Flames Singe Penguins in Shootout

There’s an old saying. Take the money and run.

In the wake of last night’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Flames in Calgary, I’ll gladly take the point and get out of town.

In many ways, the Flames represent our kryptonite. They feature a really nice blend of what I call the four s’s. Size, speed, sand and skill.

Wanna trade chances? Johnny Gaudreau (25 points) and Andrew Mangiapane (15 goals) can play and skate with anyone. Wanna play rough? Heavyweights Milan Lucic and ex-Pen Erik Gudbranson will be happy to adjust your attitude.

To say nothing of giant goaltender Jacob Markstrom, who takes up virtually the entire net by standing still. With two-time Cup winner Darryl Sutter calling the shots, they’re extremely well coached, too.

If I were a GM, I’d build my team pretty much to Calgary’s specifications. But I digress.

There simply wasn’t a whole lot of room out there for our guys to do their thing, as evidenced by our feeble 22 shots on goal. The Flames controlled the play and clogged the shooting lanes, forcing our guys to go around. And around. And around. On the few occasions when we did break through, there was Markstrom standing like a stone wall, to pirate a phrase from the American Civil War.

Indeed, the Flames attempted 71 shots to our 33, outchanced us, 39-15, and had 15 high-danger chances to our four. Total domination.

Thank God for Tristan Jarry, who was spectacular once again. He made 31 saves, more than a few of the challenging variety, to earn first-star honors and a precious point for his team.

I keep harping on this but it bears repeating. The Pens need to add some functional size. I had hopes that Radim Zohorna and/or Sam Poulin and Nathan Legare might crack the lineup. Perhaps Anthony Angello, too. (Does anyone know what’s happened to him?)

A subject for another article.

Drew O’Connor has shown he can play at this level, but for reasons known only to Mike Sullivan he didn’t suit up last night. Instead, Sam Lafferty did, presumably because he can skate.

Speed will only take you so far. Until Sullivan learns to adjust his personnel to better match the foe, we’ll continue to fall victim to teams like the Flames.

The Goals

Midway through the second period the aforementioned Lucic took a breakout pass from Oliver Kylington, muscled past Chad Ruhwedel in the neutral zone, and rambled into the black-and-gold zone, where he beat Jarry five-hole with an ice-hugging bullet. Flames 1-0.

The Pens countered at 12:35 of the third period, courtesy of an interference call on Mikael Backlund. Jeff Carter won the ensuing draw and pulled the puck back to Kris Letang at the right point. “Tanger” skated to center point before dishing to Sidney Crosby, who rotated out to the top of the right circle. Sid attempted to thread a pass to Evan Rodrigues, wide-open on a back-door play, but it never got through. Instead it found the stick of Jake Guentzel (or vice versa), who deflected it through Markstrom’s wickets for his team-best ninth goal of the campaign. Tied 1-1.

In the shootout, both goalies stood tall. Gaudreau nicked Jarry in the third round, but Letang countered for the Pens. The netminders proceeded to match saves through a fourth, fifth and sixth round before Backlund beat Jarry to earn the extra point for the Flames.

Where We’re At

The Pens (10-7-5, 25 points) presently hold sole possession of fourth place in the Metro, one point ahead of Columbus. However, the Blue Jackets have three games in hand. Up next, megastar Connor McDavid and the equally tough Oilers in Edmonton on Wednesday night.

Meet the New Boss

Pending final approval from the NHL Board of Governors, the Penguins sold a controlling interest to the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) yesterday.

Headed by American businessman and investor John Henry, FSG owns the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball, Liverpool of the English Premier League, Roush Fenway Racing of NASCAR and Fenway Park.

Current owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle will continue to hold a stake in the team.