Back in the day there was a TV commercial for Rolaids antacid tablets that posed the question, “How do you spell relief?”
Yesterday our Penguins spelled it D-e-S-m-i-t-h, as in backup goalie Casey DeSmith. While his teammates struggled mightily to find their legs in the second of back-to-back games, DeSmith was superb, denying a fusillade of Grade-A shots while keeping his team in the game.
Casey had a little help from his friends, most notably captain Sidney Crosby and newcomer Rickard Rakell. Sid scored two huge goals, including the overtime winner, and assisted on the other to pace the Pens to a 3-2 nail biter over Nashville. Rakell had helpers on all three black-and-gold tallies.
The Pens grabbed an early lead at 4:58 of the opening frame thanks to some precision puck movement. Rakell beat Predators goalie David Rittich to a loose puck along the end boards and chipped it to a pinching Kris Letang. Tanger quickly nudged it back to Rakell, who made a buttery pass around d-man Matt Benning to a late arriving Crosby. Sid blew the puck past Rittich for his 27th goal of the campaign.
Following the goal, our attack turned colder than an Antarctic glacier. DeSmith held the fort until late in the period, when Matt Duchene took a stretch pass from Mikael Granlund in stride. Duchene left a sprawling Marcus Pettersson in the dust and coolly beat DeSmith stick side to knot the score.
It was all Nashville through the early part of the second period. By mid-period the visitors had piled up an astonishing 19-4 edge in shots on goal. It looked as though the Pens would meekly go down to yet another inglorious defeat.
However, an incident near the eight-minute mark proved to be the turning point. Staying true to his “Smashville” roots, Preds power forward Tanner Jeannot crushed Letang with a huge open-ice hit. Mike Matheson didn’t hesitate. He flew in from across the way to challenge the bristling Preds’ rookie to a fight. Although the ginger defender didn’t win the battle, he won the war.
The chippy play intensified. Pettersson flattened Jeannot with a hard check along the wall. At the horn the Preds’ Mark Borowiecki roughed up Evgeni Malkin.
Big mistake. Geno whacked the stick from the edgy defender’s hands. When Borowiecki attempted to shove back, No. 71 beat him to the punch so to speak with a cross check to the mush. Malkin received a double-minor for high-sticking, the bloodied Borowiecki a slashing minor. He would not return.
After snuffing out the Preds’ power play, the Pens continued to find their legs in the third period while closing the gap on the shot clock. However, Nick Cousins struck from the slot at 4:31 to make it 2-1 Preds.
The Pens kept plugging. Four minutes later Rakell drove into the Preds’ zone and dropped an artful, between-the-legs pass to Crosby, who in turn fed Jason Zucker in the slot. The star-crossed winger snapped off a backhander that deflected in off the stick of a backchecking Eeli Tolvanen.
Although both teams had their chances, the goalies held firm and the game went to overtime.
Just past the two-minute mark of the extra frame Matheson boldly burst down the slot, only to be denied by Rittich. Crosby scooped up the loose puck and danced around Mattias Ekholm before trying a return pass to Matheson, who’d been taken to the ice. The puck skittered out to an onrushing Rakell, who sent a beautiful shot/pass Crosby’s way. Sid bunted it home from a sharp angle to grab the extra point and touch off a wild victory celebration.
No, it wasn’t pretty and it sure isn’t the way you draw it up on the chalkboard. But the Pens showed a lot of heart while turning in a gritty, gutty effort. And the losing streak, mercifully, is over.
At least for now, a little something to cheer.
Puckpourri
Thanks to the Pens’ sluggish start, the Preds held the advantage in most statistical categories, including shot attempts (66-59), shots on goal (35-30), scoring chances (33-26), faceoffs (53 percent) and hits (41-27). The lone exception? High-danger chances were 11-10 in favor of the Pens.
DeSmith made 33 saves to earn the second star. Crosby was named the No. 1 star, Rakell the third star. Sid’s overtime winner was the 1400th point of his career.
Is anyone else intrigued by the Crosby-Rakell combination? My word, do they display a palpable chemistry, not to mention a sixth sense for each other. I’d be tempted to try Sid with Rakell and Zucker for a game or two, and see how Malkin does with Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, a combination that shone a couple of seasons ago.
A huge shout-out to Matheson and Pettersson for sticking up for a teammate.
Call me a Neanderthal if you like. But other than setting himself up for a possible suspension, I wasn’t at all dismayed by Malkin’s response to Borowiecki. I’m tired beyond tired of watching our guys, our stars in particular, take it on the chin from opponents. If I’m GM Ron Hextall, I make signing a guy who can fight a priority over the summer, Mike Sullivan’s preferences be damned.
With the victory, the Pens (42-22-10, 94 points) snapped a four-game losing streak and maintained a four-point bulge over the Capitals in the battle for third place in the Metro. Following a brief respite, we travel to Long Island to take on the always nettlesome Islanders on Tuesday night.
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FYI Rick...Just in.
Malkin suspended for FOUR Games NHL says. He will forfeit $190,000 in salary .
“While we heard Malkin’s assertion that Borowiecki initiated the scrum by restraining and confronting him, neither action merited Malkin’s response. Players are not excused from violating league rules because of the actions of their opponents. There simply is no justification for a player to forcefully and intentionally cross check another player in this manner.”
Per a release from the league, Malkin will forfeit $190,000 in salary for the suspension.
He will miss the following games
April 12: at New York Islanders
April 14: vs. New York Islanders
April 16: at Boston Bruins
April 21: vs. Boston Bruins
Jim
Hey poopers.... I was happy we won, and thought Sids goal in OT was a great redirect but I am not too excited for our chances in the first round either.
It has been written before by me and many others... the lack of someone to stand up and throw some hands to protect our stars and will be that way until Sullivan exits.
I was unsure of the trade of Hornqvist but I really think Matheson has had a awesome season, like mentioned before , his skating is smooth, fast and puck handling is very good too. Here is my question to everyone...
Can/will he be the one too replace Letang as our #1 defensemen next season??
I think so.
Hey Pens4 ever. Great points you make.
I truly believe this is THE summer that the new ownership group will make a change in direction for our team starting with removing Sullivan as Head Coach.If Brian Burke is still here he to will play a bigger part in the team moving forward. He has been openly honest and frank in media interviews that I have seen and he is under no disillusions on what has to be done. "We simply are not good enough" he said "and until we change the way we operate we are not going to win."
So I remain very hopeful for this off season and to see who will be let go and what new additions they will bring in.
With regards to Mike Matheson he indeed is playing much,much better and I hope it continues but Florida had very high expectations of him and of being a # 2 D man to Aron Ekblad but it never happened. He always cracked under pressure and was always scored upon or missed his defensive assignment at key times in big games. So Florida gave up on him.
I hope time brings maturity and his game continues to get better and better and he does not slide backwards.
Like you I hope he can anchor the D corps in 2023 with the help of 2-3 other skilled ,large and fast new D men we will need in the off season to be competitive..
I have watched the Fenway Group in their purchase of their British Football team and they are not people who sit around and let other people run the show. Buying the team in mid season is not the time to make real changes and that is how they ran their football operations and their MLB operations. I remain cautiously optimistic Pens4ever.
Cheers
Jim
Rick,
We won. Really!! How come I feel so frustrated?
Nashville the 14th rated team in the NHL as of today's standings who have scored 236 goals this season in 72 games and the mighty Penguins have scored 243 Goals in 74 games played. That is pretty close as 2 teams can get.
The game I saw was that for the first 20 minutes we got out shot 11 shots to 3 !!!! Only Three shots. Explain that would ya...
In the second period they had us up 8 shots to 1 for the first half of the second period. 19 shots to 4. That was not Penguins hockey my friend. That was embarrassing to watch and if we try that in the play offs we are done.
BTW, Sidney Crosby who played well at times and he got 2 goals and an assist was NOT THE FIRST STAR OF THE GAME!
That honor belongs to the Goalie, Casey DeSmith as you correctly pointed out. With out his fine play to stop 18 of those 19 shots he faced in the first half of the game....There would be no over time period. !! We were done for.
Just exactly what happened in the game against the Wild where we won in overtime...But people forget the Wild hit the post in the first minute of OT and that game could have been a loss. and Jarry saved our hides on that one as DeSmith did last night..
With just 8 games before the play offs start I am not feeling really great right now. To many sloppy plays, no sustained fore check and our Coach continues to play the same way every day. Caps won yesterday as well.No pressure.
With regards to Malkin cross checking Pred's Borowiecki to the face when he had no stick and he drew blood and was forced to leave the game......I don't care if Crosby or even Mario did that....Malkin needs to be disciplined by the league and because he is a so called Super Star make an example out of him. Fine him and send him home for 3 games.There is no place for that in our league. In the old days if Matt Cook had done that he would be gone for 10 games for sure for intent to injure.
I don't blame Geno,because as a team we have no protection for our STAR players as we have written many times before. Still was wrong to do in my opinion Rick.
I am glad we got the much needed 2 points but I am still frustrated.
Cheers
Jim
Hello my friend,
I'm relieved that we won. But like you, I'm not jumping out of my skin over our chances in the postseason. I usually try to be hopeful, but honestly I'm thinking it's one (series) and done, just like the past three years.
As you pointed out, way (way, way) too many mistakes. We can't keep hemorrhaging odd-man breaks the way we do. If we do it in the playoffs...and there's nothing to indicate we're going to magically tighten things up...we'll get killed. Heck, those kind of opportunities are what other teams live for in the postseason.
You're right, of course, about the Malkin incident. I'm just so weary of seeing our stars set upon without any retribution (yesterday was a rare exception). Hextall and Burke have to snatch the reins from Sullivan in this matter, acquire a tough guy and tell Sully in no uncertain terms the guy stays...and plays.
To digress, if Matheson doesn't stick up for Letang the way he did, I don't know if we win that game. It gave us an obvious lift. You'd think Sullivan would notice...
A couple of other observations. Sid was amazing yesterday. He literally willed that victory. On the flip side, I don't know what's gotten into Geno, but his play has mostly been miserable since a really forceful effort against the Wild some five games ago. Mark Madden quoted some very revealing numbers that underscore Malkin's ineffectiveness 5v5. In all fairness, he's played with a grab-bag collection of wingers. But the effort's been lacking.
Rick
Great point Rick about Sid and Geno's different efforts in last nights game. Makes me think.
Call me stupid but I was always lead to believe that when a player was in his final contract year, most often that player magically has a career year so that other teams will notice and just maybe force his existing team to pay him more money to keep him or some other team swoops in with Vault load of cash and takes him away. Just like Ottawa and Matt Murray !! Would Ottawa ever want that deal back because that cost them plenty.
I digress, but I did a little salary calculation thanks to Cap Friendly regarding Geno. It may surprise you. We all know Geno has an 8 year contract at 9.5 million dollar Cap Hit per year.That is a total of 76 million dollar value for his NHL player contract. He has 8 games remaining before his Total NHL contract with the Penguins ends.
The first six years Geno was paid 9.5 million dollars per year which was prorated over 82 games played in the regular season plus a few preseason games I believe.This last 2 years Geno was paid a signing Bonus of 5 million at the start of the season and his actual salary was reduced to 4.5 million dollars in 2021 and 2022. That means Geno's Big 72 million dollar contract only has about $ 439,000 left owing to him ( minus any escrow hold backs by the league.
As you know the Stanley Cup playoffs salary structure is NOT COUNTED as regular season contracts and they have their own unique salary system. The further you advance in the play offs as a team the more money you get to share as a team.
I just wanted to high lite that information.... appx. $439,000 left against the 72 million Total Contract.
Cheers
Jim
Rick
How about Mike Matheson???? You talk about a steal. He not only is elevating his game offensively but
he's playing much more physical than when he first arrived. His speed is rediculous - the play in OT
where he turns and accelerates back into the Preds zone is crazy. I thought theirs noway he's not one
of the games "3-stars" until I saw Crosby, DeSmith and Rakell. The fight alone was a game changer
for me - it made an impact on the team and the fans. The Preds are a big physical team and they
tried play bully hockey but to our credit we held our ground. It was a Fun game to watch. GO PENS
PS. I'm thinking Malkin gets at least (3) games "repeat offender"
Hey Mike,
He's really playing well and asserting himself, isn't he? With his speed and offensive instincts...a game changer. And yes, I've really been impressed with how he's stepped up physically as well. He's taking the body a lot more lately, and forcefully, too.
It goes without saying that I appreciated how he stepped in to defend Letang. Jeannot has something like 13 fights and obviously knows how to handle himself. But Matheson didn't hesitate.
As much as I hated trading Hornqvist, in hindsight it's looking like one heck of a deal.
Rick
Hey all.
A rather large mea culpa. In my original writeup, I had the Pens and Predators scoring their second goals in the second period rather than the third. I either got my mixes worded up or misplaced my brain. Or both.
I made corrections to reflect the actual sequence of events.
Rick