The good news – Matt Murray stole a point for our Pittsburgh Penguins. The bad news Mike Smith stole 2 points for the Edmonton Oilers. Our locals didn’t win but they didn’t lose either. They were able to keep the teams hounding them for that Wild Card spot at bay, even creating some distance on a couple of them.
Interestingly enough, in a game filled with offensive fire power, it was the Goalies that ruled the rink last night. Edmonton boasts 2 of the top 3 Goal (G) scorers in the league but was only able to score 1 G in regulation time and neither of those slick Oiler star players were on the ice at the time. Moreover, despite peppering Smith with 52 shots, the Penguins top dogs were held pointless. In fact, not only were the 4 top offensive players (2 from each team) absent from the ice when the 2 regulation Gs were scored, but Edmonton’s top 2 were on the ice for the G against and Sidney Crosby was on the ice with the Penguins top line of Dominik Simon and Jake Guentzel for the lone Edmonton regulation G as well.
Playing against NHL caliber goaltending certainly makes it a lot tougher, more realistic. Smith went into last night’s game with a Save Percentage of 0.919, a far cry better than Laurent Brossoit’s 0.842 or even Brian Elliott’s 0.904. Furthermore, Edmonton’s defense wasn’t just standing there giving Penguins’ forwards time and space to make moves. Even though our flightless fowl squeezed off 52 shots, they didn’t have that much time to look the net over but had to make quick decisions.
The 1st period ended scoreless with our Penguins holding a lopsided 18 – 8 shot advantage. It took until 7:21 of the 2nd frame to break the scoreless deadlock. Markus Granlund beat Crosby on a Face Off (FO) in his own Defensive Zone (DZ). Edmonton Defenseman Matt Benning beat Simon to the puck and gained enough separation to have enough space to find Colby Cave skating up ice. Benning hit Cave with a pass. Cave got up enough speed to get a half of a step to the corner on Marcus Pettersson and then he dipped his shoulder and powered passed the Penguin Defenseman. Shielding off Pettersson with his body, he cut across Murray’s crease and with tons of patience, waiting until he was back out the other side and Murray was sprawled on the ice trying to follow him across the crease, he lifted the puck into the net and the Visitors had their only regulation G and the lead.
That lead stood up until 13:14 of the 3rd period when the Penguins special teams leveled the score. With John Marino in the penalty box for hooking Connor McDavid, Brian Rust picked off an Oiler pass and sped up ice with Zach-Aston Reese on what looked like a 2-on-1. A trailing Edmonton defender caught up with the play and attacked the puck, while the other defender split wide to cut off a pass to Aston-Reese who was opening up for a possible 1-time shot. But the play went from 2-on-1, to 2-on-2, to 3-on-2. Brian Dumoulin jumped up into the play with the Edmonton defense spread wide and cut in between them for Rust to find and Dumoulin tickled the twine for the Short Handed G (SHG)
If any of you read the comments sections of this blog, you will have noted that our own Phil Krundle called out Aston-Reese as a top Penalty Kill (PK) man yesterday. Even though Aston-Reese didn’t get on the score sheet for that SHG, Penguin Winger really helped set it up, being Johnny on the spot, jumping up into that play.
Unfortunately, in Over Time (OT) the game quickly broke down into a run and gun game, odd man break after odd man break, with the Penguins gunners missing the net several times, recording only 1 shot with all of their chances. Edmonton, on the other hand challenged Murray 6 times, finally beating him on the final shot, final odd man break, by Oilers top gun Leon Draisaitl.
As much as I have criticized the Penguins’ defense in the past, it may be time to start looking at the forwards. The Penguins’ defensive corps limited Edmonton to 22 shots in regulation time. It wasn’t until OT that the Oilers approached their season average of 28.4 shots, tallying 6 in that extra frame.
Our boys in Black and Gold have 47 Gs in 14 games or 3.36 Gs per game. However, they only were able to net 1 last night in 52 shots. At first that may appear pretty odd and make you think that Mike Smith was stunning last night. Although when you consider that 28 of those 47 Gs came in 4 games, against backup or struggling Goalies (Elvis Merslikins, Brossoit, Devan Dubnyk, and Elliott), maybe it doesn’t seem so strange. In the 10 other games the Penguins have only scored 19 Gs, or 1.9 Gs per game. Maybe the team needs to be looking at a roster shake up in their forwards rather than their Defense.
Very recently, another blogger on a lesser site tried very much to make a case for our aquatic avians to go after Taylor Hall at the trade deadline. Hall is at the end of his contract and he and the New Jersey Devils haven’t really started to try and sign an extension. Furthermore, there are rumblings to the effect that Hall may be wanting out of that town. He has criticized his organization several times now. Said blogger suggests that means Ray Shero would probably trade him at the dead line for tons of assets, particularly if New Jersey is out of the playoff hunt as they now appear to be.
Hooks Orpik isn’t complaining about the Penguins forwards as I am, but he was just musing. However, I am not joining him in his suggestion. I am no fan of rent-a-players as Hall would more than likely be. It has been a long time since high profile rent-a-plyers really paid off. Add to that Hall’s media campaign; I for one don’t want a return to the Penguin/Kardashian antics of the last 2 seasons – Coaches and GM whining about players in the media with the respondent player return volley.
Furthermore, with another expansion draft coming up, it would be extremely problematic to trade away future assets for a rent-a-player.
I am saying, though, that the team shake up their forwards. A lone goal in 52 shots against a 37 year old Goalie doesn’t speak too highly of our shooters. Yes, they posted 7 goals, 4 times this year, against poor goaltending, as they should, but when confronted by NHL goalies, they are struggling.
Next Up the Boston Bruins and Tukka Rask, 7pm in Boston
Hornqvist is now on LTIR with a lower body injury.
I did see that.
I didn’t see what happened to him. Did you?
He was playing very well. This could hurt.
The Other Rick
Couple of quick bullet points.
First iMO Murray didn’t play very well yesterday. Both goals could of
been prevented with a little aggression on Murray’s part but instead
he chose to sit back in his net. Not a good decision on his part. At one
point the shots were 44 to 15.
Second – I think the Pen’s will be fine scoring goals – Malkin needs to
get a few games under his belt. Him being out has defiantly hurt our
PP.
Last – I reiterated this on several blogs before the season began. Our
forwards were our biggest problem defensively not our Defenseman.
Now that we’ve added speed and players who put an emphasis on
transitioning back (back-checking) and making hustle plays our defense
has improved by leaps and bounds.
GO PEN’S
Hey Mike,
I wish Murray had learned more about using his stick to poke check from MAF, but he didn’t. Had Murray learned he may have prevented both of those goals as you say, but that doesn’t mean Murray didn’t play that well. There were many great saves that he did make, like his first save for one, bouncing hard off of the boards in front of the net. Also, unless a goalie is 100% sure he is going to get the puck, he often looks worse trying to poke check and failing.
Stopping 26 of 28 shots is a good night. Stopping 21 of 22 would have been better – had the Penguins offense found a way to even score on 5% of their shots. Had they gotten 5% of their shots past Smith in regulation, they would have won 2 – 1 or 3 – 1. (5% of 51 is 2.55 goals) in regulation. Complaining about Murray not making those saves when the “O” was close to non-existent really isn’t right.
I wish I shared your optimism on goal scoring. I do think that there are players on this team that may be able to score if they are given a chance, unfortunately they aren’t being used. The manner in which the Pens are deploying their “O” is only working against sub-par Goalies. We can’t hope for opponents to let us play against their back-ups every night or even most nights.
With Hornqvist on LTIR the goal well may dry up even more.
Defensively, first I am no fan of burdening the “O” with trying to insulate a weak “D”. I am hopeful that is not the case here. I am hopeful that with a full season under his belt Pettersson is better than last season. He made some good plays yesterday but he still let Cave beat him to the corner and power past him to get in on goal. Had he done his job and cut Cave off, then Murray doesn’t have to make the decision poke check or not to poke check.
On the game winner by Draisaitl, I wasn’t surprised. Letang was on the ice. He is a great offensive asset but often gets caught up in a feeding frenzy forgetting that he is a Defenseman. The Pens did out shoot Edmonton 51 – 22 in regulation time but were outshot 6 – 1 in OT. When it counted, in OT they were outshot.
The Other Rick
I don’t think expecting your forwards to play two way Hockey your putting any kind of burden on the offense.
The problem with some of our wingers is they abandon
are defense to leak out of the zone or take there good
old time transitioning from offense to defense.
There’s not a defensive unit in the NHL that can have success when your continually playing against odd
man breaks “Think Malkin / Kessel” Right now we’re
giving up a goal a game less than last season.
I do believe with Malkin and Galchenyuk back in the line up our goals will increase. Galchenyuk just needs to get a few games under his belt.
We don’t need to discuss Letang – we’re definitely on the
same page. Letang reminds me of a basketball player that shoots you in or shoots you out of a game.
GO PENS
The Other Rick
After watching tonight’s game vs Boston I came away more concerned with our goaltenders and our forwards.
We dominated “again” (4) goals on the road should be
plenty to get you a “W”.
How does Crosby, Guentzel & Simon end up with -4 for
the game.
Frustrated – we should of came away with (2) its
Hey Mike,
The Goaltending certainly was not sharp at all. Most of the season, the have been spot on but came a cropper last night.
The 1st goal, Murray was off his angle, and he has been giving that top short corner away more than is comfortable. If Murray stops that one, Pens may win.
I can’t help wonder if that is not the Goaltender coaches fault. There was a time Murray always had that angle covered and I seem to recall one of the Teams spin doctors one time, last season talking about crouch along the post being something Buckley has him doing.
But then again, Marino got them the lead back and Jarry failed to hold it.
As for the top lines failures – need you say more than Simon. McCann +9, Kahun +6, Hornqvist +5, Bjugstad and Lafferty +4, Rust and Aston-Reese +3. None of them skating on the top line.
Take away the number of times Crosby and Guentzel were on the ice for empty net goals trying to get back into games and they are +4 or 5
Dominik Simon +1, and that is only because of Crosby! Have to try and find the WOWY stats, he has to be a fair minus.
Hey Mike,
Crosby had his wrist slashed a few games back and just hasn’t been the same. His passes have been sloppy and he hasn’t been able to lift shots.
Crosby tied for the team lead in giveaways last night and that is uncharacteristic of him. Simon was a -3 with 0 giveaways and one takeaway.
It was promising to see the team take over the game the way they did in the 2nd.
The reason they lost was the shoddy goal-tending by Murray and losing a defenseman in the 3rd. I really think they win that game if Letang didn’t get hurt. It’s just hard to keep up such an amazing pace losing a defenseman.
I would still like to see Jarry get a couple of real starts. His four games include all back end of back to back nights and coming in cold half way through the game against the top scoring number one team in the league.
Even only playing those games, Jarry is the #8 goaltender in the league with a .929 sv%. You probably remember how Niemi did playing those same games a little over a year ago. It’s time to see what the Pens top 2013 draft pick can do.
Hey guys,
I know Murray’s numbers are good, or least they were heading into last night’s loss to the Bruins. But my personal take is he has a tendency to give up the goal you don’t want to give up, when you don’t want to give it up.
Again, just my perception. But I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt like Murray “stole us a win.”
Rick
Hey Rick,
Sorry but that’s funny! You just reversed the stereo typical baseball scouting comment on the hitter that the scouts love. I am speaking about the hitter that scouts keep insisting has a great swing so keep giving him that chance even though he is batting below the Mendoza line.
In your scenario you are saying I don’t care what evidence exists, what his raw Sv% is or that his Sv% is above the S% of the opponents he has faced or the bottom line how many Ws he has.
No, neither Murray nor Jarry played well last game Rick. Both gave up short side goals that should have been stopped but both gave up a hard luck goal, goals more attributed to the skill of the shooter than poor play on the goalie. Both have played far better this year than they did last game but subtract the 2 goals scored; 1 by a great, Crosbyesque eye to hand coordination and the second by a great shot and the story is different too.
Me thinks your perceptions are biased my friend.
Also, consider this, to date, no team has rested their number 1 line against the Penguins, but by starting Halak instead of Rask, Boston was the 3rd time this year that a team disrespected Simon and the forwards by playing their back-up Goalie.
There was a day in the not so distant past that we here in the ‘burg bemoaned the fact that we never got to see our opponents back-up. Last game, even though it was part of a back-to-back series, Boston put their back-up in, saying you aren’t worth us playing our top guy in net. We will still give plenty of TOI to Pasternak and Marchand, but we don’t need Rask for this one.
Hey Other Rick,
With all due respect, it isn’t just my perception. Here’s what Rutherford had to say about our goaltending.
“Our goaltending has been good at times,” Rutherford said. “We’re giving up some goals at key times that are stoppable that I think would have changed our record. We just have to get that consistency level. We have goalies who are capable.”
I agree.
Rick
Sorry Rick but just because JR said it doesn’t make it so. His comments are subjective and are geared towards the narrative he wants to sell.
The problem with the Penguins is not, I repeat not their goalies. The Penguins Goalies have Sv% higher than you would have to expect considering the offenses they have faced. Granted I haven’t had the time to break that down to the shooter level but gross levels say the Penguins Goalies are doing better than the league average and no team the Penguins have faced yet sat their star scorers.
On the flip side, the Penguins offense is only scoring at Shooting% about the average the Goalies they have faced give up goals. And considering that the team’s offense is being disrespected and given back-up goalies as competition over 25% of the time speaks volumes about the sorry state of that part of the team.
JR is whining about the Goalies to gloss over his and HIS coaches recent mistakes that have gutted the teams offensive skills.
Even though JR is whining about the Goaltending in a smoke and mirrors attempt to obscure the truth, there is no talk of him looking for a new goalie, but there is tons of talk about wingers, the 3 most recent; Taylor Hall, Kevin Fiala, and now Tyler Toffoli, with the word being that JR and Guerin are actually talking about a trade.
And even though the Penguins Defense has buckled down on total shots, Murray is still in the top 1/3 of the league in number of high danger scoring chances he faces. 85 but only 4 Goalies with better Sv% in these HD situations have faced more HD than Murray.
No, neither Murray nor Jarry played well in Boston, but Boston is the best team in the league right now and the Penguins aren’t. In fact the Penguins have dropped to the point that other teams rest their best goalie against them.
And I know you said yesterday, great bring on the back up goalie, when I pointed that out to you, in our conversation, and that is all well and good for padding stats but it a major sign that you don’t have the offense.
Scoring 5 goals in almost 100 shots is why the rest of the league is now resting their top dog in goal.
On the flip side, Marchand, Pasternak, McDavid, and Draisaitl played their normal TOI, because they needed to.
Hey guys,
Yeah, what does JR know about goaltending.
I agree with Rick and Jim.
tOR, you’ve once again you’ve gone to the stat bin. It’s not just that your going to the stat bin, it’s that you are really digging deep into the stat bin to find any little thing.
It’s been pointed out in our comment section many times that you can reach into the stat bin and find a cloth that could shine a turd.
If you watched the game, you saw Murray let in two easy goals, it’s that simple. Murray is at league average, yes. Hooray. I say Hooray because since they shrunk his pads he’s been below league average, especially in the playoffs.
And yep, Jarry’s numbers weren’t good against Boston. You do realize he came in cold and only have had played 3 games in the last month? His numbers were still better than Murray’s.
Here comes tOR’s but the blah blah blah is because blah blah blah.
Give Jarry a try, he is younger and does much more than just play angles. He is athletic and wow can he stick handle, it’s like having an extra defenseman. According to people who rate players for drafting he is of much higher caliber.
Murray’s perfect angles were great when his pads were huge. The NHL has made is so goaltenders need to be athletic now also.
tOR, I ask you, what do you have against giving Jarry a try?
Hey Phil,
First, I’ll start with your last question.
I have nothing against Jarry at all. I have said it several times, especially with both being FA this season. Hold on to both, yes, until after the expansion draft but if Jarry shows he can do the job, keep the cheaper goalie.
Next, no Murray is above the league average and more importantly, not only are his raw numbers above the league average, he is also above the average of the competition he faced.
I wrote the OFFENSE is only hitting the average that back-up goalies give up.
When Crosby and Malkin were torturing Holtby, Bobrovsky, and Lundqvist when they were perennial Vezina candidates, no one said those goalies stunk because Crosby and Malkin found the cracks, but now, the same fans are deriding Murray and Jarry because the 2 of the top 3 scorers in the league had big games against them.
Yes I agree, there were stoppable shots that ended up in the net against Boston, but that was 1 GAME. Get over it.
As for JR, JR has a vested interest in obfuscating the truth here. He and Sullivan have made serious mistakes over the last 2 seasons that have caused this team to drop to a point opponents feel comfortable playing their back-ups against us.
Gloss over that point to distract attention but the truth is, as I have written several times, no team is giving their star scorers limited ice time, but they are playing their back-up goalies.
If you want to try and play the GM can’t do anything wrong card and knows more, let’s play that card, why are the other teams in the league still respecting the goalies but not the scorers?
Hey tOR,
The big wrong I think they keep committing is sticking with Murray. Murray to me is what Simon is to you. Coaches favorite.
Hey Phil,
I can’t deny that I have a problem with Simon, but I do not simply say I think or I feel, or I don’t like people quoting statistics over him. I wrote, last season the team S% when Simon was on the ice was below the league average. This year I wrote, Simon’s TGA/60 was 3.4, well above the Goalies GAA and his +/- is only 1 while McCann, et al all have better +/- but don’t get a shot on the top line.
While with Murray, I have no problems with the team choosing Jarry if he can beat him out and be cheaper. My only caveat is don’t deal either of them until between the expansion draft and the entry draft and try and get a top 10 pick with which ever one you deal.
I also say, stop complaining about the Goalies, either of them, after 1 bad game when the scorers have no showed several games.