Kris Letang injured another teammate. After tripping Evgeni Malkin and sending him to IR for “Longer Term” the Penguins’ Defenseman drilled a shot off the inside of Patric Hornqvist’s knee, where there is no padding. Hornqvist left the ice. He did returned to the bench for a moment but then was gone again.

Sullivan, if Hornqvist is out for any length of time, Angello may be your best call up. He may be the only one that can fill Hornqvist’s shoes on the Power Play, in front of the net.

I did see a note out there in the ethereal rumor mists of Hockey that suggested our Penguins may be looking to deal with the Ottawa Senators to address their rapidly disappearing forward situation. One of the names that popped up was Jean-Gabriel Pageau, the player that I wrote for which Jim Rutherford should have held out to get instead of Derick Brassard. If anyone remembers, my real hope for that playoff run was to keep the team as it was with Ian Cole and Ryan Reaves intact, but if Rutherford had to mess with the team’s chemistry to get the kid Pageau. I am no longer sure if I would want him. He hasn’t really been playing like he was prior but that may be due to how far Ottawa has dropped as a team.

Next up Anaheim, Thursday Night 7:00pm