In the immediate aftermath of the Penguins’ disappointing 5-2 loss to the Flyers last night at the Wells Fargo Center, I found myself sifting through the wreckage in search of positives. And there were some to be found. More than a few…actually.
Still, it reminded me of Sidney Crosby’s rookie season, when a black-and-gold squad that included a fading Mario Lemieux and several high-profile free agents couldn’t buy a win.
How the mighty have fallen.
Back to those positives. I thought the Pens played better than they did in the season opener. Maybe even deserved a better fate. After going down 3-0 early they showed some moxie, pulling to within a goal on tallies by Crosby and buzz-saw Brandon Tanev. The second of the young season for both.
Once Casey DeSmith replaced shell-shocked Tristan Jarry between the pipes, the Pens began to resemble a hockey team. At times a pretty good one. They outshot the Flyers, 33-20, and won the faceoff battle. For the better part of the evening they dictated the tempo and controlled the play. Only the superlative puck-stopping of Philly phenom Carter Hart kept us from earning a point or two.
While I’m mentioning goalies, DeSmith gets a gold star. In his first NHL game in 22 months he looked calm, cool and collected…everything Jarry wasn’t. Casey stopped 12 of 13 shots and gave our guys a fighting chance. That’s all you can ask of your backup.
Crosby looked great (a goal, six shots on goal) and the first line had its moments. I was impressed with Evan Rodrigues’ speed. If only he could finish.
The third line continues to be a revelation. (When was the last time you could say that?) Tanev, Mark Jankowski and Jared McCann have displayed instant chemistry while melding into a dangerous unit…arguably the Pens’ best. The former Friars were superb on the penalty kill…Jankowski, in particular, could be lethal shorthanded.
Speaking of special teams, I liked the movement on our power play. I think it’ll pay dividends as the season progresses.
Now for my concerns. Has anyone seen Evgeni Malkin, or at least the version who reportedly tore up training camp? If you have, please return him to PPG Paints Arena post haste.
Sarcasm aside, No. 71 looks slow and uninspired. His passes were almost uniformly crappy, not to mention mostly to the Flyers. A sour performance that nullified a better effort from linemates Bryan Rust and Jason Zucker.
We need more from you “Geno.” A lot more.
I’m starting to worry about Jarry as well. After an air-tight camp, he’s been positively sieve-like during the dual losses to Philly (a meager 22 saves on 31 shots). Worse yet, he appears mentally fragile…the antithesis of the cool, confident netminder who earned an All-Star game invite last season.
The Pens aren’t structurally sound enough to carry a goalie…if anything it needs to be the other way around. Jarry collapsed during the early going last night and the team collapsed around him. I haven’t seen a black-and-gold goalie look this porous since Antti Niemi, and I wasn’t exactly a Matt Murray fan.
While we’re on the subject of defending, our top pairing of Kris Letang and Brian Dumoulin was a collective minus-six. Yikes! Mike Matheson looked wobbly…and a bit timid…while receiving sheltered minutes beside Chad Ruhwedel, who acquitted himself well in his season debut (three shots, three hits, two blocked shots). Still, only the Marcus Pettersson–John Marino pairing was solid (plus-one for the evening).
A last observation. I thought we did a better job of crashing the net and generating second-chance opportunities. But we still could use a bona fide net-front warrior to wreak a little havoc and a physical presence to boot. Especially with two games coming up against a rugged Washington team that’s sure to bang us around.
Anyway, as Porky Pig used to say, “”Th-th-th-that’s all folks!”
Oh-and-two and counting.
Hi Rick,
Hi TOR,
Well, to tell you the truth, I was not surprised by last night’s outcome. Shaky start by Jarry and D-men (except Pettersson-Marino) looked as lost as tourists on a desert island.
The worst D-man was Letang. He looked like a turtle out there. On my last post, I mentioned that Letang was pinching way too low in the offensive zone. The best example was the fourth goal scored by Konecny. Letang rushed with Tanev in the offensive zone but Tanev’s pass went through Letang’s legs. He was in the face-off circle and Konecny picked up the puck for a 3 on 2. Letang was behind the play and couldn’t catch up. What upset me the most is that when Letang reached the neutral zone, he just let himself glide. Pettersson was the only D-man covering the D-zone.
I just can’t understand why Sullivan keeps on using this dumb strategy of asking his D-men to systematically support the attack in the offensive zone. The NHL today is young, fast and furious. You just can’t repeat the same thing and expecting different results! Every NHL team is now playing high tempo, every team except the Pens. Everyone sees that except Sully himself.
And to add another layer to my rant, Evan Rodrigues played on the first line. A player with cement hands! I hope that Kapanen will bring some offensive punch.
Nothing will be easy for the Pens, especially in this new MassMutual East division. If were big Mario, I wouldn’t be pleased to see my team uninspired.
To end my post on a more positive note, I was happy for Matt Murray’s win last night. I think a change of scenery will bring him more confidence. Ottawa is not a contender and it will allow Matt to focus more on his game.
Oops, if I were big Mario..
Hi Rick,
I’ll be brief since everyone else has done a good job of breaking things down. Only two games in and I fear this will be another season of Sullivan coaching for the team he wants rather than the team he has. I can see it already. Sullivan will never change. A key giveaway will be if we see Rikola any time soon.
— 55
According to Michelle Crechiolo, Riikola was still skating in the 4th pairing today, the have a seat in the press box, the don’t call us we’ll call you pairing with Ceci
Hey Rick,
I started to write something because my blood is boiling right now, however, I reigned myself in because, even though with an abbreviated schedule and each game is closer to 1.5 games than 1 game, and our 0 – 2 start is really more like 0 – 3, there still is a little time for change, and Kapanen could represent enough change, not necessarily to get the team to the playoffs, but enough change for the rose color glass set to argue against the truths I want to write about – and my social filters may not hold back what I am really thinking.
I do agree with you that the 3rd line looks best and at least at the moment Jankowski is looking decent. There certainly does look like there is chemistry on that line. McCann’s bounce pass to Tanev, off Hart’s glove, was something I wanted to see more from our boys of winter last year (shot off the goalie pad passes).
Jarry and DeSmith? I will hold off saying anything what-so-ever about yet, I don’t dislike Jarry at all and am saving my Goalie rant for a later date when more data comes in. All I will say is that both Jarry and DeSmith reside at the bottom of the league in 5 on 5 Sv% with Jarry’s 0.760% the 2nd worst but DeSmith’s is barely better at 0.857% 8th worst in the league, with 35 Goalies already having donned their pads. So, what I am saying is DeSmith’s performance was bouyed by situational modifiers. I don’t expect Jarry to finish the season at 0.760%.
I am NOT sorry, neither of the top 2 lines are doing anything (5-on-5). Crosby’s line can’t finish saddled with Sheary 3.0 and Malkin’s line just keeps getting the way of each other. And let’s face it, Zucker was sent in home free by a fantastic lead pass by Marino, behind the defense from the blue line in and all he could do was shoot the puck into Hart’s pads. Hart really didn’t have to much and he didn’t, Zucker just pushed the puck harmlessly toward the net, soft enough that even if Hart didn’t follow the play exactly, he had time to react and still make the save.
And I don’t want to hear about Crosby’s 2 Goals, they were powerplay Goals, Goals not only scored with a man advantage but Goals scored where neither Rodrigues nor Zucker were on the Ice with Crosby, Malkin, Guentzel, or Rust.
The only other thing besides the 3rd line that I found a highlight was the open ice hit Lafferty put on Laughton.
Changes need to be made and not flip-flopping one 7th defenseman for another (Ruhwedel and Ceci), the entire line-up needs over-hauled, particularly when Kapanen can return to the ice.
Zucker – Crosby – Kapanen
Guentzel – Malkin – Rust
McCann – Jankowski – Tanev (at least for now)
O’Conner – (either Sceviour or Blueger) – Lafferty
Can’t do much with the Defense, JR messed that up badly with a $4.85 million Cap hit player not even capable of being an average 3rd pairing. However, I would sit that $4.85 mil Cap hit and see if $1.15 mil Cap hit Riikola could help me get my first win.
You may think there were bright spots in last nights game, but consider this Rick, Sean Couturier only played 45s. Hw much worse could that game have looked had he that Flyer not been injured.
Hey Coach,
Nice to see you writing with such passion my old friend.
It has only been 2 games….Usually you wait until at least 8.. hahaha
Seriously I agree with most of what you wrote.Letang was a minus 5.
Jarry could not stop a beach ball and his defense in front of him was almost non existent.
Speaking of NON Existent where is # 71 ??. My gosh why did we not take that trade for Geno and get Edmonton’s first pick that brought in Connor Mc David ? ( Old memories die hard.) Sorry coach.
From my perspective…The first line needs work. KK is not a first line player and that was evident in Toronto.We need a winger to fix the issue.
The second line’s problem is a 34, soon to be 35 Year old center man with diminishing talents. He is not the player he once was.That is not a criticism of Geno but simply stating a fact.Look at Ovi in Washington. He is a much bigger and stronger man than Geno and he is slowing down as well. So what do we do ? Beef up the wings ? Jake, Geno and Kapi ?? Then put Zucker on the third line and really have a solid third line ? Zucker, Jankowski, Tanev !!
Fourth line of Rodrigues, McCann, and Lafferty.
That leaves an opening on the wing for Crosby and Rust taking the other side.. Problem is where do we get that extra 40 goal scoring winger from ? Cheap !!
If that was our only problem maybe we could fix it. Lets look at the defense.
3 of our 6 defense men have real issues. Cody, Kris, and Mike… 2 more have partial issues. Our youngest John is only in his 2nd year really. He is good but he can not possibly carry this team himself. He is certainly not a 23 year old Kris Letang, who we all knew that it was just a matter of time before he would dominate the entire league. John is not that type of player.Very few are.Marcus is a good d man. Maybe a 4/5 pairing on a good cup competitive team. So we have serious issues on the defense moving forward.
How do we fix them ? There are many questions we face Coach..
Then the Goal tending !!! OMG ! I have been a big supporter of Jarry.
We will find out in the next 10 games if I was mistaken.
Finally the Coaching !! Jimmy fired the wrong bunch last spring….Sully is not my Guy going forward when having to do a complete rebuild. I am not sure if Jimmy is the man to do a complete rebuild either.
Trust me it will happen ….
So in summary Coach…A new winger for Crosby….Beef up Geno’s line mates by shuffling lines. Same with the 3rd and 4th lines. We would be competitive up front. The defense needs major work…2 possibly 3 new faces to make us a Cup team. The Goal tending needs another face… Plus a new Coach….
How is that for a rant my old friend …
I know this is just wishful thinking OTR but this is where I see things today.
Have a great day.
JIM
Hey Jim,
Great to hear from you.
71? and that whole line? It was only a few short days ago that all the writers lucky enough to be at the Pens training camp were falling all over themselves writing how that line was looking soooooo great and just toying with their opponents. In a reply to a Rick B post, I wrote that I would wait until I saw them play against someone other than our own bottom players and taxi squad before I hailed them as the second coming.
Crosby’s line, they can’t finish either. Kapanen definitely is no Lafleur or Cournoyer but he certainly gonna help that line more than Sheary 3.0. I do expect that line to pick up. Part of me would like to see McCann back with Crosby but I don’t want to mess with the 3rd lines mojo, it is the only line we have.
No one gets younger, so our core’s talent is ebbing. They need help, but as you have noted many times, JR has emptied the pipeline going after marginal talent.
I am with you on Sully. No fan. I think everyone here knows I wanted him gone 3 years ago, when he started whining and blaming the players rather than accepting the blame himself like a good leader does. And since JR keeps going to bat for Sully, I have been beating the drum for his departure.
Maybe they will tunr it around and I will have to eat my words but I doubt it.
The Other Rick
Evaluation of this game was simple
Letang 5 Pen’s 2 Out of position and caught up ice on every
goal.
Jarry played poorly
It’s only two games – way too early to panic – I would rather they
start slow and finish strong.
Tomorrow’s game vs Caps with be a character check.
The Other Rick
On Zucker’s scoring attempt he tried to make a quick deke and quickly
slip it through the five-hole. I know you’re down on Zucker but he’s really
played well in the first two games !! Malkin & Rust not so much – That
line is struggling but out of the three of them, Zucker’s the only one
competing. I would hate to be on Malkin’s line – he’s a feel-good player.
Rodrigues doesn’t belong in the NHL.
One more thing – Letang is a -5 after two games.
Hey Mike,
I am no fan of Zucker, but my real complaint is where he is playing. He has never shown any chemistry with Malkin, yet Sully keeps trotting them out there. If Zucker were up with Crosby or down with Jankowski (but I wouldn’t want to mess that up right now) I wouldn’t be upset but from what I saw, the 3 of them looked like the Keystone Kops stumbling over one another. (Okay not that bad but I am trying to make a point.)
Letang? I have always said he was a great offensive talent and one of the few D left on this team with any grit, but I have never been a “Fan”. I would have traded him several years ago when I could get something for him. With this switch to a wide open D style added to Letang’s already suspect ability to defend the puck, I could see it getting a whole lot worse my friend.
I am still trying to hold back a little on my poisoned pen/keyboard because there still is a lot of hockey left to play but in truth I don’t see it getting better.
Minnesota is licking its chops thinking they will have a shot at the No 1 pick!