Game Four Dud: Penguins Fall With a Thud

In the 1980s, Wendy’s famously hit a home run with a clever TV ad that poked fun at their chief competitor by asking, “Where’s the beef?”

Well, I’ll alter that time-honored slogan a tad and ask, “Where’s the oomph?”

Following a pair of scintillating victories, the Penguins entered yesterday’s Game 4 with all the momentum. But an unfortunate combination of bad ice (slushy, anyone?), a determined Islanders squad that’s far from ready to throw in the towel and our own lack of urgency and intensity coalesced into a lackluster 4-1 defeat at the hands of the New Yorkers.

Regarding our effort, or lack of, we just couldn’t seem to gain any real traction. Lots of perimeter play. And give the Islanders credit. On this afternoon they were the better team, and not by just a little.

The poster child for the Pens’ disappointing performance was Evgeni Malkin. “Geno’s” a lot like the little girl with the curl. When he’s good, he’s very (very) good. And when he’s bad…

Well, yesterday he was Malo Geno. No shots on goal, one-for-four on faceoffs and…most egregious of all…three rather dumb minor penalties.

The rangy Russian was far from the only culprit.  As he is wont to do at times, Kris Letang played over the edge all afternoon and drew his own careless penalty to put us two-men short, leading directly to the Isles’ third goal and effectively ending any hopes for a black-and-gold comeback.

The Sidney Crosby line, so dominant against the Islanders during the regular season, was held off the scoresheet for the second straight game. For the record, Jake Guentzel, who drew a late cross-checking penalty, has one goal in his past nine games. I’d say that qualifies as a slump.

The one player who did seem fully invested was Tristan Jarry, especially after it was obvious we weren’t coming back. If Tristan hadn’t stood on his head at times during the final period, the outcome could’ve been worse. Much worse.

A word of warning…the Islanders never quit. We’d better bring our ‘A’ game Monday night at PPG Paints Arena, or we could find ourselves on the wrong side of a 3-2 series deficit and wondering how in the wide, wide world of sports we got there.

Puckpourri

The Pens outshot the Islanders, 30-26, and outhit them, 34-31. But New York dominated the faceoff circle, winning 34 of 51 draws to negate our surprising 55-34 edge in Corsi events.

Despite our territorial advantage, the Islanders held an 11-7 edge in 5v5 high danger scoring chances.

Josh Bailey, Ryan Pulock, Oliver Wahlstrom and Jordan Eberle tallied goals for New York. Zach Aston-Reese scored short-handed with 2:35 left to end Ilya Sorokin’s shutout bid. It was ZAR’s first-ever playoff goal in 21 postseason games.

Brian Dumoulin and Frederick Gaudreau picked up assists.

Around the League

Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves to lead Vegas past Minnesota, 4-0. The Golden Knights hold a 3-1 series lead.

Toronto rallied to even their series with Montreal, crushing the Canadiens, 5-1. Tampa Bay walloped Florida, 6-2, pushing the Panthers to the brink of elimination.

Opinyinz

Much has been made of the toughness issue and coach Mike Sullivan’s aversion to players who provide a genuine physical presence.

We witnessed an unfortunate consequence of that bias yesterday afternoon. Chiefly in the form of stars like Malkin and Letang (and Guentzel) attempting to shoulder the toughness mantle for the team.

The last thing you need or want is for Geno and Tanger, both passionate and, yes, at times overly emotional players, to feel a press to defend the team’s honor. Which is precisely what happens when you ice a lineup virtually bereft of genuine pushback. Your stars get sucked into fighting the team’s battles.

That’s not the type of statement you want them to make. You want them filling the net, not the penalty box.

Unfortunately, there’s no immediate remedy. Anthony Angello and Sam Lafferty each provide grit and a willingness to battle, but they’re depth players in our present scheme. Even if they played, neither is capable of handling a Matt Martin.

It’s an issue that will hopefully be addressed over the offseason.